SBBC 2011

What a summer, what a summer! I went into the 2011 camp season expecting God to do amazing things and let me tell you He did not disappoint me! I guess what I'll do is give a week by week rundown here...

Staff training:
I find staff training to be such a blessed time. I mean for me the people of SBBC are my family, so staff training is like a family reunion for me in a lot of ways. I get to see the people that I don't have opportunity to see very much and we spend the week together worshipping, praying, learning and having lots of fun as we prepare for the summer!
It never fails to be a week of growing closer to the people I love. This year we did most of the traditional things...having a float in the parade, going to the July 1st fireworks, setting up the tent, having a beach afternoon, spending time together in cabin devotions, enjoying campfire...it was all really good! Our theme verse at camp this summer was "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." [Zephaniah 3:17]








Kids One:

I was the program director for this week which means: I was in charge of keeping the schedule, making sure everyone was where they needed to be when they needed to be there; I dealt with an discipline issues that went beyond what the cabin leaders could deal with; I was the "front man" most of the time...it's a position I enjoy and this year was amazing!

Our first week staff were wonderful! We has such a good week. Every time I turned around I could see God answering prayer and taking care of us in ways we didn't even ask for! Not only did we have amazing staff but the campers were pretty spectacular as well! They all participated in what was planned for them, they were good sports about it all and they really listened during chapel times. I was so blessed during this week by the staff and the campers that I felt like my heart was bursting most of the time.

Kids Two:
During this week I was scheduled to be camp nurse but due to an injury I wound up stepping in for our summer director for a week...it was a challenge. Mostly because I didn't really know what was expected of me as a summer director. However, I did have an exceptionally fun week! :) Our speakers during this week were 2 young guys with CEF who I wound up being trailer neighbours with. Let's just say they were fun to prank!
I also had the opportunity to work with my 2 girls that I've been spending a lot of time with(Kellie and Kaylynn), it was a really good week for the 3 of us to get to know each other in new ways and I saw them both just grow so much in their faith walk! God is so good! They spend two weeks working at camp in the kitchen this summer and I was just so encouraged by them.

I also celebrated my 27th birthday during this week and let me tell you, I have an incredible group of friends who love me so well! I was blessed with an evening of mini golfing, birthday cake and a surprise kidnapping that ended with fireworks! Plus I got the mini golf guys phone number...go figure! It was an excellent birthday celebration!


Jr Teen:
My first week as head cook and it was quite the adventure! The week before we had experienced a small power outage, about half an hour long, and as I watched the ladies in the kitchen I prayed, "Lord, please don't let the power go out on me during my week of cooking!" Well. Monday night brought with it a crazy storm! The winds were violent, the rain was relentless and the lightning was breathtaking! And one more thing, the power? She was out. We got everyone gathered into the chapel where we prayed and sang for the hour and a half until the storm subsided. Then everyone went back to their cabins and to bed. In the morning we saw the reult of the storm: our tent was down, we had a few trees around the property down and there was debris everywhere. The favor of God was on us that night because things really could have been a lot worse. As for me I was without power...for 44 hours! The power didn't come on again until Wednesday evening! However, Our summer director was spectacular and got some generators borrowed so that we could have 3 fridges and 1 freezer running as well as the water! Most of the time I even forgot that the power was out! I only took 2 pictures during this entire week and none of them have anything to do with the kitchen!
I wish I had a picture of the kitchen staff to show you because they truly were amazing, they kept me grounded when I started to stress!

Teen Camp:
Not gonna lie, my favorite week of the summer! I was finally a cabin leader during this week, which I always look forward to! We had an especially small teen camp this summer, only 20 campers and 11 staff members.
We had a great time though! On Tuesday we went on a 3 hour (one way) canoe trip which included a portage, chapel on top of a hill and a camp out lunch. On the way back to camp we encountered another storm which had us paddeling as fast as we could for any bit of land we were near! After waiting underneath our canoes for the storm to pass we continued on our way, it was a bonding time :)
I had a bit of a difficult time this year during teen camp. I had 2 girls in my cabin who I love dearly but they just did not want to be there this year. One of them actually wound up leaving camp on the Monday after supper which was a messy, emotional ordeal and the other stuck it out until Thursday night but she went home as well. I spent a lot of time fighting the lie that I'm a failure and I had let them down. God dealt with me though and reminded me that I just need to be obedient, which I think I was in both situations. Also during this week a lady on the reserve passed away and I was the one who had to tell a couple of her grandchildren that were at camp. That was tough but God's hand was on me. We went to the funeral together on Thursday and it was good for all of us to be there together. Other than those things it was a great week! The teens were ready to hear what our speaker had to share and they were full of awesome questions! I could so clearly see God working in them.

Yes indeed, it was a great summer! Thanks so much for those of you who were praying for us! And now to end my update here are some hilarious quotes from the summer...

