so sleepy...can't...hold...eyes...open

camp is over. i was on my way home and i had to stop at a motel because i was so incredibly tired. i'll just be honest and say that i was stuck in traffic for over 2 hours today and i don't remember a lot of it because i think i was half asleep. i just want to be home...not in a stinkin' motel...but here i am. i still have 5 hours ahead of me. i really want to write about camp and do some reflecting, but sleep is going to come first. i promise it will be posted soon. along with picture links that actually work.

game time

let's play a game called "all my best friends are engaged or married."
i win!

ashley's getting married!

okay, so right now it is 3:45 CST. in less than 2 hrs. my dear friend ashley will become a married woman. that is absolutely crazy. i'm sad because i haven't talked to her in a few weeks and i've been trying to get in touch with her and today she called me back, but i didn't have my phone with me for a few minutes because i was walking a church group to registration. sad times. i really wish that i could be there...it makes me so sad that i'm not. amanda said she was going to take my picture and put it on a popsicle stick and take it with her to the rehearsal dinner last night and to the wedding today...that way i could be there for pictures and such. i can't wait to see the pictures, but it's not the same as actually being there.

pictures for you to look at

one week left. i'm going to be an emotional ball of mess next week...i can already tell. i went to visit my site today because reynaldo and ravont'e won't be there next week, so i wanted to go and say goodbye to them. it was so hard...how am i going to leave the rest of them? sad times. if you want to look at pictures of my site kids, let this website hold you over til i can post pictures.
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/thesoundtrackofmydreams/my_photos
amy

i love me some bon jovi

"shot through the heart and you're to blame. you give love a bad name."
did i mention that i got bon jovi's greatest hits for christmas (i mean papa loves mambo)?
fun stuff!

PRAISE THE LORD FOR NiGHTS OFF!

i still don't know about this week's kids yet. but i have 4 amazing female adults with unbelievable testimonies! wow! it'll be neat to see how this week turns out. pray for my life's direction because i have no idea what i'm doing as of next saturday. wow.

gotta take the good with the bad

okay, so this week has been a mixture of great things and not so great things. my kids this week might have actually been my favorite campers of the summer. although some of the most frustrating things happened on site. connie, my site contact's father had a heart attack over the weekend so she was not in a great mood for obvious reasons. her mother (granny) usually helps her out with the kids, but she was staying at the hospital with her husband. connie's daughter was there with her best friend who is apparently living with them right now. they just caused a lot of problems with my site kids. they were totally disrespectful to my site kids, and my campers. they were cussing, telling my site kids that they didn't have to participate with us, and that they should go hide behind trees. it was just ridiculous. it hurt my heart to see these kids at my site revert back to the kids they were day one, before we had ever invested in them. to watch them forget about everything they'd been taught and everything they'd learned and turn into these hateful, unruly, backtalking kids...it honestly brought me to tears. i came home from site crushed. satan was honestly trying to work. but God is sooooo huge and so faithful. today, one of my site kids, desiree, made a profession of faith. this precious child of God will be with me in heaven! i'm so excited. she was one of the bullies the first week i was there, constantly picking fights with others. so i'm super excited about that! the next exciting thing was with one of my campers. his name is jeremy. i sensed from the first day that he was quiet, but i thought he was just shy. when i got to spend some one on one time with him, he really opened up to me and shared with me that he wasn't a christian, but everyone thought he was. i talked to him for about 20 minutes, about his life, about how he wanted to accept Christ, but there were things in his life that were keeping him from it...about peer pressure andd how his friends didn't want him to make any decisions and they were distracting him. we didn't really get to finish the conversation because other people were around and slowly gathering around us. so i told him that i'd talk to him more about it later. i didn't get an opportunity to talk to him this morning after bible study, or even on site today. but he was constantly in my prayers all day today. so when we went to our closing track time tonight to share what God taught us this week, i was looking forward to seeing if he'd made any decisions. but when it was his turn he just said that he realized he was very fortunate and the site kids weren't. so during worship i was praying for him. i could see him sitting beside his friend and they weren't paying attention. i just prayed for God to work in his life...to speak to his heart. during the invitation, he just stood there. it broke my heart to know that camp was almost over and he hadn't made a decision yet. i was seriously moved to tears. as i walked to my church group devotion time to let my group in, i was praying that God would just place an opportunity in front of me to talk to jeremy again. so i went in the classroom and let my group inside, then i walked out into the lobby...and who is sitting there on a bench...jeremy. i kid you not, i almost peed in my pants. no joke. so i went over and sat with him and a couple of his friends. they all left and i started talking to him telling him that i was sorry we never got to finish our conversation...and he told me that he had almost come to the front for invitation. when i asked him why he didn't, he responded that he was afraid to in front of everyone. it led to some great conversation. we talked about how he believed it and how he wanted his life to change. and he ACCEPTED CHRIST! it was the most awesome thing! i seriously saw a change in this kid. it was honestly the highlight of my summer. i prayed with him and sent him back with his group. i was totally floored by the amazing ways in which God works...the persistence of prayer...and just how important it is to believe that God can do what we might think is impossible. so i'm so glad that jeremy will be partying in heaven with me. after closing celebration tonight this lady came up to me with huge tears in her eyes. i hopped off stage and gave her a huge hug. it was jeremy's mom and step dad. it was awesome to see that he has loving parents that have been praying for him and that they'll be there to encourage him and hold him accountable to the things he has committed to changing. wow! God is sooo huge!

