Sweet Jesus Christ my Sanity

So.... it's been a while... I really just haven't felt like posting for the past 6 weeks...
This post will be sans pictures, because my precious computer, Bobby, is having brain issues and won't function properly.
Let's go back a few weeks, shall we?
Week 6- good, rather uneventful.
Week 7- fine... nothing huge... sent kids home sick.
Week 8- Boom. I'm not sure if I actually claimed week 4 to be the worst week of all weeks, but if I did, it was premature. Week 8 started out just like any week... I took temperatures, everyone was fine, Monday went smoothly... And then Tuesday. Now, I hate Tuesdays at camp. They are by far always the worst days. I don't know why... Tuesdays are just hard. Tuesday week 4 was when our program director and a senior counselor and a counselor and 2 band members went home with the flu. Tuesdays are when everything starts.
Mk well on this particular Tuesday, a HUGE HUGE HUGE storm decides to come out of nowhere and swamp camp. Club was canceled. We really thought there was going to be a tornado. Finally, the storm calms... ish... and kids go to bed and program staff are setting up the dining hall for breakfast. That's when the power on the entire left side of camp goes out. The dining hall and all the girl cabins. Well, we set up for breakfast in the dark, and then discover that the fever room has been opened. Oooh the fever room. Each camp had to have a backup plan for all of the sick kids to stay to wait for their parents to come pick them up... If they have a fever high enough to get sent home, they get sent to the fever room... Which was the old dining hall. They got to watch movies and do crafts and eat all the dry cereal and fruit they could ever want.
Anyway, fever rooms opens Tuesday night... Counselors are dropping like flies. We had no work crew, every sr counselor guy was in a cabin, and one sr counselor girl was in a cabin, and all the band guys who could be spared were in cabins, and our worship leader and full time guest service staffer were senior counselors... So half of the camp has no power, it's still raining, trees have fallen down inbetween cabins, Doo Dad 2's roof is leaking... And now the fever room is open. The next morning at 7 I was trained on how to make calls from the fever room to let parents know their children were sick and needed to be taken home. Oh joy. Or joy killer, that's what you can call me now.
So from 7AM until midnight every night until Saturday I sat in the fever room... Helping where I could, entertaining children when I could, making bracelets all the other times, and calling parents when clipboards were handed to me. This was without a doubt the hardest part of my summer. I prayed over every single clipboard before I dialed just asking God to let them be understanding... I got some frustrated parents, but never any really mad ones... Every time I got to break free from the fever room, my phone would ring, and I would have to run back... I started saving parents' numbers in my phone with their children's names because I wouldn't know who was calling me... I didn't mind calling parents during the day that much... It was the calls at 11:30 at night... Oh man... I only broke down and cried once... during the week. The weekend is a different story.
It was so so so so hard and I hated every single second of it... But I am SO glad I got to go through it... I learned so much about surrendering my will and my desires and my fears... It wasn't about me... at all... I never want to go through it again and I would never wish it upon anyone, but it was still so good.
Week 9- Towers staff were put on flu medication... We really learned what the power of prayer looked like... Instead of praying and pleading God to just get us through the week, we prayed with anticipation of how He was going to protect us and change lives. We never opened up the fever room for the rest of the summer.
Weeks 10 and 11 were good... I don't remember much... Week 11, I was lonely... But that's ok. Saturday, when I said bye to the Main Office and my job there, I got so upset... I love that place and the people there... Even the hard parts of my job I absolutely loved...
After week 8, I had a breakthrough... Week 4, I had been learning about how God will literally make us rest... One of His promises is to provide peace and rest for us. It came in a physical way week 4. Week 8, the theme of rest was revisited... This time, it was emotional. I was so emotional exhausted, doing things I hated doing... Telling bad news to every single person I talked to, spending more time with sick people than healthy people... I was totally drained. But God provides emotional rest, too! And He doesn't even have to make us rest... He IS rest. When I am abiding in Him, He gives me what I need to find peace and rest. I have it with me! I was sharing this with the camp secretaries one day week 9, and one of them wrote me a note later with this verse in it:

"I am leaving you with a gift-- peace of mind and heart.
And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid."
John 14:27

Yesss... Jesus' words just bring me so much encouragement there. This semester might be totally crappy and really hard... But God's peace lives in me! ahh!

Then, I came home. And I turned 21. And I went to ikea. Sorry, Matt, no such luck with the chairs...
I had great coffee converstations with my dear friends Sarah, or Cinco, and Kaitlyn, or Kaitlyn. Blair and I layed by the pool and swam and watched Friends and the Hannah Montana Movie on Thursday... Our one real summer day. It was beautiful.
And now I am back in Waco! I am so so so excited about school starting!! I got my room all set up etc... I love being back with my roomies and all the Baylor people and Common Grounds and the bears... Oh, I just missed it so much.
I can't believe I only have 1 year left. Whaaaa? Totally crazy... Speaking of which, I need to fill out my graduation card... woops...

Well, church tomorrow! Etc., etc. Catch yall on the flip side. Buenos noches.

peace.