Returned from Judson, I'd like to go back

Well, I guess it’s time I share with you about my week of camp. Let me start by saying that while things never change, they never stay the same. It was the same old camp, with the same old activities, and a new set of campers. Many of the counselors this year were people I had gone to camp with three years ago, so it was like I was back where I belonged. Of course, that feeling is always attached to Camp Judson. It feels as much like home as home does. Only at home I never get out of breath walking from where I eat to where I sleep. But that’s beside the point.

What really bears sharing are the differences. This week I was in charge of seven soon-to-be freshmen girls. Let me just say it bluntly: 14-year-old girls are insane. I’m sure there are exceptions, but for the most part they’re all insane. Don’t get me wrong. I love these girls and we had a lot of fun times together. But I will never fully understand them. They spent most of game time flirting with the cabin 20 boys who were on our team, and felt the need to put on makeup for the 4:00 am sunrise hike up Mount Baldy. And why is it that every camper and half of the counselors felt the need to wear flip-flops? I will never understand the desire to wear flip-flops at camp. That's just asking for a broken toe. Now, under that pink plastic surface, these girls do have good hearts. I could see it in the way they supported each other. And what little on-topic discussion I could get out of them in cabin time was good stuff, it just didn’t last long. They got distracted so easily it wasn’t even funny. So this week I was really brought into a firm reliance on prayer at I tried to affect these girls. On Monday night I prayed for each girl specifically and then the camp as a whole after they had all gone to bed. Insomnia is great for prayer—at midnight there are no other distractions. I also met with Polly, Kelsey and other counselors to pray for our campers before evening cabin time. By the end of the week I was feeling frustrated (well, I’d been frustrated from the start…) at the thought that my girls were, for the most part, unaffected by the lessons of the week. I felt like I had failed as a counselor. But four of them came forward at the blessing service Thursday night, and on Friday one of them told me she had accepted Christ for the first time. She made the decision on Wednesday and hadn’t felt like telling me until I asked her to get the card filled out, but she made the decision all the same. That was definitely a God thing—I had nothing to do with it. And a girl from another cabin, who I didn’t even meet until the sunrise Baldy hike decided to attack herself to me. She came forward to be blessed and made sure to sit by me for every meal after the hike. She may turn out to be just as much a challenge as the other girls, but she’s such a sweetie. So maybe I didn’t fail. The most important results of this week at camp may not be apparent for quite some time. I know God spoke to me, even though I was preoccupied by my girls. Actually, quite a bit of it was powerful to me only because of my girls. I just might want to try this again next year. But, of course, that depends on many other things like my summer job and cash flow. Darn money.

Okay, now for the silly side of camp. Driving out with Polly and Steve was great, and it was good to be out there a day early. The staff was a bit thin, so they asked for some of us to help out in the camp store. So I did. Now I know how things operate in there, and maybe I have my foot in the door to work out there next summer. I don’t even know why I didn’t apply this year. Oh well. Judson has go-karts now, with a dirt track on the property across the road. It’s a muddy experience, and so very fun. I only got to drive one for a little while, but it was great. Most afternoons I had to wander off by myself to keep my sanity. The day we drove go-karts I joined a group going to Horsethief Lake, and after swimming in my clothes to get the mud off, I hiked back alone. That was a good time. And there was mud later in the week, too. We had mud pit tug-of-war. And it was an impressive mud pit, let me tell you. It was about ten feet long and half as wide. When I finally went in, the mud itself came nearly to my knees, and the water went well above that. See me in person for some great pictures of that. Oh yeah, and my major injury for the week happened Tuesday night during our brilliantly-design night game. In attempting to get a piece of masking tape off the back of one of the larger male campers and make him relinquish his glowsticks to the counselors, I tripped on a birch branch and tore up both legs and both elbows. I have the distinction of being the first patient to see the camp nurse that night. Mark, the nurse, actually called the game off early because so many people were coming to him with poison ivy or stinging nettles. And the next morning we had three girls hobbling around camp on crutches. At least it was all in good fun, right?

