Week One!

As you can tell by my lack of posting during staff training, things were a little crazy around here. That busyness continued into this past week, when our first week of junior campers (4th-6th graders) were here. I had an AMAZING time!

All of my kids were incredibly enthusiastic about everything we did, and we did really well in all our games and activities. In fact, we won every challenge we did: kickball, dodgeball, carpetball, and the shaving cream fight!

Something also happened this week that has never happened before in any of my cabins: we won cabin cleanup all four days! Last year I really had to push my kids to clean the cabin, and I had to assign them different responsibilities (e.g. sweeping, making beds, etc.). This week, though, all of my kids volunteered for stuff, and they could barely wait to get done with breakfast so they could go clean. I know it sounds hard to believe, but it was incredible! On Friday we got a 396/400 for our score!

On a spiritual side of things, I had some big difficulties. One of my kids was a big troublemaker who was constantly getting in fights with his cabin mates and other campers. I would talk to him about it, and he recognized that God didn't want him to do that, but after our talks he would just go out and get in trouble again. He even got in a fight yesterday morning about an hour before his parents came.

Another frustration was with a camper that I probably talked to three or four times about the gospel, and he just would not talk to me. Just before I would bring it up, we'd be talking about camp or sports, and he'd talk my ear off. But when I'd bring up Jesus he would just look straight ahead and barely talk to me. I think he knows the "right answers," but it doesn't mean anything to him.

On a positive note, I had a few kids make some major decisions for Christ. Throughout the course of the week, three of my guys came to me crying because they knew they weren't living for God like they should be. Another one of my guys just wanted to talk because he's moving to Nevada in a couple weeks, and he's worried about leaving his family and friends. We had a great chat about how God will always be there for him, and how God has everything in His control.

Yesterday after I finished up my paperwork, I had a really good time just relaxing around camp with the staff. A bunch of watched "The Count of Monte Cristo" in the Lodge and then just hung around talking for awhile. I love my campers, but sometimes it's just nice to have some peace and quiet for a change. It's also always nice to be able to hang out with the staff, since we don't get to do that during the week.

Today I also had a chance to get some rest and just relax. Our counselor meeting is at 9:00, and then it's bed time. Tomorrow morning I'll get up at about 7:00, and our first campers will begin arriving at about 9:00. This week we'll have junior highers, and I'm pretty sure I have two kids in my cabin who were in my cabin last year. I can't wait!

Things to pray about:

Patience: Junior highers can be extremely apathetic at times, and it will take a lot of patience to continue trying to get through to them regarding spiritual matters.

Focus: It's so easy to get caught up in the "Super Counselor" mindset and being doing things for the wrong reasons. Pray that I'll be able to focus on Christ first and then my campers, never on impressing anyone.

Decisions: Junior highers struggle with a lot of different issues, and there will obviously be kids here who are not saved. Pray that God will work in their hearts and bring about some awesome transformation!