You Are Special

Junior Camp 2 is finished! This week was such a blessing. Once again I'll see if I can write about my week in a top 10 list.
10. My Mom and Nanny came up for the weekend. We spent last Saturday night at Decorah. Nanny cold watered me in the shower and I got a super LEGIT cookie dough shake from the Whippy Dip. It had 2 huge scoops of homemade cookie dough in it.
9. I had a the wonderful privilege to have my Uncle Doug speak at the morning chapels for the week. He told the story of Moses through a made up 10 year old boy named Seth. It was great being able to see him speak in a camp environment and watch him interact with kids.
8. I had 2 sisters in my cabin this week. One was very homesick and the other was fine. They like most sisters at 9 and 10 did not get along with each other. At the beginning of the week it took all the patience that I had to handle the homesick camper. Then I would say a miracle happened. Come Thursday morning I saw a completely new camper. She was very happy and excited to do everything. This was very different in comparison to the way she acted earlier in the week.
7. I attempted to camp out at the hammock village with my campers this week. We hiked all the way up there and I had just helped the last camper get into her hammock and then 2 of them came to me in tears. They were scared. So my co-counselor Autumn stayed with the other girls and I walked back with 3 of them. We sang, "My God is so big so strong and so mighty there is nothing my God cannot do for you!" This helped them and reassured them that God is always there with them.
6. On the last night of camp I played Bible Skittles with my girls. Each turn a girl is given a skittle at random. Depending on the color they have answer a certain question. For example, red is something that you love about God, green was your favorite Bible story and so on. They really enjoyed it.
5. My mom donated lots of different things to the craft room. When I walked into the craft room to give Lindsay the new treasures for the craft room she squealed with excitement. It was so great to see the joy in her eyes because she loves what she does so much and wants the best for the craft room.
4. I really loved this weeks campers. This is the first group of campers that I have had that I teared up when I said good bye to them. They were so precious. I can truly say that I will remember the impact that these girls made on me.
3. At the beginning of the week when I took my time off I made the conscious decision that I was not going to go up the staff lounge for the week. So during my time off I would sit out the the Lodge lawn and read or journal. It was great just taking in God's beautiful creation.
2. I had a camper in my cabin this week who was adopted from South Korea. If I were going to pick a favorite it would definitely be her. Watching her all week I was constantly reminded to pray for the people in my life who have been adopted. Every time I looked at her I was compelled that one day I will have the opportunity to adopt a child of my own.
1. On Thursday night we always have a large bonfire where kids share things that they have learned about God during their time at camp. After the bonfire I had cabin devotions with my cabin. My girls shared that when at school that people made fun of them and called them names that are not very kind. This tied in perfectly with my plans for that night. I read to them the book, You Are Special by Max Lucado. When I finished reading the story my girls thanked me for sharing the story with them.  This was definitely God moving in my cabin that night.