Jr. Week

Our third week was Jr. Week and I had the joy and opportunity to counsel a cabin of ten girls with Angela! We really enjoyed working together and were so grateful for such a neat experience! Our cabin was on the NAVY team-Captain Jones! The schedules shifted majorly and the program was very different and geared more toward the younger ages we would be working with the last two weeks of camp.  Daniel worked as a stretcher again, mowing grass, cleaning bathrooms and helping out all over. He also turned 18 that Monday and we sang to him more than once during the week!

Doing crafts....

The girls worked hard to pick this bouquet for Angela-she was a wonderful counselor and we all loved her!

A crazy hair challenge...;)

One of our games was a picture scavenger hunt....

Making a pyramid for the scavenger hunt game....

A picture with the Nurse

All of us holding Angela-our girls from right to left: Memphis, Kalina, Sarah, Jade, Sequoia (behind me), Abi, Zoe, Sydney, Lydia, Serenna...

We had the carnival again this year! On the last day of the week the carnival runs for a few hours and everyone gets to come, stop work and enjoy it, staff and campers! Here Daniel Shamblin and I were in the sponge throw! The campers loved this game!!

Daniel had his table again this year which the campers really enjoyed!

Getting an apple....

More opportunity to throw sponges at some faces while Angela snacks on her apple...

Peter and Missy trying out the sumo wrestling!;) It's because of their hard work and planning that the fun carnival is possible!

Skylar, one of our guy campers trying out the mine jump...

 Daniel Shamblin doing the midget skit....

 Angela's pet sitting business was a very loved skit in which the owner tells her not to pet or touch the dog. When she accidentally does, the dog chases her as she screams her head off and at the end the dog catches up and says, "Tag! You're it!"

 Mr. Craven and Daniel Shamblin doing the mechanical cowboy skit-they both did a great job!!

 Giving Daniel his birthday cake during the busy schedule of camp. (The guy beside him is a fellow stretcher from last summer named Johnny and their stretcher counselor Jonathan. )

Nicole and Jonathan testing the bake-off results....this cabin put a bit too much baking powder but it beat the other cabins' which had three huge spoonfuls of salt in it mistaken for sugar!

Angela and I hiding during a game of hide-n-seek in the bear box which is the "trash bin" here, waiting for our campers to find us!

   One of the biggest things the Lord used Angela to encourage me in was taking time each day to be alone with the Him, talk to Him and read His Word. This can be so easy to skip over, it seems, when you're busy "ministering and serving the Lord" and yet how vital it really is. How can we be serving someone if we have no time for them? How can we really know what He wants, expects and desires for our lives if we are too busy for Him? You will never be able to know the great treasures He has in store for you if you never look to Him to know Him better!

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
                                                                                              Psalm 34:8-10

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
                    Hebrews 4:12

Jr. High Week

Jr. High week was up next! The Lord blessed us with a lot of extra help that week and so the Cravens asked me to be the videographer/photographer for the week!! This was a very fun opportunity and I really enjoyed being able to be so involved in all the activities for the campers that week. Daniel began his first week as a stretcher and shared a cabin with 4 other stretcher guys and a counselor. He was on a different schedule so we saw little of each other, other than mealtimes and occasionally when the stretcher guys were required to help with games and activities. It was another very good but busy week with the same activities and schedule as Sr. High Week!

 Morning session with Mr. Craven speaking on wisdom.....

 Emma's cabin ready for a great day!

Lining up for flag raising and breakfast!

 Campers raising the American flag....

 Angela's cabin enjoying one of our many delicious meals....

 Daniel and Dakota Craven having fun at the stretchers' table....

 A game of human stratego out in the woods.;) This was a new game and the campers really enjoyed it!

 Listening to Jonathan, the game guy, explain the rules for WaterBoy....

 "Don't worry the water's warm and you don't get very wet."-Mr. Craven ;)

 Slingshot Baseball, a game that required some stretching time for the stretchers!;) The guys holding the slingshot are all stretchers except for the guy on the left in the blue hoodie-Jake who was their counselor.

 BigBall Volleyball.

"Nurse" and Zoey playing music during some free time...

 Our kitchen staff and stretcher girls....

 Devotional time...

 Nathanael took his cabin out to the big tires for devotions here...

