Sunday, July 27, 2008

A Quick Trip Home

This past weekend I had my weekend off from camp and made a very quick trip home. It was so good, though. Ingrid had also just flown in from California and Aaron and Heidi were also home, so the whole family was together! (A rare occasion these days!) Friday evening we had all of Mom's English students over and their moms for a grill night. It was a lot of fun to have them all over and get to meet these adorable little kids!
James, Dad, and Aaron
A few of the kiddos taking turns on the big tree swing.
The whole gang!
Being our family is rarely all together, Mom decided we must take a family picture, which was a very good idea. So, this is your preview to what our Christmas card will look like! :)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

I Love My "Job"

I can quite easily say that working at Bluewater Covenant Bible Camp has been one of the best jobs of my life. It's almost an indescribable experience, but I'll try share a little of it with you here. Each week I am a counselor for 8 to 12 girls. During this time I stay in a cabin with the campers and listen to their stories and encourage them or introduce them to Christ and the love He has for them. It's a unique setting, being we're at one of the most beautiful places in Minnesota-Bluewater Lake. This means that we also get to go water skiing, tubing, kneeboarding, hiking, biking, rock climbing, paddle boating, play carpetball, ping pong, make crafts and other activities of the like! To sum it up, it IS the life. On the weekends we generally have family reunions, church retreats, or things like that. If it's just the staff (generally Sunday evenings) we take as much advantage of the lake as possible. The staff has been a huge blessing to me in encouraging me and challenging me in my walk with Christ and servanthood. Here's a little look into our life on the lake the past few weeks.Here's Joslin and I kneeboarding-attempting to do a little switchin' up...shortly after this picture we wiped out. :)
Wahaha! Joslin not liking me splashing her!
The infamous "water bucketball" with the campers.
Chapel! (They look a little tired.)
Isn't it beautiful?!
Here are a few of the cabins of girls I've had this summer. (Above-9th and 10th grade)
5th and 6th graders
3rd and 4th graders-We have devotions with them as a cabin each night. This happened to be their last night and three of our cabins had a little party together reading "You Are Special" by Max Lucado.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Marathons and Music

On June 21, I ran Grandma's Half Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota with my friend Leah! It was such a good experience and a lot of fun! We ran with over 6,000 other runners and it was quite the thrill! (I think the full marathon had around 10,000??) It was so crazy the energy we got from running with so many other people and to have thousands of people cheering us on. It really would have been a lot harder if there weren't people there cheering us on, so if you happened to be there-thanks!
Here is Leah and myself after the race. The end of the marathon is right at Canal Park, so really beautiful.
It was a huge blessing to have some good friends there cheering us on too! My friend Mary from CBC came, as well as Joslin and Cassie, who I work with at camp (and Cassie went to CBC too). My sister Erica also came to cheer us on! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with her. Thanks for coming everyone! I really, really appreciated it!
That evening after the marathon there was a Martin Sexton concert in Grand Rapids, which is close to the camp I work at. Martin Sexton is one of my favorite artists and it has been a dream of mine to see him live, so it was really a great day! It was a fairly small concert, so we got to see him close up and of course, the music was great.

The Sweet Summertime!

Oh, the bliss of the sweet summertime! I'm so sorry for the extreme lack of updates lately. As I believe I informed you before, but perhaps forgot, I'm working at Bluewater Covenant Bible Camp for the summer. This could perhaps be my favorite place in Minnesota. Yes, we'll go ahead and confirm that...Bluewater IS by far my favorite place in Minnesota. There is a downfall to this place called lack of communication. The camp schedule is quite busy as a counselor, or any other position on staff, and doesn't allow for a lot of free time, or phone calling/email checking/blog updating. Today, however, I have time! It has been an amazing summer already-I can't believe 1/3 has already passed! The staff is again amazing to work with and I am blessed by each of them daily. If you think of it, please pray for the staff, and that we would continue to have enough energy to keep going and to serve well. The rest of our kids' camps following family camp are completely full, even overflowing. We're really excited about this opportunity we have to make an impact on so many lives and help them understand the love Christ has for each of them and the desire He has to have a relationship with them. Gracie making a nice face!Amelia, Gracie, and Amy enjoying the warmth of the sun!

Here are some of my great 5th & 6th grade campers! I was so lucky to have 7 Roseau girls and 3 International Falls girls! There were all so sweet and a lot of fun to hang out with. These are pictures from a pontoon ride we took...they're some good swimmers!


Serena, Maddie, and Alexis!
Saphire, Bekah(above), Madeline, and Morgan!
Maddie after her big jump off the pontoon!
Bekah, the encourager! She tried to get everyone to jump off!