Juggling

This past week was INCREDIBLE.

I'm so glad I got the chance to be a counselor for a wonderful group of eight 8 and 9 year old girls. They were SO fun, very high energy, and helped to remind me the root of Vesper Point--The Gospel. These girls asked some really tough questions about sin, Satan, grace, and everything in between and I was blown away by the depth of their questions (even if they didn't know how big their questions really were).

I got to teach ski clinic, blob, eat yummy camp food, hear lots of testimonies, share the Gospel and the best part--prayed with 2 of my girls to accept Christ!!!! I had several people ask me this past week whether I liked being a counselor or working on the dock better and here was my answer:

Both. I loved being on the water, driving boats, and serving the girls on staff by supporting and praying for them more specifically since I could focus on them since I didn't have a cabin to focus on. But at the same time, I missed experiences like sharing the Gospel, answering those hard questions, and having girls like the campers look up to me. If you don't miss being in a cabin while on staff, then you have no business being at camp. It's a blessing to serve in any capacity at CVP however God calls you and all I can say is that I was grateful for another chance to serve up at camp for summer #5(ish).

While I was at camp last week, I took Wednesday off so I could drive to church and caravan 16 middle schoolers to the Hiawasee with Jeff Reid. It was soooo much fun; relaxing at certain points and semi-stressful at others. It was quite a hilarious challenge to try and keep our group together, especially over the rapids!! We had some great conversations and I was reminded why I was working at the church this summer rather than at camp (not like I was doubting my decision to be at church for one second)

Needless to say, I was beyond exhausted by Wednesday night after driving 5 hours, tubing, and then going to the hoedown, much less on Saturday morning!! As long as I didn't stop, I didn't realize my sleep-deprived state of living, but once I slowed down, my body revolted.

But there is no rest for the weary--I had plans for Monday--SIX FLAGS! Allie, Jessie, Katy Fisher and myself had planned a while ago that we would go to Six Flags on Monday. It was a blast!!! By 2 am last night when I crawled into bed, I was craving sleep desperately. I'm slowly unwinding. I knew that these last 2 weeks have not been the norm but I know that my body is not made to stay in limbo and juggle 2 more than full time jobs at once!
Oh yeah, and some of my other girls got into my house and post-ited my room. I hope they know that this means war. :)

Throwing my plans out the window

This summer has definitely been teaching me to give my plans to God and stay on my toes! Here's a glimpse of my week starting on Sunday--

Sunday: Church, Youth Family Cookout/CVP Commissioning service lunch. Shopping with Jessie (student), pick up Allie. Make tye-dye shirts. Watch HSM/eat pizza. Stay up until 4 AM talking with Allie and Jessie.

Monday: Take Allie and Jessie to camp. Office work at the church. Bible Study. Forgot to eat dinner. (That never happens!) Clean house. Watch Bachelorette.

Tuesday: Youth Staff Prayer and Meeting. Lunch with youth group volunteer. Shop for hours for high school room decor. Drive to camp in hurricane-type conditions. Spend time with students and old campers. To bed at midnight.

Wednesday: Camp all day to hang out with girls in youth group that are campers. Drive straight from camp to babysit until 1 AM.

Thursday: Babysit 8-2, housework, dinner with K. Fish
Friday: Meetings, lunch, and hopefully seeing another student or two at some point. Dinner with out-of-town (and in town!) camp friends (Shout out for J-Paul!)
Saturday: Babysit from 6am-10am (the parents are running a 10k that morning). Nap (fingers crossed). Clean house. Host camp friends.
Sunday: Church. Lunch with students. Coffee with Twin and Co (aka Moooaahhhllly!!!). Pack and leave for camp....why camp again you ask? Apparently I'm working there next week because they're uber short staffed because our high schoolers are going on a mission trip for the week--Summer #5 (ish)--here I come!

It's been hard splitting my time between camp and church, but in either venue, Jerry is my boss and I'm not gonna complain because I get to be relational and talk about Jesus a lot--could life get any better? Jerry is flexible so I have the chance to leave or call students when I need to when I'm at camp, but dang! it's hard to do two jobs at once. But ya know what? I couldn't imagine my summer any other way.

