Going way back to the first part of 2011, I think about softball and the great time I had last year with my teammates, but I am also reminded my dumb shoulder injury.  I would have never thought I wouldn’t be playing this year.  But it’s taught me a very important life lesson: You simply cannot do it all if you really want to do something whole heartedly.  This is a decision I still struggle with, but it’s a HUGE situation that shaped my 2011. I had to put Shalom first, and I know it had to be done, but I still miss my team. I will never stop loving the game, nor will I ever forget my teammates.

Last spring was full of Graceland Rep training, which leads me to the awesome summer of 2011.  I’ve already written numerous blog posts about my experiences, so I won’t go too far into detail.  But my summer traveling and meeting people was absolutely amazing.  I still think of my campers, the staff, and people that I met quite frequently.  I am so thankful for the friendships I made through the experience and I wouldn’t trade the little moments for anything.  I learned so much this summer, and really had a blast!

A year ago I was planning on running for House President and I was passionate about being the best I could be, and now I’m sitting here having completed one semester of being Shalom’s House President.  WOW!  I could have never imagined back then how much I would be going through within this year.  I have heard from past House Presidents that the it’s the best and worst year of your life, and I completely agree.  But I don’t regret the experience whatsoever.  It has been such a fulfilling, challenging, and awesome year.  Not to mention it’s given me the chance to get to know some incredible people who have supported me along the way. Now onto the next semester!

There are simply too many things to touch on when trying to reminisce on a whole year, but I can say 2011 has been one of the best years of my life.  I have dealt with unimaginable circumstances, sometimes all at once.  But I can now say that I lived through it.  I’ve learned more about myself and how to handle a variety of situations.  I can say I’ve grown this year.  In so many ways, that I may not even realize them all.  As for the new year…I plan to make some big changes.  I plan to live healthier, think more positively, laugh more, use my creativity, make opportunities, do the best I can, and be the best that I can possibly be.

This is Leah Wheeler, wishing you a happy new year!

I will never forget this summer, and this year at SPEC was the best.  I have my fellow Graceland Reps to thank for a lot of that.  I enjoyed the laughter, the singing, the octopus, the support, the love, the intentional actions, the hugs, the newbs, the veterans, and experiencing SPEC together.

Dear Jess, Thomas, Sista Brown, Em, Daniel, Tedward, Renee, and Morgan,

You all have touched my life and I am so glad that I know you.  I have witnessed your ministry this week through hearing your campers talk about you, through your actions, and talking with you.  Each and every one of you brought something different to our “team” and I can’t thank you enough for being the truly amazing people that you are.  We made it through this busy summer/ some of you have more to go…but not anyone could have done or gone through what we did this summer.  You all are strong, talented, creative, and fun people.  I’m so glad I know you.

As I write this, SPEC ended yesterday, which is crazy to me.  I feel like it just started, but at the same time I feel like I’ve known the people I met here for so long.  Opening day I just thought no other day couldtop it because I got to reunite with my campers and the feeling was just so great.  But to my amazement, every day made my time at SPEC better and better.  I could not contain my happiness!  Even on days where I got less than 5 hours of sleep, and when I should have been exhausted from my summer, I just COULD NOT sulk in my tiredness.  I was entirely too excited about hanging out with my campers, seeing staff members, seeing Graceland friends, meeting new people, and talking about Graceland to others.  If I could live in a SPEC setting all year round, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Now, when I was camper age, I went to SPEC every year and at first I thought being staff might be a little weird and not as fun, but boy was I wrong.  I found this year to be my absolute favorite, and I think it had to do with the fact that I was a Graceland Rep and knew more people, but still even just interacting with my home delegation filled me with joy.  I started to appreciate SPEC as a whole even more than I had before.  I got to see how things affected the campers and how everything ministered to them, which in turn ministered to me.

