God is So Good - the last week of camp and reflections on the summer

It's been nearly 2 weeks since camp ended, and I apologize for my lack of an update or closing to the summer. I was jumping into the next whirlwind of activity – packing to move to Trinity. But we'll talk about that later.


The last week of camp was August 12-17. There are two things this might make you wonder: a) wait, wasn't there a week in between that week and the last week you wrote about? and b) that's a Monday to a Saturday. That can't be right. First, yes, there was a week missing in my blogs; I sat down to write that blog, but couldn't think of much to say. Let it suffice to say that the first week of August at camp went smoothly, and looked pretty similar to the week before (see the blog about Tim Team during Surf City). Second, the final week was indeed Monday-Saturday. Due to the differing schedules of the guest groups, I worked Saturday, had Sunday off, and then Tim Team came Monday and stayed through early Saturday, the last day of my contract.


The most unique thing about the week: it was an all girls Tim Team. Yup, the only ounce of testosterone on the team was from our core staff, Jonathan.


I'm not going to lie, prior to the beginning of the week I was freaking out about having an all girls team. It wasn't because I didn't know how to handle all girls; I was a Treasure Seekers counselor, after all. It was more about the fear of isolation. For the last month of camp, most people on staff work as adventure staff, and they don't have their own campers. This allows for more time to be around other young adults, and, though they do work hard, there is generally more down time than when you're in charge of a group of campers. And I am not denying that I love my job as counselor. Adventure staff is great, but it isn't the role I would fit into if I was working there all summer. However, when every staff member is off together and making memories and you still have campers relying on you, and you're pretty much separated from the staff on different assignments than they have, it can get lonely. That was one of the reasons I was glad to be working alongside Kyle, to have another peer to share my day with (okay, okay, that wasn't the biggest reason, but it was part of it). But now my companion wouldn't be around. I was literally the last counselor standing. I eventually turned that into a light-hearted brag, but before the week began I was not happy about it. Everyone would be having fun, and I would be the only person in the crew who had left high school far behind me. Plus it was the last week, the week of goodbyes. I was frustrated and not looking forward to the week.


Before the girls arrived Monday, I realized how much I was spiraling into irrational stressing. And it was Satan just whispering doubts and negative thoughts into my mind, thoughts I was buying into. It was just another week, working with an age group I had come to love working with. I had done this 3 times before; I knew the ins and outs. And most of all, God was with me. Why was I stressing?


Well, God then gave me many blessings. One blessing was my team. Of 5 girls, all but one were Quest campers, which meant they were older and most had gone through Pathfinders once or twice. 4 of my girls were also returning Tim Teamers, so they had done it at least one week if not more prior to this particular week. They knew what they were doing, and their ages also increased their responsibility level.
Another was how the schedule fell into place. Remember how I didn't think I would get to be with any of the staff, ever, all week long? Well, God took care of that worry. First, Jonathan wasn't scheduled as much so was working with our group a lot. Second, every day at least one staff member was scheduled to come do an activity with us, and sometimes they came for multiple activities. Lastly, with some shifts in scheduling, I was able to attend all but one of the staff events they planned for the final week, participating in ziplining, movie night, and a closing campfire for the staff.


And at those events I was further blessed. I (finally) got to be in my favorite position on campus – the top of the zipline. I was able to encourage my Tim Team girls and the staff as they climbed to the top, took in a lovely view, and then I got to zipline down myself. I was able to just relax outside, on a blanket, next to friends, watching Despicable Me in the company of full-time staff as well as summer staff. And then I got to be at the closing campfire, where we shared memories from the summer and what God had taught each one of us. I even got to be there for the moment Kyle shared how he is closing one chapter in his life and moving onto the next, symbolized by the burning of his old pink hat, and support him as he did so. I not only got to see and speak with fellow staff members far more than I expected, I was able to participate in the memories being made. I was incredibly thankful.


I was also challenged during the week. Though it was a blessing to have girls who were experienced, it also brought its own challenges. In general, those challenges were defining the line between camper and counselor. It was helpful to have girls who were older, and it was helpful to have veteran Tim Teamers, but sometimes that caused conflict as they started acting as if they were the ones who had the authority and started taking certain liberties. Now it was up to me to resolve them, something that isn't my strong suit. It also required me to figure out how to best define that line, and when to treat them as the responsible young women they are and when to exert my authority. It wasn't perfect, but we made it through the week. More importantly, I came to realize this may very well be a conflict that arises if I teach high school. I will be smaller than most students, and in my effort to build relationships, sometimes students can push that line separating us. I had always known this would be an issue I might face, but experiencing made me realize I need to really think for myself about how to handle this.


Overall, this summer was absolutely fantastic. I don't think I can sum up everything that has gone on in a few sentences, nor do I think I can pinpoint everything I've learned and experienced. Here's just a few ways that I've seen God working in me this summer:

• He has shown me just exactly how right it is to follow the career path I chose, which is a continuation from the rest of the year. Time and again he has opened my eyes to the passion I have for teaching; this summer, it was clearly showing me the love I have for working with students in the middle and high school ages, the age group I will be teaching. In the one week I worked with elementary students, even though I like little kids, my heart wasn't in it in the same way as when I worked with older kids, especially the Tim Team. Though this age group has its own challenges that I will have to navigate, I look forward to seeing this passion grow as I have more experiences in the classroom this year.
  
• He showed me more about leadership, and how I can be better Christ-like leader. I may have been the one teaching the lessons, helping to train the teenagers to become servant leaders, yet through working through the material for them, I too learned more about how I can improve.
  
• I've learned where I, too, have bought into the lies Satan tells, like we talked about with the Treasure Seekers. I was able to see that some of my actions are motivated by those lies, and I have been trying to grasp the truth instead.
  
• I learned about God's absolutely perfect timing. Stay with me, this might get more sappy than I have been on this blog, but it was a real lesson I took from these 3 months. For awhile, I wanted to find someone to make me happy, someone to fill a gap. But God didn't want that for me – yet. It took being comfortable with where I was, recognizing that God was enough. I stopped looking for a boy; unlike last summer, I came into the summer at camp with zero expectations of finding someone to date. Once God had me where he wanted me, he decided to bless me beyond my wildest expectations. It wasn't by chance I met Kyle this summer, going into my final year at school, after I had gone through several experiences that have molded me into who I am. It was after he, too, had gone through a time of growth, bringing him closer to God and better equipped to be the man God wanted him to be, preparing him for me, as God was preparing me for him. Now, I'm in a relationship where I am treated like a queen. We encourage one another, sharing our burdens and joys as we also share a love for the Lord. God knew what each of needed to experience, how each of us needed to get our hearts set in the correct place, and when we would be in the best place in life to find one another. I'd heard from many people God was preparing someone for me, someone who would be exactly the right man for me; I never could've guessed exactly how true that was, above and beyond what I had even dreamed. God has such amazing timing.
  

I probably missed some things about God's work within me this summer, but those are the major areas that came to mind.


God worked this summer in so many unexpected ways, and I give him all the glory for the things he has done.