Camp Week 4

Camp week 4 was a week filled with blessings from our Creator and truly a time where God was at work at West Wilkes. There are many stories of how God provided for our camp 4th week, and the theme of this camp week for me was being dependent on God, and then watching him provide time after time.

At the end of the summer, your budget for materials is sometimes a little stretched, as ours was this summer. We knew going into the week that we needed to seek donations to help pay for some of our materials. Since I was the one in charge of the material budget, I prayed that God would help provide for us in some sort of way. So then I get a call from another lead field one day, asking me how I was doing and we eventually started talking about our material costs and such. She told me about a man that she had met that was giving them lumber for projects, and that she might be able to give us some. Turns out they were able to bring to us 2 truckloads full of lumber and some tin, just enough lumber with what we had left to do every construction project that we had scheduled to complete. Another camp was able to give us carriage bolts and a few more boards, and God provided for our camp through the other camps.

The campers from 4th camp week were different in alot of ways, having campers from Goldsboro, NC all the way up to Delaware. They came together to form a great bond and watching them all week was really awesome. Listening to them share about how they saw God everyday was really special, and experiencing my last week at West Wilkes for the summer was a bitter sweet experience.

The families that we were able to work for this week were very special to me, as they are every week. Being able to serve the families that we have been able to serve is such a blessing to me, and being the hands and feet of Jesus every single day is a truly rewarding experience. I worked for a lady on Monday who asked me to give her a bear hug as I was leaving, an 80 year old woman being bear hugged by me, that isn't something you see everyday! We were able to build a wheelchair ramp for a lady that was home bound in Fleetwood, NC, a small town in Ashe County. By the end of the summer I can estimate that we were able to serve roughly 180 families in Ashe, Wilkes, Surry, and Alleghany counties this summer!!

The end of the summer always brings a flood of emotions and of course, change. The summer seemed to end very abruptly, but the things that I learned from this summer have and will continue to shape my journey with Christ. Thank you to all of you who helped make this summer possible, whether you partnered with my financially, through prayer, or both, you helped make CCC 2011 a great experience for me, my campers, and  everyone that we worked for.

Camp Week 3- A little late

Well I am a little late on week 3 and week 4, but hopefully after sharing in this blog you will understand why I am  late on posting this. Camp Week 3 was one of the most challenging weeks of my life. It started off great, pre-camp went well and things were going great. When the week started we were all aware that our camp director might have to leave at some point in the next two weeks because her grandfather was in hospice care. The week started off fine, but on Monday she received news that things had taken a turn for the worse and he had 24 hours. On Tuesday morning she left to go to Alabama, leaving me and my lead program to be co-directors. Our two day projects were crazy and alot of things did not go according to plan. The 7 of us were covering 8 positions and our days were all spent reacting to situations instead of being able to be proactive. The way things came together sometimes can only be explained by the hand of God. If this week taught me anything it is that God truly does not give you more than you can handle.

One of my groups had the privilege of working for a lady named Thelma Dula who lives on Hwy 18 in Moravian Falls. This lady was an incredible woman of God, and the group was building her a deck and a wheelchair ramp in order for her to get out of her house. She  liked to go sing and play piano in a nursing home, and this enabled her to get out of her house much easier. Thelma also wrote poetry. She wrote a poem for the group and myself that is truly beautiful. In my rush to move into school I left it at home, but as soon as I get a hold of it again I will post in on here. This lady was incredible and it was a privilege to serve her and also have her serve us in so many ways.

Another family that we worked for was the Greer family. Sharon Greer had a disability that kept her housebound for the most part. Her mother lived with her and cared for her. We were able to build a wheelchair ramp for her mother to help her in and out of the house much easier. After the ramp was completed Sharon kept calling the ramp "my ramp". Her mother and her were so grateful, and it was truly a blessing to serve them and help them the best way that we could.

Third camp week was a big growing experience for me as a person and as a leader. God was with me and my staff every step of the way, and he gave me strength that I never knew that I had. Looking back on it I truly dont understand how I was able to make those last few days after getting only 2 and a half hours of sleep after a hospital visit for a camper with a concussion, but God gave me strength and we had a truly blessed week of camp. God was with us every step of the way, and all the people who prayed for us and helped us just goes to show what God's people are capable of doing.