So what are all of the cool things that happened? THERE ARE TOO MANY TO LIST, but I’ll do my best.  Igot to meet the admissions counselors and hang with them in the Escape Room (Graceland promoting/hang out place at SPEC), hang out with my campers from
various camps, visit with staff, reunite with friends, sing and laugh with my fellow Graceland Reps, cheer others on, meet new shalomies, help people look into Graceland further and share how awesome it is, and led my favorite campfire song at Morning Celebration in front of everyone.  I was also able to go to Northwest devotions and give and receive lovely goodnight hugs from campers and staff alike.  I was able to listen to others and learn more about them and I loved that.  I could go on and on, but I suppose I’ll stop my rambling.

As SPEC is over, I’m noticing just how much I miss my campers and the staff I met at camps this summer.  I did not expect to miss people on this level, but I like to think of this separation not as a “goodbye”, but as a “see you later”.  Because I hope that one day I’ll cross paths with these people yet again.

At this camp I did a campfire class, led campfire, was the DJ for the dance, and a counselor.  I found out that even in my own mission center, I still found that the songs we sing are VERY different.  I didn’t know half of their favorite songs! It blew my mind, but I ended up learning some cool new songs.  And as I do camps this summer, it just makes me realize how much I love being a camp counselor.  I loved my cabin at Remote! Sage, Audrey, Katie, Karlee, Kendra, and Natasha were the lovely ladies I got to spend the week with.  We had some great devotions and I can’t forget to mention the AWESOME renditions we sang of “Big House” and “Wade in the Water”: D Plus, they happened to love my morning alarm clock song so when my phone died for a couple days after the river incident, they wanted me to sing it to them instead, so sometimes we’d sing it together haha.  Now that I think back, we sure did break into song a lot.  Kendra, Sage, and I randomly broke into song in the cabin and it happened in other places too.  Basically I had a blast.

But it wasn’t only my cabin that I had fun with. I had so much fun with all of the campers. I’d list all of their names, but I’ll hold back (but don’t doubt, I DO know all of their names still).  I had fun playing card games with people, even when people like Chelsea called Village Idiot….Idiot Fool, haha.  But Super Speed was a favorite by the end of the week and we all have Stephanie to thank for that.  I also must mention Cody, because whenever I sat near him at a meal, he always had the best questions that would make the table tell awesome stories.  Like what was the best Halloween costume you’ve ever had, and other fun things like that.  I could go on and list more memories about individuals, but I’ll digress.

All in all, I had such a great time at Camp Remote.  I got to connect and get to know more people, which I love.  I was lucky enough to experience a massive creek walk that was a really cool adventure, and explore some of the trails at remote.  I got to lead campfires yet
again at another camp, and at this one, I actually almost caught on fire haha hair smoking and everything haha : )  The worships were amazing and I loved connecting not only with the campers, but the staff as well.  I’m glad it won’t cost me a plane ticket to visit this camp again.

So as I have had only 5 cell phones in my life, I must say they all have one thing in common…they hate me.  Why do I say that? Well the only reason I got new phones to replace them is because they broke.  My first one because it was the armored machine and a huge block, but it started to simply not receive calls, then the next phone decided at a baseball game to jump out of my hands and into a puddle that was about 7ft under the bleachers. But it doesn’t end there: my freshmen year at Graceland, during the first winter I was playing in the massive amount of snow by the commons (where we eat) and I lost it within the time I was goofing off with friends.  I not only spent over an hour looking for it, but had friends coming out of the commons to help too.  Even after 2 days of looking; no luck, so I had to make ridiculous arrangements with my mother and Verizon.  After 2 weeks I got a new phone, but the SAME DAY I got the new phone….. (after a lot of the snow had melted), she was joking around about how she’d just walk over in the area and find it.  Sure enough she found it by the bushes frozen, but still semi worked to at least turn on and get numbers to my new phone.  Now this next phone was the same type of phone, but they had discontinued the model, so I got a “gently used” one.  Well after about a year of that phone, the buttons started to stick..or just not work, and the phone would turn
itself off at really odd times.  This is when I decided I wanted a new phone, a smart phone.  Though most are ridiculously priced, I
planned to get the phone I wanted on Black Friday when they were FREE! J  The LG Vortex is the phone I currently have…
and the one that also must hate me.

