Transformation

That's our "word" for the summer: transformation. In our staff meetings at camp, we have talked about how these kids can come to camp and they can experience God yet go home and, in a couple weeks or a month, they are the same person they were before and camp becomes just a memory OR they can go home and change they way they were living and be transformed by God. We have also talked about our personal transformation (Romans 12:2 being the basis for this idea) into becoming more like Christ.

As I look back on my past year since I arrived at camp last summer, I see so much of how I have personally changed. I would never wish to go back to high school, but if I did I feel like I would be such a different person. First off, I am not quite as much of a boy as I was. Not that I have become someone who wears pink all of the time and does the "Kappa poof" (as we call it in Faye), but I have become less rigid, less "I-can-do-it-alone-thank-you." I can't really describe it: it's an attitude change, a 'renewing of my mind' as the apostle Paul would have put it. Not that I was a depressed person, but I have found so much more joy in life in the past year or so. 

This summer, I have definitely seen God use me to bring change to girls' lives, as well as encourage girls who are pursuing a deeper relationship with God. One thing that I learned in junior high/early high school was that Christianity is not a religion-it's a relationship and I have been able to pour that into kids' lives. Words are just not enough to describe what has happened this summer.

It has also been just a lot of fun: singing Disney songs into my hairbrush, doing the "Making a 

Sandwich" dance in front of 275 kids, playing random crazy games, learning ballet... Yes, I said learning ballet. I had a fifth grade girl teach me every day a little bit more. On the first day she 

was just having me balance and I couldn't do it; she told me that I was one of the most unbalanced people that she had

 ever met! In reply, I told her that was why I wanted to learn ballet :) I actually signed up to take it in the fall with my friend Noel, which should be interesting. We will see how it goes: maybe I will come out of there with more grace. I still feel really dumb trying to do it, but I think that it will be fun.

Hooray for my week off! I plan on relaxing, seeing people I haven't seen since May, and spending time with the family.