almost birthday

we are now back in shocco springs. yay. hah. my birthday is tomorrow! yay for being 19! and then, the next day my family is coming! i'm so stinking excited for them to be here. i miss them so much and i'm super excited for them to see what kids camp is really like. we are having chad norris this week as the speaker and jason berry as the worship leader. i've never been with jason berry before, but we are all excited because we've heard wonderful things! chad is an amazing speaker and i'm really excited to hear him again. i've been doing resources lately and i'm loving it! it is awesome to work with kylee. yay for kylee and me. kyleesha is what they call us!!! i miss everyone! hope to talk more soon. today is registration day! 900 kids coming! next camp, two hour turnaround, into 1300 kids! whoop whoop!

TEXAS.

TEXAS. incredible. hot, but wonderful. just delightful. this week has been just spectacular. lots of hanging out with kids, my own room, and extra sleep. the fourth of july in texas was also great. we had a big cookout and then went to walmart. our first night in texas we went to fresco  (sp?) and went to a big mall. some people saw Public Enemy, but i chose to just shop. i got a few new items. :) well today we have some intensities planned...my family comes in like 12 days and my birthday is in 11! woo woo!

moving on out.

we are now finishing up our last full day of kids camp. camp week one for kids. :) yay. it was an incredible week. it was great to see all the little children! i am in love with kids camp. i wish i could just do kids camp. woo hoo. it was neat to see how kids worship the Lord. it was really touching last night to watch them all. i'm excited for what tonight will bring me! God is so good! woohoo. and tomorrow we are leaving shocco springs in talladega, alabama to head to austin college in texas! yay. long ride. 2 days. gtg, bye.

children.

IT IS KIDS CAMP TIME! yay! in about 30 minutes we'll have kids arriving! over 1000 of them! this will be the first kids camp ever for me and the first one for the team this summer. we are all really excited and just ready for it to start. we have 51 churches to register today. yayayayayaya. it will be a super long day for us all, but we are all really looking forward to starting! yay. some of our team is sick and that isn't very fun, but most of them are feeling much better than they were before. my job today is to go through childrens minister packets with the ministers as they arrive and then later i will set up the room with coffee and enough chairs for everyone...then, i will go and work with resources. yippee. i'm going to be helping out more with resources nowadays and i'm really excited for that. i enjoy doing that a lot. me and kylee (the resource coorindator) will now be helping out one another more. yay. two is always better than one! well, i'm going to go and make sure everything looks nice and put together. yay. i've said yay alot, but at completely necessary times. oh yeah. we are going to texas on thursday! we will load out and head on over there. we'll stop overnight in louisanna then continue our journey on friday. i believe it will be july 4th. i know texas has big things in store for us all. well God has been growing me a whole lot and i'm now starting to see myself growing and changing. i like it. well, adios amigos. thanks for reading.

this is mary beth. she was my first roomie here with student life. she was my roomsie for the first 5 camps. we are now separated, but she still sits next to me all day so i guess we can just live with that. she is the family group coordinator. she goes to union and i also love her.

just some fun times in the office. the only boy is jordan. he is the mission site director. he and his team travel between some of the other teams...they will be leaving us tomorrow and we won't see them the rest of the summer :(...the girl with the headband (not me) is haley. she is awesome. she is the housing coordinator. she goes to UF and just got accepted into nursing school. the other girl is kylee. she is amazing. she is the resource coordinator. currently, she has bronchitis. sad story. :( pray for her health (also that nobody else would get sick!) just wanted you to meet some peeps. more to come.

moving.

okay. so it has been super crazy around here these past few days! we are now at stetson university in florida! yay! we will be loading out tomorrow morning and heading to shocco springs for the start of kids camp...yay. we have a lot to do in prep for it. last saturday we went to islands of adventure for our one day off! yay! it was so nice to be able to just sit back and relax a little. um, we started the week off well. reg day went fairly smooth...last night was pretty intense though. we were in the service and a girl was dehydrated and passed out and was vomiting. the ambulance/fire truck came and took care of the situation. in the mean time we were smelling something funny inside. the firemen came in and smelled it and said we needed to evacuate 1200 students out of the building. luckily, the service was about finished, but in the middle of the alter call. so we ended up getting 1200 students out of the building in 4 minutes...yay. then a girl had a seizure. good times. all in all, God got the glory. :) i shared my testimony at a church group last night and it was awesome. i'm so glad that i was able to do it! well, i must go and return to my job. i'll be calling some youth ministers soon. :)

chaos.

