Pizza is delicious.

FREEDOM! It's the weekend, and we're going to go see the movie Wall-E that just came out, and I AM PSYCHED!!! What a day. It has been stressful and fun. Our program director's birthday was today, so a bunch of us went out for pizza. It was a decent crust with a mix of red and white sauces, topped with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, goat cheese, and olive oil. It was so tasty! Anyways, enjoy your evening/weekend. Hopefully I will be blogging again soon!

I Kissed Dating Goodbye

Support is amazing and confusing all at the same time. As the week has progressed I've been involved in all parts of the kitchen, just like I was used to at the last camp! I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to be somewhere comfortable in a new location, just because I am now beginning to feel like things here are not so different. Yes, worship is still strange, and campfire is still weird, and I'm just not used to the mime at all, but things are beginning to grow on me.

Also, I've been reading this amazing book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, written by Joshua Harris. It's about how, as believers, we should move away from the secular dating scene and into a type of dating with God as the central focus. One of the analogies that he uses in the book is just amazing. He relates a Christian in the ways of secular dating to a recovering alcoholic hanging out in a bar. It's the same because of the draw to temptation. As believers, God calls us to run from temptation, and to follow Him, but if we put ourselves intentionally in the paths of temptation, like placing a recovering alcoholic in a bar, the temptation becomes harder to run from, and we begin to find ourselves walking as dangerously close to the line as possible, and even crossing it.

The greatest thing about being here this week, on support, is the immense amount of time to think. Kitchen work for me is mainly mindless. Put this here, wipe this off, cook this, etc. etc. But that allows me time to process the events occurring around me, as well as the things that I'm reading, or the things that I am thinking about.

Oh, one final bit of AMAZING news. I received my first letter of recommendation back from a professor for my trip to Britain! Keep this in your prayers please, as the application process will begin once I have received the second letter of recommendation and send it off, back to South Dakota.

Sorry for such a long post! Enjoy the week!

K

Home!

I'm finally home, and I'm finally enjoying relaxation! Brian, Cassie, Courtney, and Tyler came up with me. Brian is grilling up some habanero and teryaki burgers before we head out to the beach. Then I think that we're off to do some shopping, sandals, fire pit, etc. I'm psyched to see friends and get some things done :) I'm working in the camp kitchen next week, and I'm really excited to get to know our support staff and be able to work with them. It should be an awesome time. It's also our first family camp of the summer.

I have to ask for prayer again though. As a staff we are the core of the camp centered on God and kids. When even one of us is being attacked, the entire staff feels the pull. Pray for unity, and acceptance within the staff, as well as within families and campers.

K

Schedules!

Alright, So this week I am on-site here at Okoboji. I'll update you on what's been going on with some fun little sidenotes here and there!

SUNDAY!
Welcome/Campers Arrive/Meet and Greet - Received 8 Campers.
Dinner - mmmmm tasty, hot diggity dogs & received 2 more campers.
Chapel - Welcome, Rules, & Counselor Musical? (We sang "A whole new world")
Devos - Esther, and the beauty pageant of the bible
Night Night :)

MONDAY!
Staff Meeting - My devo on unity and Christ-like attitudes (Phillipians 2:1-18)
Brekkie
Chapel - Skits and Music and Message
Bible Study - Way off topic **PRAY**
Quiet Time
Lunch
Free Time - Woot for flipping in a canoe, and chillin at the store
Aquamania - Kingdom, Queen, and Quest
Dinner
Staff Talent Show - Skits and the Stitch voice
Campfire - Songs!
Snack
Devos - Favor (yay)
Put Ya Head In Da Bed

TODAY!
Staff Meeting - Mmmm Fruit Snacks
Breakfast
Cabin Cleaning
Chapel - Yea for skits and songs and Jon's awesome message
Bible Study - The cross illustration ~ Thanks Navs!
Quiet Time
Lunch - Mmmm Sloppy Jo's!
Freetime - Here and Now!

Yay, so it's free time now and I'm just chillaxin, check up on my email and my mail, and my miniature attention span. Prepping for bible study and activities for the rest of the week. I'm incredibly excited to really get to know these girls so if you could pray for us and our connection, it would be appreciated. Thanks Muchly!!!!

K

Quick Post

This week is crazy! Pray for attention spans, and the words coming out of my mouth! I will update later!

K

Encouraging You

As I'm here, I am a representation of not only God at all times, but OLBC as well. I encourage you to pass on to anyone who you believe would even be slightly interested to this website ( http://www.okoboji.org/Family/ ). We worry too much about who we appear to be to the world around us, saying I'm not good enough, I won't fit it, but as this goes, we as believers are called to have fellowship together, and come to Christ. So please consider it! All ages are welcomed, and many weeks still have openings. Enjoy the rest of your week!