mini hurricanes could be a good thing

so it's been a long time since an update, but it's been insane. let me just share a little about last thursday night. the last day of camp for week 5...there was a crazy mini-hurricane and we had to keep campers in our classrooms for closing track times for an extra hour. there were two kids in my track i had been praying for specifically. i had seen God work in their lives, but they hadn't really made any decisions. after worship that night, i ran into stephen and he told me that he realized his life wasn't very glorifying to God and so he rededicated his life to Christ. it was pretty exiting. then later, brittany shared with me about how God was working in her life. God is so faithful!

4th of july fun

let me give you a little update...yesterday my site was closed because of the 4th of july, so my group as well as about 7 others divided up between the three beaches here in the area to do beach ministry. i was incredibly nervous about taking 25 students and adults to the beach to do ministry, but as always, God proved faithful. we were able to get a large game of football going and we were able to attract people by building sand castles. i only put sunscreen on half my back because i didn't realize that i missed half of it (i have no idea why?!) and half my back is fried. i mean, me, little miss white girl didn't put sunscreen on my back while i was at the beach in the sun for 3 hours. ugh. needless to say, i'm miserable. i'm really afraid that i'm going to end up with big blisters and peeling skin. eww. anyway, i also think i had a touch of sun poisoning because i was very sick last night. i'm feeling much better now though.
i have so many kids with so many needs this week. i can tell they all have a ton of personal struggles. they don't talk in bible study, they're so quiet. i feel like i have to grab their hands and drag them along. it's just really hard to know what's going on in their heads, but i know by their prayer request cards that they are seriously struggling. i really need time to just hang out with some of these kids God has laid on my heart. pray that i find time to be intentional with these kids, that i can build relationships with them and that i am able to lift them up in prayer. pray for my students this week, that they can be bold in their faith and share with my kids on site through bible stories, songs, skits, and during outside free time. pray for my site kids, that they understand who Jesus really is and why we believe in him. personal prayer requests for me...pray for my friend shea who is struggling with where she is in her life and her job situation. pray for my mom, nate, and corey who are in alaska visiting roy. pray for my dad, that he's not lonely while my brothers are away. pray for his radiation treatments and continue to pray for healing. pray for my staff because there are a bunch of people who have been sick. pray for strength for me and renewal from week to week and that it never gets old...but that each week brings freshness and renewal. thanks for the prayers.

week 5, seriously?

i absolutely can't believe that we just had opening for week 5 of camp. seriously, we're over halfway done for the summer. i have no idea where the weeks have gone. from the short time i spent with my track group tonight, they seem like they're gonna be a great group. my goal is to be so much more intentional with them and to try to establish relationships on a deeper level than i have the last 4 weeks. i think i'm working on it and slowly building up to something great. my prayer is that i can get to know these kids and through forming relationships, i can better pray for them and help them grow in their walk with Christ. something totally crazy and random happened today. as i was walking out with my group to take them to my classroom for our first time together, i saw a guy who looked like this guy joe that i went to high school with. i just dismissed it as a crazy thought. then as i was walking out with my host group, i saw him again and i got a glimpse of his nametag, and low and behold...it said joe. after church group devotions, i was walking over to hang out with campers and he was standing there with some campers. now let me just say that he was younger than me, but we did have a drama class together, so i was banking on the fact that he'd remember me. so i walk up to him to give him a hand shake and he gives me this huge hug. it was fun. anyway, he just got married less than a month ago and he is working as a youth minister in MO. it was just crazy that there's someone here that i know. it's funny how it really is a small world afterall.

sad day

almost everyone on my staff has either had visitors, has visitors at the moment, or are having visitors this coming week. it just makes me sad. it makes me really miss my family and my friends. it's kind of like "out of sight, out of mind." but since i'm seeing everyone else's family and friends and the way they interact with them...it makes me really miss that about my own family and friends.