My Summer 2009 Part 2

So, now I can talk about the rest of everything that happened this summer. For the most part everything was absolutely AMAZING. For weeks 1 and 2 I was at Tepee Camp (4-6th graders), week 3 I was at Aspen View (7-8th graders), week 4 I was back at Tepee Camp, week 5 I was randomly placed at Arts and Crafts, weeks 6 and 7 I was at Tepee, week 8 I was at Aspen View, and week 9 I was back at Tepee Camp. Hope that wasn't too long or confusing for you. ;) So I spent a total of 6 weeks at Tepee Camp and 2 weeks at Aspen view, with a random week of Arts and Crafts in there. :)

Let me tell you... Tepee Camp was absolutely AMAZING. Actually this whole summer was one of the best experiences of my life, but Tepee Camp especially was so cool. And yes, it's true to its name. I lived in a tepee whenever I was there. :) I was in a tepee called Kiowa for 3 weeks (my favorite), Cheyenne for 1 week, Sioux for 1 week, and the very last week I was in one called Mohican.

Now, there's a funny story about Mohican. So basically Tepee Camp is set up to where there's 8 girls' tepees and 8 boys' tepees and they're all supposed to be kinda together. Well... Mohican isn't that way. It's the furthest tepee, and they only used it twice the whole summer. It's so far away from everything that you can't hear things when they're being called, like where the kids are supposed to go next. It was kinda frustrating, but it was definitely an adventure! I actually really liked Mohican after a while. It grew on me. :)

Okay. Continuing on. So here's another reason Tepee Camp is absolutely amazing: we cook all of our breakfasts and a couple lunches over a campfire. Yes. I learned how to cook from a fire pit this summer and it was OFF THE HOOK. I cooked pancakes, breakfast burritos, tepee toast, french toast, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. It was SO awesome. I smelled like smoke every day, but that was totally fine with me. :) Basically when you're at Tepee Camp you just become okay with being dirty all the time and always having your clothes, hair, and everything else smell like smoke. I'm telling you, I've been gone from camp for about 3 days now and my hair still smells like smoke. It's pretty fantastic, actually. :)

But anyway, all the activities that Tepee Camp does are pretty awesome as well. We played a game called Capture the Little White Blinky Thing, then we also played Counselor Hunt and Capture the Flag. Those games were fun.

Basically... Tepee Camp was the best part of my summer. The kids at that age are absolutely awesome, too. They can get all the concepts and they ask a lot of really good questions. They're also just so much fun to be around, too! I love joking around with them, teasing them, playing with them, and also being serious with them as well. I miss all my campers, and I hope that I can go back to camp again next summer and see them again. :)
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Now on to Aspen View. I have to say that at some level being there was awkward for me because that's where the ex-boyfriend worked all summer, but I dealt with it and didn't let it affect how I did things. So anyway.

Aspen View is really cool, and I was actually really nervous to be there at first. Honestly, the idea of working with Jr. High girls scared the crud out of me. I was REALLY scared of them. But both weeks that I worked there God blessed me with AMAZING girls, and I was so thrilled to have worked there. I actually somewhat wish that I could've spent half the summer there and half the summer at Tepee. Oh well. :)

And I have to say, the games at Aspen View kick BUTT. So we played the most amazing game ever twice during the week called David and Goliath. Basically... you get to hit kids with frisbees and it's totally okay. :) We also played Capture the Flag, Dodgeball, Mission Impossible, and AIR BAND!!!! There will definitely be pictures up soon of Air Band. It's just a night where the kids and counselors get to dress up like rock stars, and the Unit Director (Chad) has each cabin compete over who can play the best air band. It's pretty rockin' awesome. My good friend Rachel and I had an amazing time with it.

Speaking of Rachel... I was SO glad that I got to work with her when I did. She and I worked together in the same cabin week 3 and then week 8 as well because we requested it. :) It was SO much fun to work with her! She and I got along really well, and she was definitely right there for me when I needed her. Unfortunately she got to deal with my cruddy break-up junk, but she stood by my side the whole time and stood up for me whenever she needed to. And I get to hang out with her tomorrow before I go back to Chicago! Yay... :)

Anyway, that's just a small taste of everything that happened this summer. I'm going to be bringing the dvds with me to Chicago, so if anyone is interested in actually SEEING everything that I described, let me know and I'll show them to you. :)

God did an amazing work at camp this summer. A total of 314 kids throughout the entire summer came to know Christ as their Savior, and 20 of those were my campers. I am just so excited to see how much God can work in spite of me and my faults, and how He really moved in the hearts of the campers. God is so good, and I definitely hope and pray that he calls me back to camp again next year.