You see, my phones must hate me because, like I’ve said: the first one just gave up and stopped letting people contact me, second one jumped out of my hands to fall to it’s death 7ft below me at a baseball game, third one abandoned me (though the jokes on it since it was frozen for 2 weeks lol), and the fourth one slowly but surely started defying my orders, sounds oddly like a teenager haha.  Which now leads me into this recent story about my 5^th phone. At my first camp this summer my charger stopped working and I had to use my charger in a ghetto way.  I had to wrap my phone up with the phone charger and then set it down exactly right so it would charge. But once I left Florida and made it through my second camp, I got a new charger in Missouri.  But my phone decided to be difficult yet again.  So I’m at Camp Remote for Sr. High right now and it is the morning after this event occurred writing.  There is no wifi or cell phone service here at all and so really having a phone with me is strictly for time keeping.  But for some reason I took it when the camp went to the river to go swimming.  I actually did not go swimming, but I did wade in the water [no pun intended].  As I was standing with Sage and Audrey, I decided to start skipping rocks.  Also, I must tell you all that I was wearing a big sweatshirt that was kind of baggy, and my camera and cell phone were in my front pocket of the sweatshirt.  So I was searching for rocks in the water, when all of a sudden you heard something make a thud into the water.  I just thought someone threw a rock, but then Sage said “ That was your phhhooone”.  I dragged out phone to emphasize the way she said it.  I then looked down and my screen was lit up in the water!  I immediately picked it up and ripped the pieces of it apart and set it out to dry.  As I sit in the Cook Shack now, my phone sits beside me……in a bag of rice.  I only hope by tonight that it still works.  I’m not too worried, other than the fact I have a long drive home on Saturday when camp ends and I then leave home for my next Graceland Rep assignment Sunday morning.  Soooo I really hope I can find time to make my way to a Verizon store since my phone has the red x’s of death, otherwise known as the indicator that water damage happened.  None the less I have hope.

7/14/11

I have now resurrected my cell phone from the bag of rice, but it has some issues.  I don’t know if it’s because I get no service here at Remote, or if the water damage did this, but my phone thinks it’s 12:23am on Wednesday…it’s 7:18am on THURSDAY. Hahaha, I laugh at this because it’s ridiculous.  I had to set my alarm based on how many hours until it would go off rather than trying to decipher times.  An interesting process when you’re really tired.  As I have tried changing the clock on my phone, I’m starting to realize that I will definitely need to get my phone checked out

7/16/11

So camp is now over and I was able to go to a Verizon store today. Unfortunately, the first store I went to had no good news for me.  They told me I had to call my insurance people and they’d ship me a phone.  Well I leave tomorrow morning so that didn’t really work for me, so I drove to the store where I bought the phone because they were a retailer store.  From there I was also given the insurance news, but this time they said there was another option.  My mom had to give up her upgrade so I could get the last Vortex phone in stock, which I’m very appreciative of.  Now I’m just slowing activating my phone.  Very tedious,but I’m so thankful I even have a working phone after all that has happened. This is where I conclude my phone adventures :) This is Leah freakin Wheeler, signing out!

Well these past few days there has been a song I would sing in my head to keep me going.  It’s what saved my sanity and it’s what held back the tears.

Watch this first with the lyrics so the next few things I say make sense

As I sang this song in my head I was overwhelmed (in a good way) about how many people were texting me that they were praying for me.  I was hearing from campers and staff from past camps I had been at and more.  It was those little texts that I’d get in the midst of chaos that made me smile when I was at some lowest of lows.  It was such a blessing to hear that I had people praying for me back home, in the south, on the east coast, in the midwest, and more.  I cannot thank you all enough for the prayers and the positive thoughts you sent my way. I had some pretty close calls yesterday and I think some of those positive thoughts caught up with me

Your love has helped me to see the “blue sky”.  When I thought I’d be stuck in Detroit I was so defeated, but then I thought about the love you all had shown me and the faith you had that things would work out that it became contagious   I had to keep hope and I wouldn’t have had that without you guys.