K

Pray

Ahh! It's mid-week, and I am continuing to ask for prayer! Pray for ministry (both here at daycamps, and on-site), Pray for rest and energy, Pray for attention and focus (both campers and counselors), and Pray for open eyes and open hearts. And then, when you're done praying. Check out the story of Gideon.

Love!

K

Specialty Post

So this is a specialty post for this week. I'm heading out to Spencer in a little under three hours, and I have recently gotten wind that there may be some problems at our sister camp, Riverside. Iowa has been receiving a lot of rain this past week, and as lakes and rivers are rising, we are now hearing that the camp is slowly going underwater. They have cars underwater, their chapel is flooded and they are cancelling their first week of camp, but still sending out day camp staff. PLEASE, keep them in your prayers; their staff staying, their staff going out, the campers, the electrical system, the volunteers helping, the weather. All prayers are appreciated!! As news comes to us, I will hopefully keep you posted!

K

First Week of Camp

It's Official! I am going to Spencer, IA for the first week of camp. I will be on a day camp with five or six other people, and staying in a host home. Pray that all will go well, and we can not only minister to these kids, but also the families that we are staying with. Also remember the counselors still here ministering to kids, and other groups out in Sibley, IA, Emerson, NE, and Rock Valley, IA.

Also, Just to spur some action, I LOVE MAIL!!! and to influence you even more, I will not have my computer this coming week, and there is a good chance that I will only have one blog during the week.

Take Care :)

K

Assuming that I'm heading on

Ah. First week starts on Sunday! Staff training is over and I am sort of excited to get into the week. I'm nervous and weary, at the same time, I'm filled with spirit. I will know later today what exactly that I am doing for my first week, but I actually am assuming that I'm heading on a day camp? Just because we were given our day camp nametages in our mail boxes. Who knows though. God has a plan! Pray.

K

Requested

Alright! The second week is coming to an end. Ingham staff is leaving us as group for the last time, and news is flying through my atmosphere from everywhere. To let those of you that have asked about Britain know, I have not recieved my recommendations back yet, and my application is "paused" until all parts are recieved because they must be sent as one package. So pray for speedy return, and words of worth as well as positivity.

Continued prayer requests are for unity as a staff now that we have junior counselors here, as well as within the women where some cliques are now starting to form. Also the campers, as the summer kicks off, that the Lord is preparing their hearts and minds for the messages he has for them; especially Confirmation campers as that is our group for the first week of summer starting sunday.

New prayer requests brought to me recently have been, praise for my "little brother's" graduation! Shannon recently graduated with many honors from his high school and will be moving on to university soon. So pray for him as he's entering the world of higher education, lol. Also, a very close friend of mine's cousin is struggling through suicide, and is currently on three days of no visitation in the hospital from his most recent attempt. So pray for his family as they're struggling, as well as for him, and the doctors as they are working with him.

Camp news! we had our staff banquet last night and got fanciy-ified. then campfire and the "mime." Mime is essentially a really really long human video. For a good example, here is a human video with the song Everything by Lifehouse:



Enjoy!

K

Review of Confirmation

Sweet. The week is coming to an end and I finally feel like this is real. A week and a half into it. Blah! LOL. The world goes on and Christ is with us. We had a lutheran perspective speaker today and it was like a review of confirmation. The only downside? I was drawn to be homesick and miss my friends. Blech. <3 you all.

 

 

 

 

These are more of our photo scavenger hunt images. Plus an image of myself and Megan

Okoboji Outing of Outrageousness

 

 

 

 

A bit of a delayed post, we had a photo scavenger hunt as our Okoboji Outing of Outrageousness on Thursday afternoon before we took the night off. The pictures up here are some of the challenges we faced. We visited the Arnold's Park area, specifically the amusement park (which to our dismay was not open) but it was awesome and fun to just hang out.

Another Couple of Groups

So I haven't kept up the best on doing my blog this week but it has been a busy weekend/week. We finished up all of our plans for the summer. All the bible studies, skits, and activities are composed. Riverside camp left us on Friday, and Ingham left us on Saturday. Friday night we had a free night and a bunch of us watched National Treasure 2 up in the chapel and another couple of groups went to see Indiana Jones, Baby Mama, or Sex and the City. The adventures were fun, and then I got to laugh at the people playing dodgeball, which seems to be popular this summer.

I'm super excited for campers to get here in a week, but for now, the Junior Couselors (JC's) arrived yesterday and I'm still anxious to get to know them. Keep us in your prayers as we come together as a staff in the next week, and as the campers come in the future weeks. We are overly anxious to get our hands dirty and to just be working for God. Love.

K