SURVIVOR!

This past week was the hardest week of my life, no exaggerating. It was Camp Eight and we started the week all pumped up and excited about keeping our momentum all the way through... until IT hit. Counselors started getting sick. Campers started getting sick. It was spreading like wildfire! We found out that a couple of campers that came the previous session had come even though they weren't feeling well, and when they got home they were diagnosed with swine flu. They infected some counselors, who in turn infected campers, and there was no stopping this sickness! We had seven junior counselors go home on one day, and they continued to drop. We started the week off with about 21 junior counselors and ended with ten or eleven. Five all summer counselors were sent home. About fifty six kids went home by the end of the week. The rest of the kids were all tired or sick. The nurse's hut had been transformed into a room with bunk beds, and there was eventually spill over in a room in the pavilion. It rained every single day, and with the kids walking around like zombies PLUS us dealing with counselors leaving, it was extremely hard to be there mentally. I wanted to just curl up in a ball and not move until Saturday. I have never had five days last so long.

BUT I made it out alive without even a hint of sickness! And God did awesome things despite this hurdle. I was able to have some amazing conversations on Friday night and pray over multiple girls with some heavy issues. Then, Saturday night, we had our staff banquet, and I cried as we reflected over the summer and the victories God won.

I am back at home in Conway, but not for long! Friday I leave for Fayetteville to get ready to move into my house! Then on Monday I start meetings and preparation for the new school year on the Campus Crusade Student Staff Team. Life definitely doesn't slow down for me, but I am blessed that God sustains me and gives me what I need to keep going.

Hopefully soon I will be able to actually blog about things that are not so scatterbrained, but for now I will give you a few pictures from this summer :)

We lost the fishing derby (again): punishments included red

dots on our noses and towel diapers. Only at camp is this cool!

My girls thought that the suspenders I wore for hoedown were

so cool that they asked me to make them some out of duct tape haha

Two of my best friends and I

EXPLANATION: The boys lost a contest, so our "brother" senior counselor had to 

dress like and act like his "sister"... and my brother, John, had two sisters.

Girl Senior Counselors

The girls in my cabin (Camp 7) - the girls won Cabin Cleanup

so we got to wear tiaras and walk down a red carpet to eat

dinner first while the guys bowed down to us

At staff banquet: Gabi, my "sister" and one of my other best friends