Sunday, July 19, 2009

Total Immersion

*Although this is a week late due to island-wide internet problems, here is the entry from last week followed by the one from this week.


Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourself. Do what it says. ~ James 1:22

If I wasn’t reciting this verse in devotions with my campers I was singing it during praise and worship. This year’s camp theme is Immersion, and with James 1:22 as our theme verse we are asking our campers just what they are immersing their lives in.

This past week marked the first week of Camp Bahamas 2009. We had 60 some Bahamian teenagers start off camp for us. It was an exciting week as we introduced the new zip line, among other things. I am in charge of snorkeling for the summer, so even though I don’t have a phone or hot water, don’t feel too bad for me…my job requires that I snorkel for two hours every day. :)

Right now our staff is gearing up for Sunday when our new group of 93 campers arrives. This is the most campers Camp Bahamas has ever had in one week, so we are all very excited and anticipating what God has in store for next week.

And…Week Two:

I have been anticipating this week all summer long. Four of the girls that I stayed close with throughout the year came back this week. And after being hugged with such force it might as well be called a tackle, I was so blessed to be able to see God work in their lives for the second year in a row. God is doing big things in their lives and in the lives of so many of our other campers as well.

As I mentioned this week we had a record setting 93 campers. Wow! It was a really exciting week and a week filled with many trips to the local clinic. What has been affectionately named the “Camp Bahamas Plague” swept camp last week. Every single one of the 9 girls in my room and my co-counselor and I had it by the end of the week. It is so hard to see kids who want to be at camp be stuck in bed all week long. But God taught some important lessons through all of it. One of my campers who was sick and in bed all week long told me that she had been waiting all year for camp and was counting on it to get her back on track and excited about the Lord again, but then she got here and couldn’t do anything because she was so sick. She said that she learned that the only thing we can rely on is God, and she can’t rely on other things to fuel her passion. So as hard as it was to see so many of the kids sick, I know that God still worked in their big ways.

This week was fast paced and exciting, and it’s hard to believe that we only have three weeks left of camp. But another group of 60 some teenagers will come bursting through our doors tomorrow so we are excited to see what this new week has in store for us all.

Here is a link for the video that shows you a little bit of what my summer is like. There is a section with camp and a section with the mission teams. Hopefully this will give you a little bit better idea about what I do all summer long.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=74628965535

Prayer Requests:

- Camp next week and the 93 campers that are coming.

- Safety

- Health

- Focus

- That everything would stay up and running. We need our vehicles, boats, jet skis, and sound system to run camp and when they break we aren’t left with a lot of options.

- That God would bless Camp Bahamas financially.