As the songs says:

“When the rain is falling
There’s no silver lining
And you just cant seem to find the light
When you need a reason to help you keep believing

May my love be your blue sky (your blue sky)”

This is like the verse for yesterday for me.  I couldn’t seem to find the light, but then the little things kept adding up and it helped me so much.

Thank you to those who checked in with me periodically, it was nice to know people wanted to be updated.

I love you all! And the same goes for any of you when you are going through tough times.  Just shoot me a text and I’ll listen to any venting, ranting, etc that needs to happen.

<3

So on Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 I got up bright and early with Trish and we headed to the airport. Bittersweet to leave and end my time there, but I was excited to start my next journey as well.  After my second flight of the day I was drained and even feeling a little sick, but I had to keep my energy up because my next connecting flight was going to cut it close. Fortunately I made my last flight on time to travel to Michigan. This is where my story starts to go downhill….once I got to baggage claim, all the suitcases were already gone and the people were saying if your luggage wasn’t there you had to talk to the representatives at the desk. I wasn’t the only one with missing luggage though, there were two other families having the same problem.  So for about an hour I was waiting in line behind them, and once I got to the desk they told me they had no idea where my luggage was but I was to call this number in the packet they gave me and go from there. So with me I had 1 change of clothes for emergencies (thank goodness) and my graceland carry on full of t shirts and a t shirt from my camp in Maine.  The Reunion director’s wife, Allison, picked me up from the airport and we had to stop so I could buy some shorts, and then we headed to camp.

Now going from Maine to Michigan was a huge change in weather. Michigan was in the high 90s and HUMID.  We got to  Blue Water campgrounds and I was sweating already just putting my stuff in the lodge.  Then we had dinner and as I went back with the directors family to their camper to pick up bedding, it started raining and a storm was coming. We were scrambling to put away chairs and throw things under the RV.  Then once we got inside, we watched this intense storm happen.  The winds were picking up tents and blowing off tree branches and even uprooted a tree on the campground.  In the middle of the storm the power went out.  At first I thought it would come right back, but boy was I wrong.  The storm eventually stopped, but the power didn’t come back on.  Now with the power out, the water wasn’t working either. Which meant a lot of the dishes from dinner couldn’t be washed, and there were no showers and you basically couldn’t use the bathrooms, plus the food for reunion in the fridge was in jeopard of going bad.  That night I went with the Curtis Crew and went to the marina at Lake Huron to watch fireworks, but when we got back the power was still out.  So we gathered my stuff from the lodge and they made a bed for me in their RV to wait out the power outage.  At this point we had to wait till morning to see if it’d come back on.

The next morning the power was not back on, the milk had gone bad in the heat and they were letting people take what food they wanted as they left.  Camp had to be canceled due to these conditions.  So here I am, the Graceland Rep really far away from home and a camp gets canceled unexpectedly.  But there were families in campers that wanted to still stay, so that is who I hung out with for the remainder of my time in Michigan.  Even though the power was out and we couldn’t take showers, we still played baseball/softball, sat around and made smores, roasted dinner together and one night even found a power box so we could project a movie on a trailer one night haha.

Now every day I was trying to contact my boss and I couldn’t get ahold of her ( later found out her phone charger had been lost so her phone was dead) and I was calling airlines every few hours to locate my luggage and no one could give me clear answers. The airlines would tell me they didn’t know, and once they found them in chicago they told me the luggage tags were MISSING and the only way they identified my bag was through my bright pink spec tag from 2008! Thank you Northwest delegation for that! haha But that was the last straw, I was so mad at this point. I said to them ” wait, wait my luggage tag got RIPPED OFF? How does that happen. The lady was like, we just found it that way. Then she made it seem like she had my bag, but I later found out she didn’t but she was reading some report of it.  So I asked her if it could get on the plane to Michigan and she said “hopefully”. Me= ” Hopefully? Okay, well when you for sure know it’s on that plane call my number” Later that day I did get a call saying that it was on the flight. But back to trying to get ahold of my boss. Since I couldn’t reach her I was thinking of who else to call. My director Glenn Curtis helped me a lot by helping to call places.  The people around me were like…call the dean of students. lol We couldn’t find a number so we called information to get to Marian Killpack’s (Dean of Students at GU) home number (yeah crazy I know haha).  We reached her husband and then got ahold of her and she ended up finding an admissions person to help me in this crazy time. Soon after I also heard back from my boss.  I think within  an hour I had been on the phone with over 5 people.  Playing phone tag is my new pet peeve haha. Especially when almost eveyday, since there was no power my phone was either dead or almost dying. We only had one car phone charger to charge phones and so I’d get my phone charged and then have to charge it after a few hours with all the calls I was making.

