Hola! So my shoulders and back are sore from using a computer all day... so this is kind of the last thing I want to be doing right now, but o well...
I'm sitting at Caffe Tazza in Tyler. It's a nice place... I got iced chai tea...
I can't believe first half is already over... the days and sometimes weeks were so long, but the half went so so fast... I didn't post after last week because I was such an emotional wreck, I couldn't bear thinking about it again... So, now that I am feeling better, here it goes... an edited version.
Week 4 was pretty terrible, not gonna lie. It all started with me saying, "I just feel like this is going to be a bad bad day..." on Tuesday morning. oh, Tuesday was the best of the bad days. Wednesday night ended late with most staff not getting much sleep... kids were getting sick and counselors were getting sick and the others were getting tired... just to be clear, there was not a flu outbreak at the towers... it was a virus of some sort... The same kind that any group of children anywhere could get because they lick their hands and eat mulch and touch everything and everyone. Thursday, the storm hit. We had to close down camp, and it was AWFUL. I spent all day with the sick kids, which just killed me emotionally. The next two days were spent cleaning the camp... there's a video on pinecove.com if you want to see what all was cleaned. aka everything. Mulch, trees, the sides of buildings... if a kid could touch it, it was bleached.
It was a pretty terrible week, and I would never wish it upon anyone... But what everyone gained from it was incredible... First of all, that Monday... literally hours before it all started, my Bible study went over Psalm 23... We talked about how He provides rest for us... not only does He provide it, he makes us rest... He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death... Now, it wasn't like we were walking through death... please don't read that that way. haha. But it was still an ultimate low for everyone there... we were tired, sick, and confused... the kids were freaking out and the only reason we weren't freaking out was because we didn't have time to stop and think about it. We were without rest... then all of the kids left. He literally forced us to rest. The whole time it was going on, I kept praying, "You lead us to rest, you lead us beside calm waters..." and then He provided rest...
Another thing that we gained was the fact that we were living out the Bible study that the kids were going over... They learn about Joseph all week, and let's be honest, Joe's life wasn't that great... They were being taught that Joseph remained joyful despite and regardless of his circumstances. All of a sudden, we were in a situation that no one liked and no one had control over and no one understood... But the kids were able to see our joy... We were living out the story of Joseph in front of them...
Finally, we unfortunately got to see a statement that is said to us over and over again during orientation become reality... "Make every moment count, we are not promised tomorrow with these kids..." Welp... we really didn't get tomorrow with those kids... Counselors were so so upset because kids went home without having one-on-ones... The gospel talk was moved to Thursday night this year, so they went home without hearing that... Our mission was broken... I think this really woke the staff up... There is never a moment where your actions and your words should not be showing these kids Jesus... What was really cool was that these kids and parents were able to see Jesus by the way we reacted to the situation...
Week 5 was much better... It went by fast, and now a lot of people are going home, but I don't do goodbyes because I get freaked out by the fact that I might not see some of these people ever again. Totally freaks me out. So I just stand in a corner and let people come say bye to me if they want to... if not, talk to ya on facebook, yo.
Well... I hope week 6 is better than all of the weeks previous... ha.
