" Get Up and Get Down"

Week 1 at camp was a challenge. Even counselors who have worked out here for several years said it's the worst they've ever seen. It's normal to have a particular age group that is more out of control than the rest. but this week, it was all 3 age groups and for the counselors, it was a nightmare. 

i work with the junior high kids (7&8 graders) and if i thought it was going to be like last year, i couldn't be more wrong. we had kids with the worst attitudes imaginable. a 7th grader who refused to tie her own shoes laces. kids who won't stop asking what we were doing next, complaining about how they didn't want to do it. kids who wont sleep at night or during FOB (afternoon nap time) and then complain they're tired when it's time for activities. kids who in every possible way made all the counselors job so difficult we wish we could quit. 

i was very frustrated and could not stop asking God, why? i was already struggling just being out at camp, when all i can think about is the DR and how much i wish i could be back there. i disliked being with the kids because i didnt know what to do with them. every time we had bible study or when we were suppose to talk about God, they would drift off so far and couldn't care less when we tried to bring them back. eventually, we just gave up. the goal became to just make it to the end of the week. 

but in my most difficult and frustrated moments, i remembered this one thing we were challenged to do from training week. we painted rocks, where we put what we wanted God to help us with this summer, and every Sunday, we would gather and pray as we start another week. Justin, who did the exercise with us, gave us this challenge. to "Get Up and Get Down". basically what it is, is that every morning, when we got up, we would get down on our knees and pray for our kids, pray for camp. because we all as counselors made a pact to stick to it, no matter how hard it was, everyday, i made myself get up and get down. and that got me through the week. 

Week 2 comes along, and we had the most awesome group of kids.we had a whole ton of fun, and the kids were so into everything it was just amazing. then halfway through the week, i started asking God, "what are we teaching these kids?"sure we're having a good time, doing all this fun activities. but if they don't learn anything about God, then it's pointless. 

"Get up and Get down" this week also came a lot easier. and because we had a smaller week with fewer kids, i got a chance to pray for them individually. i really enjoyed it, and i started to put in effort to look for something that they might need prayer for. it felt like as we went from day to day, i could just see them growing and it made me excited. 

at the end of each we of camp, the campers fill out evaluations and the counselors and camp gets ratings and what not. we also get to see what the kids wrote on their evaluations. as i read one evaluation after another with my other counselor, both of us started to cry just because the kids wrote that they learned more about God, or they want to change their lives and live more for God, or they were afraid to pray and now they're not, or that we've shown them to love God more. 

the entire time that we had all been wondering if we were even making any impact at all in their lives, God was using us to change their lives. it is also awesome to see all of them put that they want to come back to camp next year. 

but this challenge to "get up and get down" is something that all the counselors out at camp have decided, we're going to make it stay. it's got us through our hardest weeks, and even on super good weeks, it's helped us to love the kids more. anyone can try it. it's not always easy, but its definitely life changing. 

I Am On A Mission - II

Camp has started and i've been swamped so there still hasn't been time where i can talk all about the DR, so here's another testimony! :) 

"I Will Rise" 

it was Sunday morning and i was very excited because we were attending the New Life Church, which was in ENGLISH! :) it is a very nice change to be around English speaking people. they asked if we would do an offertory song, and this time, instead of getting our whole group to sing the one Spanish song, 'Montana', that we knew, we decided that we would do the "special music", 'I Will Rise', that Tiffany, Danielle, and i have practiced a few times. 

Problem 1. I’m nervous. Always am but I will eventually get over it. sometimes its because i think i'm just not good enough, or that i'm going to mess up because we haven't practiced enough. being in front of a new crowd didn't help.  Problem 2. My voice is gone. I don’t know how or why (possibly from screaming at the track meet a week ago) but it was completely gone. i could barely speak, could not even hit the notes in the melody, much less do the high harmony. And it freaked me out. Big time. It was also one of those moments where you just kinda had to wing it so that was our plan. 

As worship started, I was frustrated that I couldn’t even sing decently. But as we continued, it seem like my voice was returning, so I calmed down a little. Until I saw one of Dustin’s guitar strings snap. Problem 3. I did not even think of bring my guitar and was going to have to use his. Now I was really freaking out, because I’m going to have to bang out the chords on the keyboard, except I’ve never played this song on the keyboard or practiced on it. i was like "seriously God? you're gonna shove me right out of my comfort zone that isn't all that comfortable to begin with?!" if you don't know, its become a habit that when i sing, i like to hide behind my guitar :P 

Throughout the entire sermon, I was freaking out, shaking, and really praying that God would do something because i knew there wasn't anything else that i could do. 

The time came for us to sing and I was nervous as heck. Starting out with the verse, I could hear that my voice was still kinda hoarse, shaking and I was afraid of when my high harmony was suppose to come in. I was still debating in my head as we went through the first verse if i should even try.But when we hit the chorus, and right when my harmony was suppose to kick in, i felt like someone gave me a shove off the cliff and the notes just came out of my mouth. It scared me real good. Not only was I not expecting to even hit those notes, they were so pure and sounded way better than I usually would and I knew immediately that God was moving. i felt so pumped i wish i could have just screamed n do a happy dance or something at that moment. haha! :P 

After the song, my voice was gone again but I honestly could not care less. I was so thankful that God moved, and there, to me, was a miracle. i'm pretty sure God got a kick out of shoving me completely out of my comfort zone and then show me that as long as He's there, everything will be just fine.