Teen Challenge

Well this past week was Teen Challenge. And it was a challenge indeed. The weather was much more cooperative. The kids were pretty great. I definitely had some favorites :) And come to find, many of my favorites were the bad kids. :)

The first couple of days, it was chillier. And of course, we had water carnival Tuesday night. It was freezing. In the water wasn't so bad, but going from event to event, or, lifeguarding from the shore, was freezing cold. I think they had fun though. Wednesday, and Thursday it was SUPER hot. Wednesday, had a lot of lifeguards, so I only had to lifeguard the last rotation, and I started on totter. As soon as I got out there, all the kids came in from it. So I laid on the kayak and fell asleep for a bit, and woke up with a nice sunburn on my legs. They proceeded to radiate for the next couple days. Now they're fine, though I have lots of fun tan lines all over after this week. For Teen Challenge, instead of cabins going to different activities together, the campers get to choose which one they want to go to, so we have a camper choice time for an hour and a half in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon. I was assigned to the climbing tower, and I really think it's one of the worst places to be assigned too. It's a little tedious, and the belay system we have entails pulling the rope through a pole, and it's quite painful on the hands. A combination of rope burn and holding such a tight grip for so long. Even with gloves, it's pretty painful. So Wednesday afternoon, I switched with Rae and did waterfront instead, which was a good switch, and then Thursday, there was no climbing tower in the morning, and in the afternoon, I switched with Lizzi and did Gaga :) Rae and Katie ended up at Gaga with me too, and let's just say we earned some respect :) We played everlasting, which means that when whoever gets you out gets out themselves, then you're back in. Katie, Rae and I teamed up, and we were ONE KID away from winning everlasting. But Cameron hit my foot fair and square, and so when I got out, 15 kids were back in, and then Katie got herself out, and there was just no recovery. It was a nice change up. I love Gaga. Especially with Rae and Katie :)

Overall, activities and waterfront and stuff went smoothly, but chapel was very odd this past week. Teen Challenge the last few years has been known as the week where God just really moves, and this age group is the age group that is able to go deeper and to really start to get it. They're just hungry for it. And I was SO excited for Chapel and stuff going into this week. On the way to Camp Sunday, I was listening to Romans 1-9 and my worship stuff on my iPod and I was just pumped by time I got to camp. But every time we had chapel, or had anything that was dealing with spiritual aspects of life, the kids' eyes just glazed over with apathy and distraction. We also had chapel in the DAWA the first few days because they bathroom pipes were exploding by the pavilion or something gross like that. But I pulled out everything I had as worship director. I prayed over all the cabins before I want to bed and devoted cabin devos to praying for the kids. I even spoke for a bit. I hate doing that. I sang some of the most truth-filled songs I had (that's what I feel like my calling has been as worship director, "to proclaim the truth of who God is and what He does" and also who we are and can be because of who God is) and nothing seemed to be doing anything. One of the counselors described it as "hard to watch" and that seemed a pretty accurate description. We also had gender time in Wednesday, and there continued to be a glaze. Lauren and Stacey did a great job, as did everyone who shared their testimonies. I got to play one of my songs too (Amazing Grace) but still, it was just dead. One of the chapel speakers we've had in the past said that if the kids are still asking for Romans Wednesday night, than you've lost them. And Wednesday night, that was where we were at. I was at a loss. I drove to Angel's house and asked her what to do. I was disheartened and discouraged, and fighting against the lie that it had something to do with me not being as good as Wesley. Angel didn't really have anything for me either.

Then we had Wednesday night chapel. We were back in the pavilion, and God just poured in. It was insane. A night and day difference from the chapels prior. After we left chapel Wednesday, I turned to Livia and just said... "well I'm confused." I'm not 100% sure what all was involved, but I do know that it taught me that it is not at all me that brings these kids to worship. I will be used as His tool, but it is totally up to God when He wants to move. It was incredible. And Wednesday night on, chapel was amazing. Thursday night, John (the chapel speaker) had everyone take rocks and write sins or stumbling blocks that they wanted to leave at camp on them. Then they took them and threw them into the lake. It was a pretty powerful. For both staff and kids. It was amazing to watch, and I pray so hard that those rocks truly stay at the bottom of the lake. Our God is such a good God.

I swear, I know I keep saying this, but I'll probably continue saying it every week, this staff is amazing. After hearing everyone's testimonies, we are some JACKED UP people. But God is using us all in some seriously incredible ways, and these are some really great people. I feel like I have a lot of compassionate and genuine people around me, and working with people like that, broken, but real and loving people, is just an amazing experience. I feel so privileged to be working with these people. I really just feel so blessed.

So that was Teen Challenge in a nutshell. Oh I did miss the part where I spent over an hour trying to break into Lauren's bug. Livia put her keys on her front seat, and then Lauren's car locked automatically. I failed to break in after a coat hanger, a ping pong paddle, two wrapping paper rolls, and a flattened metal rod, so Lauren had to wait a day for her keys to be UPSed to her. Also, when Livia and I went into the DAWA Friday morning, in the middle of it was dog poop. Are you kidding me? We couldn't believe it, haha. Somehow, I always manage to find poop. Oh, and I received one of the most unique hugs yet this week. During cabin watch when I was walking around, Rachel ran up to me to give me a hug, and ending up jumping on me and wrapping her legs around me. It was hilarious. We also have "our song" now. Rihanna's Umbrella. Haha I love her. I'm sure I've missed other tidbits too. But it's been a great summer so far. I love have Rae and Bean around too. It's just really my favorite :)

I'm really going to miss camp I've decided...