week 1!

This weekend, I'm in Clemson with three of the most amazing girls ever, so thankful that I live close enough to be able to come here for a couple days. I LOVE camp, but sometimes it's nice to be able to get away and recharge. Plus, a shower, laundry, Crosspoint and Groucho's are also in the deal which makes it even sweeter. Tonight, we went to Anderson for dinner, went with Elizabeth to get her tattoo (where I took a nice nap on the couch) and went swimming in the Berkeley pool. Such a fun night.

I really enjoyed this week. I worked with Faith Baptist, a church I recognized from last summer but had never really interacted with before, and they were great. This week was undoubtedly a crazy one, but I think it really helped a lot of the staff realize that we are GOING to have situations that are out of our control and that we're not going to make it through the summer by relying on our own strength and abilities.

I've been reading Ecclesiastes for the last three weeks. It's good stuff. It's really applicable to my mindset towards the summer in addition to just being solid truth for life in general. Solomon pretty much talks about two worldviews - looking at things from an earthly perspective and a heavenly one, and how if we're just examining life from a view "under the sun" it's inevitable that we'll fall into the trap of thinking life is nothing more than an endless cycle of repetitive routines... but if we look at it from a perspective bigger than ourselves, we can see that God is constantly working in different ways and makings things new.
That's really important to keep in mind when it comes to something like camp. It would be all to easy to get caught up in the routines of a camp week. Same schedule, same sermons, same recs, even the same meals... but that's the earthly perspective. On the other hand, we have different kids come in every week. Students with different backgrounds, different stories, and different personalities. God is working in their lives in completely different ways, and is going to both teach us and use us in drastically different ways throughout the summer... so really, it's never going to be the same.

Because I'm in Clemson, the fact that I'm in the middle of the summer and in the middle of camp doesn't really seem real right now.