I don't think I could say this too much...but I LOVE my girls in the youth group at First Pres. There have been a handful of moments this week when I've been exhausted both emotionally and physically, but the conversations and moments I've had with some of these girls have made it clear to me that I am passionate about what I do and that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be. Thank you Jesus for knowing what I need and when I need it far better than I could ever know.

PS-The "J" in me is having a slight crisis over the fact that I have had to scribble out, draw arrows, and re-write plans too many times to count in my planner over the last few months. Maybe I should start writing things is pencil from now on....

I can show you the world!

*Note: I wrote this post on Friday afternoon, so keep that in mind with whatever tenses I used. Okay, now you can keep reading.

I loooooove working with my middle school girls.

After leaving camp, I went straight to Mellow Mushroom to see my girls that I felt like I hadn't been around in forever (although it was only Wednesday and I spent Sunday night with them!) After lunch with a goofy waiter, we went to the one and only Chattanooga Dragon Dreams--a dragon (and other mystical creatures) museum. Yes. This is for real. And we took pictures to prove the ridiculousness of this place. Glorious.

On Thursday, I took one of my girls our for a birthday breakfast before I brought her up to camp. Jessie is going to be the nanny for Jerry and Heather for several weeks this summer and was a little nervous about going up there on her own. After putting several more miles on my car that was eventually packed with 3 middle school girls and a puppy far from her house (dog sitting the parent's pup for the weekend), we set off on a middle-school only adventure...a photo scavenger hunt! We met at Clumpies for some ice cream before clicking lots of pictures, laughing a ton, and sweating a little bit more that we wanted to. It was hilarious and super fun!

Everyone on the team had to have a blue tongue...so we used painters tape!

Capturing our reflection in an unexpected place

And the quote portion: "I can show you the world"

Today, I met up with most of the youth staff to head to Sam's to stock up on snacks, waters, and other goodies for our high school mission trip that is just over a week away! I'm not going since Jeff Reid and I will be needed to hold down the fort while the high schoolers and other staff will be serving in Fairmont, West Virginia. The rest of my afternoon was enjoyed relaxing at the pool with Anna, one of my 8th grade girls that is going to CVP for her first time next week! And now, I have my feet propped up with Mitzi curled up at my feet, as I take a break from folding laundry, swiffering the floor, and scrubbing the bathroom...some much needed rest because I am worn out! It has been a crazy kind of week and I've loved every minute of it! I thought it would be an adjustment to get back in the swing of things after leaving camp, so I figured I might as well jump in head first!

Unpredictability in the midst of Predictability

Where to begin? For those of you that have worked at camp know that pretty much once you step foot on that soil, you are stepping into a weird time-warped state of life. I always know exactly what time of the day it is and what day of the week it is because CVP is so schedule-based, but at the same time, I have no clue what is going on outside of my camp bubble--and the best part is is that I LOVE that feeling. 

This past "weekend" (Friday through Wednesday) I got to work for family camp at CVP. They were short staffed and I was "on loan" from the church so I could help out! Definitely a perk of Jerry serving as both the camp director and the interim youth pastor! I also lucked out BIG time because I already knew the kids in my family that I was assigned from Children's ministry at First Pres. Anna, 10, and Jack, 7, are two of the most well behaved and joyful children and made it easy to want to spend time with them during their weekend vacation. 

Another one of the many things that I love about camp is two sided. Camp is very predictable, while being very unpredictable at the same time. Predictable in the sense that I got to drive boats, I knew to claim being the Spurgle in the Spurgle Hunt so I wouldn't have to run around, I could have guessed what meals were going to be next and usually guessed right, stayed up late talking to friends and woke up super early to drive ski boats for some of the moms. Camp is unpredictable at the same time. The weather, what mood campers/staff might be in from one day to the next, and just camp life in general, especially during the first few weeks when the kinks are getting ironed out in the schedule. 

