This summer I stayed at home in the wonderful Wheaton. It was great to be home with my family again but almost every inch of my body was aching to be back at camp again. Luckily I did get a week of camp in, but that's for later on. This past summer I had the wonderful privilege to work at Glen Ellyn Bible Church, my home church, as the Children's Ministries Summer Intern. I had an incredible summer learning and applying the many lessons I have been taught at school into a real life ministry experience.
My second week on the job I was one of the Bible teachers at Backyard Bible Club. This is the second time that I have had this opportunity. It was a really great experience to see the power of the Holy Spirit in action. There were 15 kids that came to a relationship with Christ for the first time! Praise the Lord!
After an awesome week of Backyard Bible Club I got to spend an awesome week at camp! I was so excited to spend the week at Village Creek Bible Camp as a volunteer during senior high camp. I enjoyed being back at this wonderful place. It was great getting to catch up with Katie and Lindsay. I missed them SOOOO much. We kept up our tradition of laying on Katie's blanket on the lodge lawn for our devos. Fulltime staff also placed the 3 of us in the craft together. Not sure how much work actually got done but we had loads of fun! :D It was also great getting to know the new staff members and I had a pretty stellar group of campers as well. It was really hard saying goodbye but the fact that I might end up at camp again in the future always makes it a little easier.
Once I was back home I started up my internship again. Two of my prime responsibilities were writing up and teaching the preschoolers lessons for Sunday and creating my own curriculum for a Wednesday night program for 3rd-5th graders. I had lots of fun doing both of these jobs. One of my highlights from Wednesday nights was looking in on all of the small groups and seeing the kids reading the Bible passages and asking questions and answering questions together. I loved seeing the friendships that were grown through the fun atmosphere on Wednesdays. I also enjoyed my Sunday mornings with the preschoolers. They are a fun group to interact with. They are willing to talk about anything and everything!
Then in July my cousin had his wedding. Which meant that my dad's WHOLE side of the family came to Chicago. It was so great getting to spend some time together. All of the cousins and cousins kids stayed at our house. It was great to have them all over and to share Garret's popcorn over great discussions around the kitchen table. I have truly been blessed by my wonderfully large family. Also during the time of the wedding Joel and Sarah moved into their new crib in Bartlett and Nanny moved to her new place in Windsor Park.
Finally, I finished off my summer with a week at my parent's condo in New Smyrna Beach, Florida where I relaxed on the beach, caught up with a Peruvian friend at Disney's Magic
Kingdom, caught up with the Skowron family, and then relaxed on the beach some more.
All in all, I'd say that this summer has been perfect. I wouldn't trade this summer for anything else. I'm incredibly thankful for all of the wonderful opportunities that this summer brought and thank God for each and everyone of the many blessings that this summer had in store for me.
