"this year camp has felt different."
this has been my response throughout the last two weeks when loved ones from home have asked how it is going.
in some ways, it feels as though i could see myself doing this forever, unable to grasp the reality that anyone else would do my job here. yet in other ways, i know that this era must come to an end at some point.
this is my 18th summer of summer camp, my 5th at sky ranch, my 3rd at horn creek. it is crazy to think that a lot of the people i am working with were born between 2002-2004. (so yes i do feel ancient here)
i came into this summer nervous. and not in the same ways i was a year ago. last summer i was nervous about comparison, this year it was more logistical worries. and even though i have done it so many times, driving onto this mountainside felt unreal.
since i am the only one in my job this summer, everyone got to know me pretty fast, as i spoke at almost every meal && taught most of them how to serve. it is always a weird sensation when everyone knows your name, but you do not know theirs. but i never want to be the reason that someone does not feel seen, loved, or heard, so i work super hard to learn names. (which gets super hard when you get ~80-100 new campers every week)
yet this year i did something different during staff training. i spent my off-time with the counselors that i will be working with all summer, bc i never have off-time during the summer with them. and let me tell you, it was so fruitful. getting to just adventure round Colorado Springs/Salida with them and be silly, goofy was just what my heart needed. it also was the best to just set the groundwork of best friendship between me and the counselors i will be spending most of my time with.
this summer, it feels as though so many of my favorite people from previous summers have all come back together for this summer on this mountainside. and man is the Lord so sweet to put these people here with me right when i need them.
with policies changing and regular fixtures of this mountain having moved on, it is hard to not get caught up in that, but realize that even though change is different, it does not mean that it is bad.
as a Sky staff we are going through 1 Peter, as a kitchen staff we are going through Colossians, Ranch team is going through Esther, and I am still going through the minor prophets with my timothy. so i will try to update on how i am seeing those passages reflected && lived out and just things the Lord is teaching me!
prayer requests would be for patience, perseverance, and strong teamwork to better share && show the gospel to these kiddos!
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