so, i haven't blogged in some time because i have been in a vortex of busy-ness. camps camps camps. tomorrow marks the 15th straight day of camp. ah. no breaks. day after day. it has been wonderful, but it is been exhausting. i have been really broken lately about a lot of things and it hasn't been the easiest thing i have ever done to stay positive or motivated. i'm really trying to just grow closer to Him and just let Him show me why i am here this summer doing this. i do love it, but it is really a lot! tomorrow, however, we are loading out! yay! we are heading to stetson university in Florida! we are driving there from alabama tomorrow! saturday we are going to islands of adventure! yay! a break! monday, we are starting camp 6...i cannot believe it! well i have got to go, but i wanted to just catch everyone up! later.

sdlfjadslfkj

so, i feel totally ahead of the game today. i have stuffed all my packets for next camp, called all the large churches, completed my spreadsheets, and set up the youth minister room. ah. relief. so now i am just sitting here contemplating my afternoon. i got like 5.5 hours of sleep last night so i think i will nap if at all possible. however, i do think i should go on a run. this camp food has gotten me feeling large. so...later on this week we are playing bazooka ball. yippee. for those of you who don't know, bazooka ball is paintball without paintballs and with nerf balls. i'm pumped. oh, this morning something eventful occurred. all the power shut off this morning. blessing is, it was back on before we needed to use the worship center. yay. um, yeah. i'm going to go and try to be useful or productive. one of the two, but not both. later.

reg 3 :)

so...yesterday campers left and today they came...after all the campers left yesterday we got some FREE TIME~ our last night off until Stetson...we played paintball as a team. some people didn't play, but i chose to. i was really super duper scared...ha i still am. i was hit twice, but nothing too severe. some people got so many blood bruises and stuff like that. our team lost, but it was still very fun. after, we went to eat at a mexican restaurant which was delicious. then, we had a name tag party and made 1050 nametags. we went back to Shirey (where we live) and had a nerf gun war. which was intense. i love it here. i cannot wait for this camp..i know it is going to amazing. i got a package from my family today, which made me SUPER happy. :) yay for homemade cookies. well, i must go...i hope to write more later... possibly put up a schedule of my day in case you wonder what in the world i must be doing... laterrr

reg day 2

so, today is registration day two. insanity. i cannot believe that we've completed our first week of camp already. in 16 days we'll be headed off to florida :) this week we have middle schoolers and i'm so excited. 18 churches, too. yesterday after week 1's campers left we were able to get ready for week 2....we also took a longg napp! yes! it was amazing. we went to walmart and then were able to eat a yummy meal. student staffers came early and cooked us jambalaya! yes! and then we watched slumdog millionaire. i fell asleep, but it was really good up until then. sleep was amazing!!!! i really cannot wait for campers to come in just a few hours! we have brunch at 10:30 then campers come at 11:45....well i'll update again later. :)

the start of something new

so, camp starts tomorrow. i cannot believe it is finally here! i'm in the office and about to eat lunch...today is a big day for all of us. we'll be heading back to birmingham to drop off some vehicles and we are also going over pre-reg duties and reg-duties. after, we'll be going out to eat as a team and having a commissioning service. oh yeah, walmart later too...wow lots. i'm so excited! i'm sure that there will be much more to tell after it actually starts. :) woohooo student life!

amazing.

