Love and Peace Or Else

Week 3:  June 14-20

Happy Father’s Day, and big up to my Dad back in Oklahoma! I miss you.

Work staff week is over, and now it’s on to camp #3. We have four different camps this week: basketball, soccer, wilderness, and horse. Here’s the best part: I’m counseling girls in soccer camp! Those of you who know me well are aware that I have zero athletic ability and have only played/hated soccer my senior year of high school. As far as I know, though, I won’t actually be playing, just herding the girls from place to place and leading devotions. The schedule is supposedly more lax than regular camp, so I will probably have a little more free time, and it won’t be as stressful. But I guess I’ll know for sure when the time comes.

Maverick #1 (ages 12-15) week ended yesterday. Even though I didn’t counsel last week, I still got to be involved with the kids during my free time station hours (inflatable boxing, sky trolley/zipline, etc.). They seemed like awesome kids, and the counselors could attest to that. We all heard amazing stories from each other about how God used situations or chapel topics or evening devotions to work in the hearts of the kids or the chemistry of the cabin. He never fails to carry you when you just surrender everything over to Him. That continues to be the biggest lesson I’ve learned (over and over) so far.

Friday was Crud Wars day. This game is basically an organized outdoor food fight. Two teams at a time grab one substance at a time (flour, wet dog food, spaghetti noodles, shaving cream, etc.) and throw it at each other. Once everyone is finished throwing one kind of thing, they move on to the next one. The kids were told that morning that they wouldn’t be doing Crud Wars this week; instead, they would be playing a “better” game called Madness. At dinner that night, Jon-Michael got up to make an announcement. He said that Pat, the head cook, had forgotten to save food throughout the week for Crud Wars, so that was the reason we wouldn’t be able to play. Even though she had made this frustrating mistake, he had decided to forgive her and we should too. When he turned around to announce that we should all forgive Pat, she threw a pie in his face, and the madness began! The cooks had just set out huge bowls of slop on the tables, and Pat threw the first handful at a camper’s face. A massive food fight ensued for about the next five minutes and then moved outside and morphed into actual Crud Wars. Only a handful of people knew this was going to happen in advance, so it was definitely a shock to most of us. The dining hall was a disaster, and it took about two hours to clean up. We all had fun doing it, though, and it was worth it. Apparently it was the first food fight ever at Echo Ranch. We made a memory!

Friday night chapel was one to remember. Several of the counselors performed the Lifehouse skit (look it up on YouTube), and it really hit home with most of the people there. After the skit was over, Tim and Kirk (the guys counselors who lead worship) got up to sing “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”, and Kirk couldn’t get through it without crying. This started a chain reaction of tears among the kids, which lasted throughout all of Jon-Michael’s message afterwards. Many even left during the talk and then came back at the end. At the end of the message, he played the song from the skit (“Everything” by Lifehouse), and the kids and their counselors just sat and wept. Honestly, I’m still not sure what I think about it all. I believe that many of those tears where a genuine cry out to God after realizing what He had done for them, some were a form of empathy for friends, some stemmed from indirect peer pressure, and others were the result of physical and emotional exhaustion. Some were probably a combination of all of the above. Jon-Michael explained it well: these kids are so tightly wound all year long between camps, and they needed a way to release it all. That night was the night to do it. Whatever the reason, I’m glad the kids got the opportunity to let it all out. It seemed to provide a great way to present the gospel and show God’s love and comfort to those who were hurting. I hope decisions and changes that were made last beyond camp, as I hoped with my girls from the week before. But that’s not in our hands – all we can do is give it over.

Yesterday was a good day. The counselors had their “praise and prayer” session in the Loft after all was said and done. Most of us practically fell asleep during the prayer part, but it was still great to finally relax with people our own age. Afterwards was chick night with the nurses (Denise and Laurie), a few counselors (Nikki, Amber, and Skylar), and the work staff head person (Erin). We spent the next couple hours gabbing and eating ice cream and sharing funny stories… and just having a blast.

Like I kind of touched on in my last post, I had a much harder time feeling connected to and hearing from God this week. It was frustrating, but this is the way we grow. He continues to teach me, even when I’m not aware of it. Jon-Michael told a story on Friday night about a man talking to a woman on an airplane. He asked her, ‘If you got to Heaven after you died, and Jesus weren’t there, would you still want to be there?’ Following that story, I realized that I have come to the point where I truly want Him above all else. It came to me while I was talking to Him at the top of the sky trolley, and it made me cry. It’s an indescribably wonderful feeling – blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. What else in this life really matters apart from Him? How could I desire a life on earth or an eternal life in Heaven without Him there? I couldn’t.

I posted Denise Pritt’s “ERBC 2009” album to my Facebook profile. Make sure you check it out to see pictures of Echo Ranch Idol, the food fight, and other junk.