"If you drink 100 pepsi's in your life you won't be able to have kids. But that doesn't matter for guys because we don't want to have kids anyway." Hunter, 10 year old boy
"I'm freeeezing! Sunshine...HEEEELP!" Morgan, 10 year old girl
"Joni is this garbage?" Craig Re: a corncob
Brooke: "You're breaking little girls hearts!"
Frank: "It's what I do."
"...and Lord I pray that we all die peaceful deaths..." Kara,13 year old girl
"Dear Lord please be with the pancakes as they go to their death, give them a sense of peace." Frank

back in business

And I'm back after an amazing summer of camp! Oh man, I want to tell you all about it but I'm waiting until I can load my pictures onto a computer and then blog with visuals! Until then here's a song and music video I adore, it's been known to make me cry at times. Enjoy!

camp days

At my Bible school they had something called camp days and it was my very favorite days of the school year because we could sing camp songs in chapel and all these camp directors were there trying to recruit us to their camp, which means they would give us free stuff to try and lure us and we would play games and my camp came which means some of my friends came and it was just lots and lots of fun!

But anyway, that's not what this is about. Starting tomorrow I am going to Bible camp for 4 weeks to work. I wasn't really very excited about it but now I'm starting to be! I love camp and I love my camp family, they are stellar!

Recently I've been blown away by the reality of Bible camp. For an entire week kids come and we are allowed to tell them about Jesus, without hiding the fact that we are doing it. Do you know what an awesome privilege that is? Not every country on this earth has that right. It amazes me. I really don't want to take that fact for granted this year, I want to take every opportunity I am given.

So I'm out for a while, have a nice July blog world!

Pick of the week...

Have you ever asked yourself "How can I be a good husband?" or "What makes a good wife?" Well then this video is for you! This boy is on his way to being a good husband someday, a long way down the road of life.

Neighbour alert

Do you remember my neighbour Henry? Well he's technically not my neighbour anymore but he is my parents neighbour and I still see him most days.

Anyway, I'm pretty startled because a few days ago Henry had a heart attack and nobody knew for 2 days! Isn't that absolutely horrible. Poor Henry was laying on the floor in his house for 2 days before anybody found him. I can't even imagine how terrifying that must have been. Number one, he would have been in great amounts of pain. Number two, all he was able to do was lie there and think about death. Number three, not being able to help himself or summon help would have been very frustrating for Henry.

I feel terrible.

You just never know.

He should be home in the next couple of days, sportin a brand new pace maker. I sure hope he also gets one of those alert buttons, although knowing him he probably won't wear it. I'm going to become better at checking up on my neighbours.

"Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down, until tomorrow the whole world is my home"

I am such a hobo.

I mean not really in the literal sense where I don't have a means of livelihood and I ride the train to wherever it may take me. Or in the sense where everything I own is tied up in a bandanna that I carry on a stick while I wander with my faithful, yet scruffy looking, canine companion. And not even in the sense where I don't technically have a place to live but I have a lot of cool stuff that pickers come and pay me cash for. No. I do, however, mean in the sense where I don't have a permanent home.

It's true, I'm a 26 year old without a home to call her own. Sad isn't it. Not really though, I don't worry about that kinda stuff mostly. You see back in January I started house sitting for this couple that was on vacation...when they got home they asked if I could stay at his mothers house which had recently been vacated. I've been staying there ever since. Living out of Tupperware tubs and my suitcase for the most part.

The thing of it is though they put a "For Sale" sign up outside the house a couple days ago so now I need to move on soon. Thankfully my dad offered me his 1976 Fleury.

*Now I just spent 10 minutes trying to find a picture of a Fleury online so you know what I'm talking about. It was an impossible task though. Basically it's a tiny little motor home that reminds me of an ice cream truck from the 1960's. Even though it actually looks nothing like an ice cream truck from the 1960's. I'm sure you have a perfect picture of what I'm talking about now in your head.*

And since I'm going to be working at camp for all of July I've been allowed to park my new home down there already and I can stay for all of June if I need to! Whoopie! I'm not sure what I'll do in August...or September...or after that once Winter hits. Maybe, just maybe, I should buy a house. Or at least rent one.

Or I could do what I did before January and switch between living in my parents backyard in my tent or in their spider infested basement and taking house sitting jobs whenever they arise. We'll see. That's hobo style.

Weird things

Do you ever stop to think about simple things and start to realize how strange they actually are? I do, all the time. Take for example yesterday, I went for a canoe ride in the evening to enjoy the silence and the view. I was slowly paddling through the reeds and watching the bottom of the lake pass me by. Then I started thinking about fish, about how they just live in the water all the time. When we are out canoeing or boating or water skiing or swimming there the fish are, just living their fish lives in the water. I thought that was weird.

Or sometimes at night when I'm getting ready for bed I start to think about the fact that every night for 6-8 hours (usually never 8, sometimes much less than 6) I lie down in my bed, close my eyes and sleep, unaware of what's going on in life around me. However I'm not the only one doing this, the majority of people in my time zone are doing the same thing and yet there's never, ever a time when we are all asleep. Weird.

Or the word weird. It's a weird word, if you say it enough times it's gets even weirder. Plus it starts to look weird once you've typed it a number of times and also, it defies the law of "I before E except after C", silly English.