Also, it is guaranteed that there will be trips to the ER throughout the summer and that fact held true for Family Camp 2010. First, for a mild concusion because the counselor was thrown off the tube and another time because a work crew guy needed some stitches in his foot. But the last trip to the ER of the week was a trip that I went on. My former co-counselor, Hannah Venable, started feeling tired, dizzy, and just bleh on Monday night. So we told her to lay down and we would bring the golf cart to bring her to the dining hall. To spare you the details that I have a tendency to share and to make a long story short, Hannah became very short of breath and eventually passed out. Turns out that Hannah has something along the lines of vertigo, an inner ear infection that made her dizzy, made her stress, and eventually hyperventilate. That night made me grateful for many things--first, for the fact that I knew CPR in case I really did have to use it, secondly, for friends that were able to surround Hannah in her time of need, and finally, for some laughter in the midst of stressful moments. I really am a firm believer that laughter is the best medicine. 

Camp was so fun and it felt like I never really left, but man! am I exhausted...Late nights and early mornings can wear on a girl after a while! 

Breakng the Cycle

Has anyone else noticed that whenever you're really busy or really not busy, you don't blog? And then, when you don't blog, you don't read other people's blogs as regularly? It's a vicious non-blogging cycle. 

I'm posting more or less to break my cycle. There has been so much going on in my life, but nothing that seems too "blog worthy" and when it is, my internet at the Harwoods has been messed up, so I can't post pictures when I'm at home. 

So here's my life in a nutshell: 

-Helping with boat driver training at camp last week

-Allie Arick (7th grader from church) spent 2 nights over because her dad was traveling for work

-Being more obsessed with Glee and Gossip Girl than ever

-Starting p90x....more on my self-inflicted torture later

-Seeing BOTH of my nieces in the same weekend!!! What a blessing!

-Dinner with my dad and Katy Fisher

-Living the summer life in Chattanooga

-Babysitting up a storm (twice for one family this week and once for 6 hours today with another family)

-Seeing Sex and the City 2 AND Shrek in the last 2 days

-Adjusting to my girls' (and when I say "my girls" I mean my students at First Pres) summer schedules

-AND drumroll, please.....getting ready to work at Family Camp this weekend at CVP!! I've got some splainin' to do on this one:

So, Erin Kennedy called me on Tuesday night when I was at Chili's with K. Fish and Gavin in a panic. There was a sudden rush of families that signed up for Family Camp when Jerry had only staffed for the original smaller number of families. So they were calling all of the people staffed for this summer to come early....and then they resorted to calling last year's staff. So here I am, avoiding my unpacked WalMart bags by watching reruns of Glee, blogging rather than switching over the laundry, and talking on the phone with people that I will see in 12 hours instead of digging out my one piece swimsuits and sunscreen. Don't worry though, it will get done as it always does and I will have lots of blogging+pictures to share with my patient readers come Wednesday when I come back up the mountain.

RIP Camp Ring

I've gotten more compliments that I can count on my little ring that I always felt like a craft project because, well, it was pretty much. My friend Samantha made it for my at the end of last summer at camp during Arts and Crafts with her cabin. It's survived from August until last night when it just couldn't hold on any longer. Rest in Peace Camp Ring--you served me well.

Note my left hand.

I'll miss you camp ring. My left hand won't be the same without you.

A letter from 5 years ago

I was at my parent's house a couple of weeks ago and did a massive cleaning of some nooks and crannies in my room. Among some of the other treasures that I found (I'm talking about Target gift cards, $150 dollars in cash, and obviously past use checks from high school graduation!), I found something that I value more now than I did 5 years ago. Kirby wrote me a letter a few days before I graduated from high school as something as a charge before I left for college. She spoke such words of wisdom into my life then and has continued to do so as I have grown up. With several friends that I know that are graduating high school, college, or just living life--read this letter. I had accepted Christ several years before I graduated, but had really reached a point in my life as a Christian my senior year in high school that I started to grow in a whole new way. Kirby was critical in my spiritual growth and really shepherded me through more than she knows. Here is the letter that she wrote me on May 12, 2005: 