So Kevin Brown got my flight changed and around lunch time I got a call and he told me I got a flight for that night! I was definitely not expecting that, but at this point nothing was truly shocking me.  So after I hung up the phone I told Glenn what was going on and I started to gather my things….I’d say pack, but there’s not much to pack when you don’t have luggage.  So on July 4th, 2011 started the cherry on top of my “interesting” experience.  I got a ride to the airport though we were a little late, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. As I got there I went to Delta to check in, but once I got to the counter after waiting in line, I was told I had to get my luggage from the American Airlines desk.  But when I went to the AA desk no representatives were there to help me. I then wasted about 20 minutes waiting for someone and once I finally got it the Delta check in line was HUGE. At this point I’m freaking because time is dwindling. So I wait for what seems like forever in line and when I get up to check in they tell me my name is in the system but other than that, nothing is in my record so they can’t check me in.  I had to then step aside and call Kevin to figure out where he bought the tickets, and at this point I’m holding back the tears. Pretty much all day I probably didn’t have the normal happy tone in my voice.  So I found out he bought them at Delta Customer Service  so I asked this woman if I could go ahead of her and thankfully she said I could and I then told the desk lady the info I knew, showed her my email confirmation etc.  At this point I’m sure she saw the defeat in my face and she was like ” okay let me work with this computer to see what we can do”  So there were 9 empty seats on this first flight and she found room in an exit aisle.  I was just like ” thank you sooo much” and I gave my bag away hoping I’d see it at the end of my journey this time haha.

The rest of my time in Michigan was harmless, I made it through security easy, and my flight got delayed so I had some time to relax….but this meant more of a close call for my connecting flight to Portland.  And I almost accepted the fact I might be stuck in Detroit for the night. It was a scary thought regardless. Now my plane got into Detroit at 7:30 and my plane to Portland departed at 7:55…which means they had already boarded by the time I landed. As soon as I got off I looked at a screen and tried to find the plane I was supposed to connect to but the only Portland was Portland, Maine. At first I was like oh crap did they make reservations for Portland, Maine! Which also made me laugh because staff and campers from my last camp were saying I should’ve just stayed with them in Maine. But all in this quick thought I turned around and asked the people at a desk where I needed to go. They said gate A 74…..I was currently in terminal C at gate 20.  At this airport most hallways started with big numbers and got small as they went down so I was speed walking and thinking, GOOD, it’ll be at the front of the hallway, this won’t be too bad, I’ll make it.  I swear the detroit Airport is ridiculously huge!!! I speed walked a good two miles easily.  Once I got to terminal A I noticed the hallway I had to go down. BUT WAIT! ….that particular hallway was flipped from what the other ones had been, because the bigger numbers were at the end and sure enough this hallway was gate A 30 – A78…..So my gate was 4 away from the end of it. At this point I’m like GRREAATT! I’m going to miss it! But I speed walked like a mad woman, I even ran periodically. I’m sure I looked crazy.  But when I reached the gate, out of breath.  No one was around, BUT the plane was still connected to the walkway thing. I was praying some representative would open the door and tell me I wasn’t too late. So I had 3 minutes of torture just standing there and then a lady came out and immediately asked if I was Leah. I said yes and she took my boarding passs and I boarded. I got on and it reminded my of an international flight like I took to Africa….it was HUGE..and full. But I found space for my carry ons and I found a relatively close seat to the exit door.  This was the end of the craziness for my day, but I had never been so exhausted in my life. My legs were aching from the intense travel to the gate and my body in general was like ” Leah I hate you” haha.  Once I got to Portland my mom greeted me and we went to baggage claim and my bag actually came. I haven’t touched it since, it abandoned me for a few days so I think it deserves the same from me.  Now I’m home, and stuck in East Coast time so no sleeping in Pacific Time.