Hmm, I can’t shake the feeling that there was something else I wanted to say, but I can’t think of what it could be. Oh well. I’m finally working on my story again and the bears are calling for me to return.

Today is my parents’ anniversary. Happy 26th, Mom and Dad!

-Kim

Hidey-ho, Neighbor!

I've always wanted to say that. I don't really know why. At any rate, hello there readers. I think I have about six or seven of you now. Not that that matters. I'd keep writing this stuff even if nobody read it. Still, it's always more fun when you know it's appreciated.

Today I am free of the salad bar. I asked for Friday off to get ready for camp, and Deb gave me most of the week. Now I won't be working again until August. Woot! It's not that I really mind the work so much, but it is great to have extra time off to prepare myself for the week of camp coming up. And of course, time after camp to recover from the lack of sleep.

The truth is, the closer it gets, the more worried I become. Perhaps I should explain. Camp Judson has always been my favorite place on earth. Not only is it a gorgeous camp, it feels like home. It has the welcoming warmth of Christian love pervading its atmosphere. I never spent a week out there without encountering God and being changed. This is especially true of the youth camps, though it certainly happened at family camp as well. These life-changing experiences were always made possible by the camp leaders--Rich, the week's speaker, the counselors. And this ear I am going to be part of that team. I will be responsible for shepherding seven girls for this coming week, leading small group discussions and acting as a spiritual role model. It's a scary thought. I want to make sure the girls in my charge can have the same sort of amazing experience I always did. But I don't know if I can. In fact, I know I can't . At least, not on my own. It's always been God himself, albeit acting through people, who does the work and makes the change. This isn't about me, it's about him. If I can remember that, we'll be alright. The one thing I know for sure is that this week will teach me full reliance on God to get me through things. At the same time, your prayers for everyone coming to camp this week would be greatly appreciated.

-Kim

Oh, I should also add that I just changed my fall schedule. Instead of taking Music Theory II, I'm taking Dyer's American Lit class. The weird thing about this change is that I will now, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, not have class until 1:00 in the afternoon. Weird, huh?

ADD update

Well, sorry this took so long to post. I guess I'll save the deep stuff for another day and just give you the quick synopsis of life.

The Brookings Summer Art Festival has come and gone again. I was a good year. An amazing year, really. My mom sold six paintings and took in more than any other summer so far. She did well enough that my parents decided they should help me buy a car. I'm just praying we can find a good one before I go back to school.

Let's see, I actually missed quite a bit of the festival because Dianna brought me to Sioux Falls for Audrey's birthday party. Yay! So many people I hadn't seen in a very long time. It was great. Adam's brother Nate was sprisingly good at Mafia for his first time, and we all had fun slaughtering each other through three rounds.

Hmm, what else? I've seen the new Pirates movie twice now. Man is it good! I cannot wait until next summer to see how things turn out. I'm sure that East India company has their fingers in more places than they'd like us to know.

Monday through Wednesday of this past week I spent camping with family at Cutty's Resort in Iowa. I hadn't been there in about seven years. It's funny how much smaller the miniature golf course seems now. I slept on a shelf bunk over grandma's bed in her camper, which was a different sort of place to be. Besides grandma, we were camping with my great uncle Doug and his wife, another aunt and uncle, and my cousin and her two little girls, all relatives on my dad's side. Kianna is eight and Stacie is two and a half, and they ran me completely ragged the first night. It was great fun though. This was our only family vacation of the summer. I'm the only one making it out to Judson this year, and that's in less than a week now. I guess it's a good thing I already found a ride out there, or I would be starting to panic right about now. Knowing that I'll be out there all week with Polly and Steve makes the whole counseling idea a little less scary.

Tonight I closed up the salad bar with Lynette, one of the daytime ladies. I love working with her because things actually get done. She sees a thing to do and she does it, unlike some of the girls who whine about their work and take extra-long breaks because they feel like it. Oh well. At least I only have to work two more days before I get nearly two weeks off for camp.

