Mountain Week

I cannot believe it is the end of June already and I am writing to you about the last camp of my summer. Where has the time gone?! I feel like I just wrote to you all about Beach Week, which was in May, and then Cross Camp and now Mountain Week has come and gone just like that. Sometimes it really scares me how quickly time flies, but we must enjoy every minute of it, nonetheless. 

Mountain Week is a camp for our middle school students, graduating sixth through graduating eighth graders. Although I thoroughly enjoyed each of the camps, I would probably have to say this past one was my favorite, or a close tie with Beach Week. Not that I didn't love the little ones at Cross Camp, I just truly feel like I am called to teach the youth, middle school students specifically. My cabin consisted of twelve graduating seventh graders who were full of energy and excitement... All week! Seriously, I don't think we got more than six hours of sleep each night; I'm still recovering. The lack of sleep was more than worth it, though, because I got to know some of the sweetest, brightest young people and I wouldn't trade that for sleep or anything else anyday. Even if I am a baby about getting enough sleep haha. 

The schedule was almost identical to Beach Weeks schedule, meaning that we had to be up at 7 a.m. and lights out was at midnight, which always turned into 1 a.m. somehow. Mountain Week differed from Beach Week in the environment aspect, though, for sure. Like the title says, we were literally in the mountains of East Tennessee. It was a beautiful campground with lots of hills and lovely scenery placed so perfectly by our amazing Creator. It was so easy to get distracted on the way to the chapel or to the cafe by the environment because it is so breathtaking. Our God is quite the artist. We played some awesome rec games and like Beach Week, I had the most awesome rec team! I guess I am being pretty bias considering they were my teammates, but I really do think they were the best. What surprised me about all of the kids, though, was their sportsmanship. Those kids are some of the most encouraging people I have ever been around. Of course during the games they were all fired up and competitive, but no matter what the results were, they would always high five each other and say "good job." Friendly competition is the best competition in my opinion. 

The services were incredible like always. We had a pastor come speak that used to be our youth pastor when I was in middle school, so that was a fun little blast from the past. Worship was superb and like the other two camps, these kids raised their hands and praised our Savior just as beautifully. If these kids continue to serve our Lord the way they do now, who knows how radically our world could be changed. These kiddos are also extremely intelligent and their hunger to know more about Christ is astonishing. Oh, and something super exciting happened that I must tell you about! We split up into devotional groups after our morning service and I had my own group of 7th and 8th grade girls, which I guess means I really am an adult... Waaaa. Anyway, the last day of devo my class and the class next to mine decided to combine. There were about 20 students and three leaders. We were gathered around in a circle and began talking about how the world cannot decide who we are and that the world is not our judge. Then we went on to talk about hearing God's voice and if we have ever heard him speak audibly to us. No one in the room had actually ever heard Him speak directly to them, but obviously through divine appointments and such. Well, we went on with the lesson and I picked up my bible so that I could contribute some scripture into the lesson. As I picked it up I accidently grabbed it by the front cover and some pages, leaving the back end dangling. What I thought was an accident, God obviously did on purpose because in the back of my bible I have written some quotes and sayings and one bible verse. I felt God telling me to flip to that one verse, so I did. Oh how He works in the coolest ways; the verse was 1 Samuel 16:7 saying, "But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” How wonderfully that verse fit for our discussion! As goose bumps quickly overtook my body, I raised my hand with excitement saying, "Ahh, God literally just spoke to me!" Our God is an awesome God! 

The week came to an end quickly, leaving a bittersweet feeling inside of me. Obviously part of me was fighting sleep and semi ready to be home, but most of me was filled with encouragement, great relationships, and a whole lot of Jesus! Plus, I had the opportunity to pray over everyone, which is something I have never done before, but God so graciously gave me the words to say and I got through it and it was so awesome! There are not many things that measure up to sharing the love of Christ in front of people that you adore. If you have never been on a camp, or been a counselor at a camp, I strongly encourage you to do so; it was change your life. 

Thank you for being apart of my camp experiences with me,