In retrospect,  in the midst of chaos, there was good things to come from my experience too.  Since Reunion was canceled, one day I went with the director and his brother in laws family on their boat and we went out on Lake Huron.  I can now say I’ve swam in the Great Lakes!   And I could’ve been stuck alone, but instead I was with gracious and great people.  I got to meet some kids going to SPEC and I got to talk with staff too.  I got to visit with some people as well, so I can at least say I did in fact promote Graceland some.  And the Curtis family was so generous and helped me out so much!  I cannot thank them enough for all that they did.  I think Glenn spent as much time on the phone as I did.

So while things were crazy and I would never wish that upon anyone, I have learned from my experience and now I’m home and get to spend a few days with the family.  Just what I need after all that.

Right from the start I felt welcomed by the campers and staff.  The community that was built this week was such a blessing.  To see the campers connect with each other and to see the staff minister to each other and to the campers.  There were times of laughter and times where we cried, but throughout it all, everyone was there for one another. It was seriously a week filled with unconditional love.

At this camp I was a counselor and taught a recreation class.  It was nice to have a break from campfire leading and to simply enjoy singing along.  Teaching rec made me laugh everyday, partially because I planned silly games, but the campers are what made it fun for me

My cabin was awesome and I had so much fun with the twirling trifecta, they never ceased to amaze me with their creativity   i’ll always think of them when I play love will make you beautiful, because they always wanted to hear it before we went to sleep.

I cannot thank the people I’ve experienced camp with enough.  You all have touched my life. I really really want to come back in the future.

OKAY SO HERE’S PART DOS OF THIS ENTRY! I looked back and I was like, wow I wrote the least about one of my favorite camps! And I was telling people stories today about Camp Winni and realized I could share a lot more on here.  So here it goes:

When I came into my cabin once my campers moved in I realized my bed was the only one in the front room, and instantly my girls told me to bring in my mattress and sleep on the floor so we could all be together.  That was the first sign that I was going to have fun with my cabin.  Then at opening ceremonies we came up with the name The Twirling Trifecta   We had a hand symbol too lol.  Then we made up this pretty cool rap that we even had choreography to :]  It was only the first night and we were all energized and working well together…it’s like it was meant to be   And if that wasn’t enough, as one of my campers, Brooke, was making her way back to the tabernacle, she hunched over, turned around and in a manly voice said “frolic with me” (this is probably a had to be there thing, but it was hilarious).  So I not only had an energetic cabin, but a fun one as well.  I later found out that our creativity was something that also set us apart.  We made our front room into a devotional area, with a worship center, praying bunk, and a devotion COUCH!  Plus when we spent rest time cleaning our cabin, we also organized everything into sections: for suitcases, make up, snacks, and beds.  Every day I’m pretty sure we scored 10/10.

Now another adventure that happened during this week was when my cabin had bathroom cleaning duty.  When we got there 3 of the 4 toilets were clogged……greattttt right?!  So as my campers are freaking out and not wanting to deal with it, I was the hero (as they say) and found gloves and reached my hand into one of them that was clogged with toilet paper and threw that away before I busted out the plunger.  After that first one I told the girls to go get Trish (the director), because I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into lol.  As I took the plunger to the back stalls I also happened to be standing in half an inch of toilet water….lovely right? haha.  Right as Trish got there I coincidentally had just finished taking care of things lol.  All that day my campers were telling people how brave I was and I would just laugh.  I made a sacrifice for the sake of camp

