They’re Here!

...campers that is!  Today is the last day of what has been our first week of youth camp and adventure trips at Camp Forest Springs.  What an awesome privilege we have to serve these youth and be a part of loving them and pointing them to our awesome God! 

Here, Junior campers (ages 8-10) are meeting after the morning session with their counselor to discuss questions and topics relating to the main session. As we were out to camp this morning I could not help but pray for these fertile hearts to be softened toward their creator. 

During youth camps we simultaneously run adventure ministry trips (canoeing, kayaking, hiking, and rock-climbing).  This bus is the vehicle used to transport our adventure trip campers to and from their off-site locations.  What a unqiue experience the adventure trips are in taking campers out of the comforts and distractions of everyday life, and providing an opportunity for them to focus on their relationship with God.

The kids and I played at the playground for a few minutes before lunch.  Tava must be a magnet…...it wasn’t long before a whole group of little girls came oohhing and ahhing all over her.  They loved pushing her on the swing…though I’m not sure who was having more fun:)  We are grateful to be able to raise our kids in such a rich environment - rubbing shoulders with different kinds of people and being able to enjoy unique experiences.

As I stay at home and focus intently on taking care of our little munchkins, I am not deceived into thinking that my work is in vain or unimportant in the big picture of summer ministry.  Each one of us is called to be faithful in what God has given us to do.  I am asking God to help me do well whatever is before me.  I am praying the same for the summer & full-time staff at camp as well.  As you think of it over the next 6 weeks, please pray for our remaining youth camps, and over the course of the rest of the summer, for our adventure ministry trips.  We want to take a back seat to what God is doing, and be about what He wants.  We pray that all of our labor would be for His glory to be manifested in whatever way He sees best!

Berries

Went berry pickin’ this morning.  One of the best reasons to leave the house at 6:30am. 

Please share with me your favorite recipes for/ways to use strawberries!

On serving

I can’t say that mothering has been the easiest for me lately.  In fact I’m finding that it’s been a whole new level of weeding out the ugliness from my heart. I’m hopefully being brought to a greater understanding of what it just might mean to be at rest with what God has for me, and to truly serve those He’s given me to serve.  I am definitely feeling the fiery refining process these days. I know God’s burning away the dross in my life but I just wish it wasn’t so uncomfortable.  But then again….that discomfort problem…I think that’s what got me here in first place.  I’ve been loving my comfort and that has got to go I suppose.  I can only cling to His promise that He will eventually create something much more beautiful if I hold fast to Him.  I am praying to that end. 

In this process I’ve often thought about all of the intense pre-marital counseling Sam and I received before marrying.  We had several sessions with our pastor, read countless books, were guided to discover deeper things about ourselves so that we would in turn be able to relate to our future spouse, and we had many people exhort us in the joys and challenges of marriage.  I think those things helped a great deal in preparing us for marriage and in setting our expectations right.  Of course nothing can fully prepare you, but we feel we received a lot of wise counsel and honest encouragment from those who had gone before us.  I almost wonder why in the world we don’t encourage pre-mothering counseling.  Seriously. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past several years of transition, it’s that expectations and perspective are everything.  The truth about mothering is that it is full of joy, but also heartache, of discouragement, but also encouragment, of endless selflessness, but also the incredible gift of giving so that another can grow, of dying to oneself over and over, but also of losing the root of selfishness that has made it’s home in your heart.  I’m waiting on that last one. 

I truly do love my children and husband and am praying that God makes me the wife and mother He wants me to be.  I have an incredible amount to thankful for, and I don’t want to be distracted from what God has for me each day.  And for that reason, in the midst of the fiery furnace I find myself in, I am choosing to put one foot in front of the other day each. 

Philippians 2:3-4
“Do nothing out of selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Stuff I am loving these days

- those flowers and that chair
- the kiddie pool that has become a permament fixture in our yard
- eating on the deck as much as the weather allows
- green, green everywhere!
- obsessively checking on each and every plant and flower’s growth daily
- the smell of fresh-cut grass
- windows open=fresh smelling house
- the hop toads in our yard and one little boy’s delight in them
- the absence of television watching….seriously…what is that black thing in our living room?
- giving under-doggies…over and over and over and over
- clothes hanging on the line
- the blooming iris and wild flowers and one little girl’s delight in holding them
- the chorus of birds at the start and close of every day

So much to love about these days!  Thank you Lord for the simple things you give us each day!

Memorial Day Weekend Family Camp

This past weekend Camp Forest Springs hosted its Memorial Day Weekend Family Camp.  I had the privilege of teaching the Bible class to the pre-school aged children again this year.  I am completely bummed that I kept forgetting each day to bring my camera!  I guess with these busy little bodies there wasn’t a lot of time for photo-ops anyway!  The 3 & 4 year olds are at such a formative age and it is always fascinating to observe these little ones learning how to participate in a class room setting (some of them for the first time), and how to interact with others their age (in an appropriate and loving way:).  I loved teaching them Biblical truths - it is incredible how much they really can learn and grasp even at this young age.  Their hearts are so fertile!  The theme for all of the Family Camp Bible classes this year is The Wonders of God, specifically as follows:

The Wonder of God’s Creation
The Wonder of God’s Word
The Wonder of God’s Power
The Wonder of God’s Wisdom
The Wonder of God’s Love

We will be learning and reminding one another throughout the summer to stop and reflect on the wonders of our great God!  To Him be the glory for the great things He will do in our hearts!