I know this was all rather ADD and incomplete, but it's all you get. I'm tired now.

-Kim

I'm sad

A lot of my distant friends are gong to be in Sioux Falls this weekend. I would go visit them and hang out, but I need to stay in town for the Art Festival, which basically starts Friday night for us vendors. Of course, Adam is supposed to already be here, but I have to work the next two days and finish my 9-day stint at the salad bar. Whee. At this state of tired I alternate between being cranky and slow or being giggly, quick and absentminded. In either case work gets complicated. After the festival I have three days off, but that's so that we can go to Cutty's Resort by Lake Okoboji to see my dad's family. Then it's back to the salad bar again, but hopefully I won't go crazy this time.

The Fourth was fun. We saw Kevin at his lake house, grilled brats and played Scrabble on the deck. It is an amazing house. But it happens to be built in the middle of the Madison golf course, as a number of houses are on the lake. One of the holes is pretty nearly in their backyard, so we saw a steady stream of golfers go by as we grilled.

Right now I'm baking banana bread and trying not to fall asleep. It's a good thing I don't work until 9:00 tomorrow. I may survive this after all.

-Kim

I live in the grocery store

You know, working in a grocery store can really put life in perspective. Today I went in for my longest shift of this 9-day series—a full eight hours. I prayed for God to give me the grace to face the day with a good attitude, and you know what? He did. It was crazy having seven of us working in a room that has trouble accommodating four, but the morning went by so quickly it shocked me. Then I got to take an extra long lunch break before spending much of the afternoon helping the pizza ladies. That’s right, there were three of us working on fruit pizzas this afternoon. We made a total of sixty pizzas, which I had my doubts about us being able to sell, but when we went back this evening the case was actually looking bare, so there’s hope that we might get rid of the 34 still waiting back in the cooler. And yes, I went back to the store tonight to help my family buy groceries. It seems I can’t be in the store without working, because I found myself instinctively straightening and facing our product case. But the really interesting part of this shopping trip was running into Kody Coull, who I haven’t seen in years. I knew him from band, but he graduated high school with Kevin, so it’s been a few years. Apparently he stopped after two years of college and has just been working at Taco John’s for the past two years. He says he’s still trying to figure out what to do with his life. I’m still working on that question myself, but I think it’s easier to answer by staying in school, not leaving it. I guess the perspective that this encounter offered me is that it’s okay to not know what I’m doing yet as long as I’m still working to figure it out. Oh yeah, and it’s a lot better to work the salad bar in the summer than to work in fast food all year long.

In other news, I got to see the world’s tallest living horse today. That’s right, Goliath graced the fair city of Brookings with his presence. We almost missed seeing him, because we decided to go to the Larson Rec Center and swim, but we made it in time to gaze in awe for several minutes before they loaded him up to move on. I think I got some pretty good pictures which should make for some fun scrapbooking, should I ever get back around to that project again.

This Saturday I finally got to check out the new waterslide. With Elizabeth, who I haven’t seen in ages. We had fun, and I managed not to get sunburned. The lines actually weren’t all that long, considering it was Saturday afternoon. Definitely worth the three dollar entry fee. The weird thing was that we saw two different groups of people we graduated with, and were actually right behind them in the line for the slide. They were all excited to see each other, but barely gave Liz and I a second glance. John actually gave me a wave, but that was pretty much the extent of it. Now, we really didn’t hang out with these people even during high school, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, but it would have been nice to be acknowledged. Oh well. The day was fun regardless.

Tomorrow we’re finally going to go check out Kevin’s lake house. We figure it’s the best way to spend the Fourth of July: grilling brats, paddleboating on Round Lake (apparently somewhere between Lake Madison and Lake Brandt), being with family. Hmm, perhaps I should see if our friend Chris will be at his lake house at the lake that’s decent for swimming in. At any rate, it will be a fun holiday that I will certainly have to blog about afterward. If I’m awake enough to type, that is.

Well, as the family is playing Scrabble, I suppose I should pay attention and join the game.

-Kim