Another thing I must add is the night the maine insects feasted on me. So at night there was a counselor hide and seek, which is where the counselors hide and the campers have to find us.  So this was my first time to this camp, so I had no idea where I was going to hide but as I was searching in the dark I found some bushes that I thought would be a good place to hide.  As soon as I laid down I could hear the bugs surrounding me, but as I realized this was probably the worst hiding place ever, I heard the campers being released so there was no leaving now.  So for the next hour I listened to campers scream, bugs buzzing and what sounded like they were dive bombing me.  By the end of it I was begging to be found because I was holding my hood closed and I had killed over 5 bugs that attempted to bite my face, not to mention something slithered under me and I jumped at least a few inches into the air (luckily no campers were around at the time).  Finally a group found me, and I was the second to last counselor found. Moral of the story, go big or go home

At the end of this camp, I don’t think I’ve experienced a camp where I would get about 5 or more goodbye hugs from a camper.  It was like they’d make their rounds and then stay for a while, hug again, etc, etc. haha.  Then after camp I got experience Maine with the Carver’s, which I must say was awesome! Basically I really want to go back to Camp Winniaugwamauk next year…..now to work on funds lol

After I was at a sr.high camp for my first week, I was on a spiritual high and missing people like crazy.  I was nervous about working at a reunion and how the dynamics would be different. Don’t get me wrong, I have gone to reunions all my life, but I wasn’t sure how I should do my job there.  Though once I started things increasingly got better as the week progressed.

Camp Doniphan is a huge campground, but a beautiful one.  Even now, the background on my phone is one of doniphan lake looking out to the point   At this camp I helped with the youth connection class and did morning campfires with my friend Thomas, and I helped with evening ones. Then just helped wherever I was needed.  While reunion was a different experience, it was still a memorable one and I miss the campgrounds and people dearly.

In my free time I’d hang out with the sr. high and jr. high.  Those people impacted me in such a positive way.  They made me laugh and they were good company in general.  I think back to when we’d all hang out at the pool at night, or go explore trails in the truck, and then the campfires and hang outs that lasted till around two in the morning.  Those memories will never be forgotten.  And to hear from them that they had a great time at camp made it all worth it.  It was nice to hear that they wanted me to come back next year.  I don’t know what will be my future next summer, but I hope I cross paths with those people again

As I am on a plane this very minute traveling to my next destination, I can’t help but miss the wonderful people I met at Bluff Springs.  I was excited and terrified when I first arrived. Terrified because I am use to knowing people, the grounds, and how things are done….and well I knew none of the above when I first arrived.  So as camp was in full swing, I tried to interact with as many as I could while preparing for my classes/teaching them. I taught a volleyball class in the morning, a campfire class in the afternoon, and then led campfire at night. Plus mix in being a counselor. Honestly, while it sounds busy, I still feel extremely blessed that Lisa and Paul even let me do so much. Because that meant I had atleast had two class periods with everyone

I must say that from teaching little kids campfire class to teaching sr high is a huge jump! I appreciated how all of my class groups gave their input into how campfire was planned. I cannot explain just how hilarious it was to see them practice their skits and then execute them at campfire.  I give no credit to myself, because the campers are what made the campfires awesome for me. I’m just glad I could have this experience and be a facilitator.

I’ve been a counselor at little kids camp and jr. high in the past, but being a counselor this week has been amazingly rewarding.  Last minute changes had me and my friend Cat Houk as counselors together…awesome? I think yes!!  We had so much fun.  I’m glad I got to experience not only Africa with Cat, but now church camp too.  But counseling isn’t anything without the campers.  I was lucky enough to have the older girls..aka it was the last year of camp for 4 of the 5 lol.  I hope I helped make your week unforgettable, because that’s what it is to me.  I will apologize now for being the one keeping us up till 3am that one night   (blind man stood by the road and he cried ohhh ohh oh) ( I am from….) .  But you girls made me laugh until I cried, and you inspired me with your testimonies.  I couldn’t have asked for a better cabin. I love you ladies more than know…it was hard leaving you

As for the campers in general.  You all have touched my life in significant ways. Through your testimonies, conversations we shared, your joy, how you interacted with each other, and so much more.  You have shown me what a camp can be. I witnessed God working through you and I want you to know you all have a special place in my heart.  I miss you all already.

Bluff Springs Sr High Camp 2011 will be a memory I will cherish forever.  Thank you to those who were a part of it