this experience has so far been, by far, the most incredible thing that i have ever been apart of. i've been so insanely busy these past few days because it's training week and we start camp on saturday. i'm already noticing i'm meeting some of my best friends. brown team is amazing and i cannot wait to see what God will be able to do with everyone! worship has been incredible as well. being with over 100 other believers as they sing praises to God is truly amazing. i'm already being touched by others. it is apparant to me that God has put me here for a reason and i'm so excited to get this summer started.
as for my job...it is very interesting. i'm still for sure learning the ropes and all the things that my job entails. this job fits me and i'm so excited to be doing things i love all summer and being able to be a minister to others. one very amazing thing that has happened to me already has involved a very special brown team member. his name is james and he is so inspirational and truly the most wonderful example of faith. he is from kenya, africa and is here as a graduate of compassion international. his testimony is incredible and the way he prays to the Lord is so moving. he is going to teach me many things this summer and has already been humbling me. :) i cannot wait to share with you all what the first week of camp will bring, but be praying that the holy spirit will be there and be working. i miss you all!

ahhh.

tomorrow i'm leaving! i cannot believe it is here already!...so thursday i went to the melting pot and it was scrumptious. it was so nice to have some quality time with jeremiah before i leave! he was so sweet, i love him! and i lost my phone thursday night. not a good time to lose your phone just two days before leaving. turns out, mackenzie hid my phone to be funny and totally forgot about it. she realized after i had been to the cingular store already and got a new sim card. one day i might think that is funny... :) hah. yesterday i just slept in and had some family time :) i visited my grandma too. she is so funny and i love her :) today is slightly different. i am about to go upstairs and look for stuff to sell at a yard sale our neighbors are having. today i have lots to do. lots to do includes: completing my FAFSA, washing my car, finishing up packing, finishing up surprises i have started, picking up some medicine, making a strawberry desert, and dog sitting. phew. it helps to have it all written out like that. well, i have so much to do and so little time....i'll update when i'm there! yippee. :)

4 days

i am leaving in 4 days and that is crazy to me! i cannot believe i am about to be gone for months! ahhhh! well, today should be a good one for me :) i just woke up and it's 11 a.m. yes! i love sleeping in for some strange reason now when i never have before? maybe it's because i know i'll be up at 7 a.m. every day this summer, who knows? so today i want to see my friends....i think i may go on a walk with taryn and coffee with nick and possibly see what mary's doing? i'm going to miss them all like crazy! i need to do some serious cleaning though, but today i'm excited for it. i am the weirdest person i know because i absolutely find joy in cleaning. the only place i DESPISE cleaning is my room. idk why, i just hate it. i love scrubbing tubs and cleaning counters and floors. that's why i'm my mothers favorite child :) bahaha jk. tomorrow is an exciting, but sad day....i have the whole day with jeremiah! yay! unfortunately, i will only get to see him once last time after tomorrow before i leave :/....and that will only be for like 2 hours. well, i will just enjoy tomorrow! yay, we are going to the melting pot! yum! lots of exciting things are happening for me! oh, one last thing. i am about to finish my quiet time series of reading the whole new testament! i'm stoked about finishing it because i will have actually completed the whole assignment! well, i must run...i think i like blogging because it is like speaking without actually opening my mouth :). yes, i'm serious about that statement.

Bloggginnngg 101

so, i decided to create a blog to document my summer activities. i will be out of town all summer and i know it will be very difficult keeping in touch with many people. i decided this would be the best way to let everyone know what i'm up to and all that jazz. unfortunately, i have never blogged and so it will probably take me the whole summer to legitimately learn how to do it. oh well. i will be working for student life this summer and i'm so excited about it! i leave in 6 days, yippee! i will be the hospitality coordinator and i'm really looking forward to all the opportunities i know God will provide me with this summer. i will be apart of youth camps and kids camps and will be working lots, but hopefully it won't seem like working at all. there are 22 people on my team and we'll be traveling to several different places (texas, alabama, florida, and tennessee). i'm really excited, but pretty nervous about being away from my 'normal' life for so long. i'm going to miss my family, friends, and boyfriend so much, but i know i am called to do this so that brings me a lot of peace. well, i am going to go and clean up some....my room is in shambles...bleh. thanks for reading and i hope you keep up with my summer life!