To my little Burger, 

You are graduating! Burger, this is just so crazy to me that you will be beginning your time at college...but I am beyond excited for you! When I graduated, Katie gave me a letter that she had written for me on her high school graduation day. Though procrastination is to blame for me not writing to you until now, I am really very glad I've waited until now. The person I was three years ago was young, naive, and immature, God has shown me more than I can imagine in these past three years. I am still very young, naive, and immature but the difference is that now I am relying on God to speak to you, not trying to bear that burden of passing along wisdom to you. Now I am praying to God that he speaks through me in this letter, that I can pass along some wisdom to you. I pray that what I write to you is just what you need to know for starting, fully experiencing, and finishing your time at college. 

If I can tell you one think you need to know to get through ANYTHING in life, know that God is your provider, your strength, you confidence, your hope your EVERYTHING. GOD IS INFINITE. That is far beyond our comprehension and this is why God is God and we are human. We are so much smaller than our Father. Our minds are literally nothing compared to his. We are His sheep, lost until we hear His voice. Though all humans are so tiny, God still cares for you personally. He is a very personal God. Every single thing you experience is because God loves you. Know that. When I say "know" something, I don't mean that you should simply have that fact in your head, I mean you have to believe it. You have to grasp it with every bit of your existence. All your thoughts, your actions, your words...everything. That means when you are hurt, when you are confused, when you don't know what to do, when you don't understand, when you feel alone, when you have no energy and don't know how to make it through the next day KNOW above everything else that God is doing everything in your life out of love. He has a plan for you , a plan that is so amazing, so full of adventure, so exciting, that no human could come close to imagining anything quite so wonderful. You can't know His plan for you, because when we don't know we are forced to trust in our Father. My all-time favorite verse that I come back to again and again ins this; "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 It goes on to say in verse 7 that we should not be wise in our own eyes. That means, what we feel is the right thing to do is not always right. The right things to do is always to follow God. Even if it makes no logical sense at all, His plans are far beyond our comprehension. We can't expect to understand him. But we can expect for God to show us the way to go. He promises that to us in Isaiah 30:21 when he said, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying 'This is the way; walk in it.'" The Bible is our map for life. God did not promise to lead us and then us with nothing. He gave us the Bible and the Holy spirit. You will come to let the Holy Spirit move in you in all you do, to help you make the right decisions. Pray for it and God will show you the way. If you desire what he desires for you, ask and it will be given to you. If you desire something with impure motives, ask God that your heart be fully set on him. God really does have all the answers, and that is all you need to know. God cannot be your top priority, he must be your one priority. He will show you what else matters, what you need to be involved in, what words to say, what paths to follow, and even the little things like what time is wise to go to bed each night. Pray to him for everything, all throughout the day. Never stop talking to God. 

God's glory is amazing, and I know that no letter can fully express that to you. Just know that God's greatness is far beyond us, yet he still cares for us through we don't deserve it. Confess your sings to him and ask forgiveness, ask to be more like Christ and praise God for all of the blessings he has given you. There is so much we take for granted, so remember to take time to appreciate your surroundings. If you feel you don't have time, then then know that the petty things you are concerned about can be overcome by God. The grades you worry about making are based on standards made by man, and not by God. What matters is following God and doing what he calls you to do. It does not matter what any person thinks--friends, family, teachers, enemies. It doesn't matter because they are human and to be concerned with what they think is sinful because it puts priority of humans above God. I am so proud of you, Kristin, because you have shown me already that you are seeking to make God your one and only priority. YOur decisions to not march this summer was God-ordained and I am so grateful that you are seeking Him in making decisions. You will not regret it. With God, there are no regrets. He will always show you the way...never ever allow yourself to doubt God and his greatness. I love you always, more than I can express. I am so proud of you, my little sister, and all that you have accomplished. I know that if you continue listening to God, you will acheieve great things, beyond anything you can plan right now. You are an amazing creation of God and I praise Him for blessing me with you. 

I love you always, more than you know, 

Kirby