Camp 101

I'm a little bit lazy and I keep putting this off, but tonight I'm finally getting my butt in gear! So, here it is, my camp experience!

Camp... Let me get the complaining out of the way so I can get to the good stuff...

Living in a dorm with a bunch of girls for a week isn’t the greatest. The bathrooms are horrible! I mean come on, how can anyone shower in a 3ft by 3ft shower??? And let me tell you, trying to shave your legs in one is even harder! Then there is the fact that there isn’t a drain in the dressing room part of the shower, (which wasn’t much bigger either than the actual shower...) so there was always a puddle of nasty, cold shower water in the floor while you try to get dressed. Not to mention the wide assortment of socks, bobby pins, pony tails, and hair that gets left in the showers, yuck! The actual rooms weren’t too bad, other than the fact that the floors could have used a mopping, and the room we were put in was the smallest one there is. Six teenage girls in one small room wasn’t the greatest idea... Oh, and the pipe that ran through the room made noise every time that people above us flushed the toilet or took a shower at odd times of the night. Speaking of night, the beds were also pretty hard and don’t even try sitting up while on the bottom bunk, I hit my head several times. And finally, I come to the food, which was just disgusting! I really think one day for lunch they fed us rubber hamburgers...

Now that you have listened to me complain, I’ll get on to what you really want to read, lol! 

I guess a good place to start would be on Monday. Let’s see here, I got up really early Monday morning to take my shower and be at the church before 7 am, which was the “scheduled” leaving time, and I think we left pretty close to the time we were supposed to.

After arriving at camp, we skipped lunch and unpacked our stuff and got settled in our rooms. This would be when I found out that I would be the counselor in the room of our girls plus one other girl from another church. This left me with mixed feelings. Stepping up into a leadership position, which if you know me at all, you know that leadership is not my thing... Anyway, the first day I struggled a bit. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be doing and I was trying to juggle being a camper and a counselor at the same time. So I did the only thing that I knew to do, I brought my concerns to God at Pre-Service Prayer that night (just a side note, my girls were early to Pre-Service Prayer every night, which I am quite proud of!). God’s response to my concerns was this: He told me that He gave me the power and the strength that I need to keep them in line and I needed to step up and use the authority that I have over them. He also told me that they look up to me and treasure what I have to say. This made me really happy inside. I knew that I could step up and do what I needed to do! Needless to say, the girls were in check all week and I really think I got closer to them! Oh, and I got the nickname “Mama Goose” from one of the guys Reece and Lacey became friends with because I was so protective and I corrected them all the time! Lol!

Even though, I was great at keeping the girls in line, I think I might have been a bit of a bad influence during game time... You see, I don’t like sports and sports don’t like me. So I sat out and they kinda followed my lead. Pastor Nathan didn’t like that too well, but oh well. Monday we got out of games by cleaning the confetti out of the chapel from the opening ceremonies, which was nice because we got to be in the air conditioning! 

The services were just phenomenal! The worship, the message, and the alter time were all just amazing! I have never felt so close to God in my entire life! I hadn’t realized how empty and dry I really was until I was filled back up! There are two nights that still stand out in my mind: Wednesday and Thursday night.

Wednesday night during the alter time we had a Spiritual Carwash. All of the leaders lined up on the two sides of one of the aisles and prayed for the students as they walked through. Everything that the leaders told me and prayed over me was right on track! I was amazed at the anointing on them! There were so many things that I was told, some of them I didn’t even realize I had going on. One of the leaders prayed for me and broke off the hurt from home. I have been prayed for this before and I thought I had laid it at the cross, but apparently I picked it back up again at some point. After going through about six or so leaders, I got to Pastor Nathan. I had managed not to cry until then, but at this point I knew it was inevitable. Pastor Nathan prayed over the fear that I have been holding on to for years now. He told me that I was not to live in fear because I am God’s child and God did not create fear, fear is of the devil. What is this fear that I am referring to? Well, that would be the fear of fifteen passenger vans pulling trailers. When I was younger ,about 5th Grade, I was in a terrible accident in a fifteen passenger van pulling a trailer and it’s by God’s grace that I am here today! ( If you want to know more, just ask, I’ll be happy to tell you) This fear is now gone if you were wondering, I conquered it! It no longer has control over my life! By this time tears were running down my face, not only because of the truth of the words and God working inside me, but also because His presence was so strong! Another thing Pastor Nathan prayed over me was for me to never stray from the Lord. This was a popular subject among the leaders who prayed for me. I find this quite funny because if I did ever stray from God just the tiniest bit, I would have a plenty of people (you know who you are...) dragging me back kicking and screaming! 

Thursday night was a powerful one! The alter call was for those who were called into full time ministry. The leaders were asked to stand in front of them and they were given cups of oil to anoint the students. Several of our youth were up front so I was in my seat praying for them. When the leaders were released to anoint the students God’s presence became so strong in the room that tears began to well up in my eyes. One of the things I remember most about this night is that when the leaders were finished praying for all of those who are called into full time ministry, the rest of us were called up to be anointed by our leaders. Dawn came to pray with me and anoint me with oil and I already had some oil on my forehead so when she anointed me there was a lot and it began to run down my face! The whole time she was praying for me I was trying to focus, but all I could think about was that the oil was getting awful close to my eye and that I really wanted to wipe it off because it was bugging me! LOL!

I guess my main testimony of camp was that God set me free, in more ways than one. God set me free spiritually, and he set me free from all the worries of life! It was so nice to get away from all of the stress of my life! Upon returning, I felt so light and carefree and bubbly inside! I felt so close to God. I wish that there was a way that I could have bottled that feeling I had to give it to people so they could feel what it is like to be close to God!

That feeling may be almost gone now, but I am working on getting it back! For the past two Wednesday nights, Pastor Nathan has been doing a series called “The Pour”. It is based on John 7:38 which says this, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” In order for us to be poured into, we have to let the living water pour from within us. We do this by working in the gift God has given us and when we work in our gift we get that feeling again! That gift for me is writing, and that’s why I started this blog (that and Pastor Nathan has been bugging me for two years now...). 

I’ll end with this. Camp can either be the best experience of your life or your worst. It is what you make it. You can choose to make it great and let God do great things in your life, or you can choose to close yourself off from God and just worry about the social aspect of camp. For me, the week I spent at Lake Maurer this summer was probably the best time I have ever had and I would never trade the memories from that week for anything!