Sometimes you just got to throw your hand up and testify!

"I called, you answered and you came to my rescue;

and I want to be where you are."
-Came to My Rescue, Hillsong United

This summer has been amazing. God has shown me so much about who he is and who I am in him.

First, I have to say that I never expected camp to be so rewarding. I have had the privilege to work with some amazing people this summer...I cant explain my connection with the CWP staff (We are family.) BJ, Jen, Emily, Matt, Andy, Lisa, Andrea, Hayley, Josh, Kenzie, and Megan...(I know God brought us all together and it was great to scrub toilets, wash dishes, mop, sweep, sing random songs in unison, fry oreos and p-bjs, syncopate all varieties of rhythms on cafeteria tables and even pots and pans, laugh, play, worship and serve with you guys!) The camps have proven to wear out us staff and blessed us each in a unique way. Week one was Momentum kids camp, week 2 was Refuel youth camp #1, week 3 was Refuel youth camp #2, and week 4 was GA camp.

I loved every moment of my experience at Camp Whispering Pines...even in the difficult moments God revealed so much. I have seen lives changed including my own...it is amazing what God can show/teach you when you surround yourself with the beauty of his creation and minimize the distractions in your life.

There are so many great stories and new friendships from my time at CWP this summer. But, the most amazing and humbling expereience God let me be a part of was leading a girl named Gracie through a prayer of salvation. She told me she was too scared the first night to come forward during worship, but she could not stay seated the night she accepted Christ. I can't express in words how I felt during taht service and in that counseling session...the closest I can get is overwhelming joy mixed with the blessing of being allowed to experience the furthering of The Kingdom and the addition of a new name into the book of eternity. Still weeks later I am speechless. The kids camp was exhausting and one of the busiest schedules I have ever worked but worth every second. We had a 120 + kids during the first week. The girls in my cabin were great and leading devotion with them was so fantastic. Those little faces were so hard to say goodbye too...literally we stood by the van for thirty minutes giving hugs and more hugs. Fantastic week other than the fact I was miserably sick Tuesday and Wednesday.

The second camp was our first youth camp of the summer and the MUD ministries team out of Florida joined as staff and led camp with the CWP crew. The MUD team was AMAZING - cool people and so much fun to serve alongside! I was amazed at the instant connection I had with the MUD staff...It felt like I had known some of the mudlets for years. The first camp was only about thirty youth, this however made for a very cool closeknit camp. Some of the worship services during this camp were the most moving. OH!!!...I have failed to mention how completely awesome and talented the MUD worship band is! Each nightthey surprised me with their God given gifts and abilities to truly honor God with their talents! There were many youth saved at the services at Refuel camp #1, but the most moving service was the last night of camp. It was simple and brought worship back to the basics...just an acoustic guitar and lyrics. We changed our worship location from the chapel to the lodge were the only lighting was a fire in the fireplace and a few candles. We worshiped and God's presence was most definitely felt. It still gives me chills. We sang "Jesus Paid It All" and there was just so much emotion in that room. The message that night was simply one question posed by Dan, "What is keeping you from having a deeper relationship or any relationship with God?" We wrote our responses on slips of paper and were given the opportunity to make a decision to let them go and burn the obsticles we had written in the fire. Then Dan opened the floor for people to share what was holding them back...one person after another shared what was going on in their personal lives. It just goes to show that we are all broken and in need of a Savior and his unbounded GRACE. This service was so meaningful to me. Sometimes there is nothing left but to be broken and crying out in awe and admiration to a God that loves beyond what we can comprehend. The worship service left tears rolling down my face and me hugging one of my dearest friends while choking on the words..."Oh, praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead." I am confident it was by far the most intense and moving service for everyone this summer. I praise God for meeting with us in such a personal way that night. I was left with a heavy heart for the teenagers at this camp; their situations and obsticles in their personal lives just broke my heart. One thing resounds, God is always there for us and he can handle it all.

On a lighter note, the talent/lip sync contrest was an absolute blast. Jen and Mason's performance of "Let it Be" from Across the Universe was absolutely hilarious... R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Barbara Ann, Party in the USA (performed by a male camper in a green wig and makeup) and Saddie Hawkins Dance were my favorites. It was a fabulous way to close out Refuel camp.

The third camp was our largest camp and all but maxed out the camp capacity. The youth enjoyed the team competitions which included sloppy olympics, skits, trivia, an insane belly flop competition, camp quest, innertube dodgeball, and an EPIC relay. Daily we had different sessions and classes campers chose to which to participate in such as Question Wrestling. In this session, we talked through and tried to answer questions such as, "If God created us, then who or what created God?" and "If God knows what we are going to do before we do it, do we still have free will?" This class was led by the camp speaker Pastor Matt and Pastor Max. I left the class with some new perspectives on things such as eternity. The camp again saw girls in my cabin and many other youth make decisions about their faith. God used each camp differently to impact the lives of youth from local churches. The one thing that was apparent in the message that week to me was...Find what you are passionate about and then find some way to reach people for Christ or show Christ's love through the talents and gifts God gave us. I hated to see the end of Refuel camp come because it meant we had to say our goodbyes to the MUD staff as they were headed back to Florida to do camps of their own.

Week 4: GA Camp. It started off so well...who knew what was in store for us by Thursday. This was our only camp that really was affected and limited due to rain. We had to juggle activities and roll with things as they came along. This camp focuses on missions and educating girls about missionaries around the world. Wednesday night we had a worship service we had a worship service around the camp fire...I mean come on who doesn't like a fire side sing-along... Most of CWP staff have all served on mission trips, so the camp director asked if we would all share about our experiences. BJ and I tag-teamed the Guat experience and spoke about our opportunity to go abroad. It was a great fire side service but little did we know what we would wake up to the following morning. So in the middle of the night the stomach virus struck like a bandit and had absolutely no mercy... A tenth of the campers were filling the full wrath of the virus. In a few hours, we went from all is well to absolute war on germs.We had to end camp early and send campers packing- we had a germ epidemic on our hands.

Well the incredible CWP family that I spoke of earlier got the delight of cleaning and sanitizing every inch of the dorms... ladies and gentlemen it was not pretty or for the faint of heart. We should have had on full hazmat suits!!! Somehow we all survived the process of cleaning and sanitizing those dorms! Although we may later find out the side effects of inhaling the massive amounts of chemicals we used to scrub the place down! With all of that it was still a good camp and I hated to see it end like that.

This brings me up to the present, which I currently am chillin in

Bham with the parentals getting everything together to move on Saturday. I am still awaiting the final verdict on the whole job thing, but things are looking promising.

This summer has been an adventure that I thank God for. I met amazing new friends, learned so much about God, refocused, shared my faith, poured myself into others and let others pour themselves into my life, furthered friendships, and came away changed.

So, I am just throwing my hand up to testify! GOD IS GOOD!