 The campers studied the life of Joseph over the week and how God was working all things in His life together for good.

 Some of the NAVY guys competing in archery against a ARMY girls' cabin. Competition is a big part of the program here. Some benefits to having it in the program are that it helps build character, promotes cabin unity, and gives the campers something to work towards. All week the campers are involved in games and challenges, and Bible memorization goals, in which they have opportunity to win points for their team.

 Emma, Mr. Thompson (the Cravens Grandpa) and I playing Brethren We Have Met To Worship as a special....

Another challenge....a bake-off in which the campers could only choose and mix ingredients by sight and smell-no tasting or communicating was allowed.

 

We were really grateful for another eventful week! Only the Lord knows what things were happening in the campers hearts and how He was working. It is our job to leave that up to Him and faithfully love and serve people by telling them the truth. Do we trust His sovereignty to save those He loves more than you or I ever could? How grateful we should be as we recognize God doesn't need us, but He chooses to work in and though our lives because He loves us...and because He wants to, for His own glory!!

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

                                                                                                                            Ephesians 2:8-10

Sr. High Week And Homer Trip

Sr. High Week was our first week of official camp! This week I worked in the kitchen as a waitresses and in the dishwash with several other staff girls and Daniel was a camper. We had a good turnout with lots of eager campers and excited counselors. Days started at 7 am with staff prayer meetings followed by chapel times, meals, games, crafts, free time, snack shack and lots of competition. As fun and as good as it was, it was also busy and so this post may be a bit jumbled!;)

Singing before an evening session....

Foosball with some small friends....

Brittany, our Nurse for the summer, and Sequoia preparing water balloons for a game...

Getting ready for the picnic dinner....

This year, we had dinner on Wednesday out under the new pavilion the guys just finished building at the beginning of this summer!

It's a real blessing to have this done...

 Daniel's cabin.....

The snack shack was a popular place...

Mrs. Garris and Mrs. Nelson (the speakers' wife) working hard in the snack shack!

"Nurse" enjoying babysitting during a session...

Each night we had a special for the campers. This particular night this group was playing My Jesus Fair. Our speaker Dan Nelson did an excellent job preaching but unfortunately I never really got any good pictures of him during sessions or the camp week.

That weekend, several of us staff members went down to Homer for a day. We were all so tired and completely worn out but it was still a lot of fun! On the drive down we stopped at this general store to use the restroom and buy some souvenirs.

Stopping to enjoy the scenery before entering the spit....

A picture for Ryan....

A sibling picture....we have really enjoyed this summer together in Alaska!:)

Daniel and Angela in the back of the van-almost there!

We split up into groups. Our group consisted of Angela, Emma, Daniel, Nathanael and I. Here we are minus the two guys. We enjoyed walking up and down along the deck looking at the boats and fishing gear. It was all very exciting but after the first ten or twenty, we weren't as appreciative as we had been in the beginning!

A picture for Susie!!:) We miss you!:)

We stopped for awhile to watch a guy who worked for the charter boats,  hang up these fish before cleaning them. This is where people can take pictures of their catch after their fishing trip.

After awhile we went down to the beach and started skipping rocks. It reminded Daniel and I of home hearing the waves crash on the beach..;)

Most of us staff girls...:) Left to right: Angela (from SC), Zoey (AK), Me (CA), Brittany (WV), Becky (HW), Melissa (AK), and Emma (PY). It's neat to see how God brings us from so many different places to work together!

Daniel wanted a picture of this because his middle name is John....

Everyone was supposed to figure out their own dinner and it took a long time for our group to decide where to eat! We were all beyond tired and it was a very comical experience. It was good to be with people who understood and shared that common bond of being close to insanity due to lack of sleep.;)

It's shouldn't be that hard to decide what to order........ but, it was for us and we even had a mini conference before we did!

Dinner.....hungry and running on adrenaline are not the best combination but we survived!;)

 Heading out of the Spit to drive back to camp.....

 

 We were grateful for the trip down to Homer after a busy good week at camp. It was a real blessing to be able to enjoy the beauty of God's creation there. It's hard to believe that people can look at this beautiful state, Alaska, and not recognize that it was created by an intelligent and powerful God! Praise the Lord for His magnificent handiwork!

 

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

                Colossians 1:16