Center Lake Bible Camp, part two

So, my senior year, I was old enough to apply for the counselor position at camp, technically "junior counselor," since I would have just graduated high school. Junior counselors basically are the same as "senior counselors," except they get paid less. Pretty much. I applied, got the position, and started an amazing summer. I was among a good group of counselors all my age and grade...which was awesome, yet unusual, for me since I was the only GUY in my graduating class of FOUR (yeah...small Christian school...) and I was the only kid in my grade in my church. Not to mention, half the people I was working with were good friends of mine from the previous summer, which made it even better (we joked about it because nearly the entire staff was made up of returnees, so it was like a camp reunion all summer long!). I learned a LOT that summer of how to counsel, what it means to really serve when things are getting rough, and how to listen to God's direction for my life. The good things came out of what seemed pretty bad at the time, however. The first four weeks of camp, I had junior campers (elementary-aged) while it seemed that everyone else got a good variety of ages...and each week felt like it was getting worse. The cabins in general would be really good, but there would always be the one or two...or three...that would cause enough trouble for the rest of the cabin. Things were going well between myself and God...but I was getting worn out FAST. During the fourth week, I was just about ready to be done. I was sad because I was one of the few counselors who got stuck with junior campers (once again) during senior high week. The way the week itself went didn't help; however, God fortunately had put me with Neil Blake as my co-counselor, and sent Dan Wagner (from here on referred to as D-Wag) as well to save me that week. By Thursday evening, I was completely exhausted. D-Wag saw while I was with my cabin, and took over for me with Neil for the rest of that night until our cabin campfires. He sent me back to my cabin after dinner and let me nap all the way through the evening game. That single nap, in combination with God's providence for me, saved that week. My energy was almost completely restored...and the next week afterward, I got a cabin of JUNIOR HIGHERS! Not only was it a different age group...BUT, my cabin was made up of kids from my church and really laid back, cool kids who knew how camp worked...AND Mike Carpenter, a very good friend of mine from back home, was my co-counselor...that week was amazing. The next week, I had junior campers again, but it was OK. God pretty much saved my summer.

After the regular camp season was over, I returned for a week during the rental camp season, where various church groups rent out the camp and pretty much run everything themselves, with help from summer camp staff who know how to run the camp equipment and have been counselors all summer. That week I grew even more in my relationship with God, and I was very in tune to what He wanted me to do. Also, those of us who were there became very well acquainted with the chapters in I Corinthians regarding spiritual gifts...speaking in tongues in particular...ask us about it sometime.

After that final week was over (and after a trip to Neebish Island up north with others of my camp family), I finally went home. This was soon before I left for Spring Arbor. Now, my mom had been trying to sell out home for most of the past year, since she got re-married and my step-dad lived in the next town over (you can ask me about that later as well, if you wish), and had been working on one of his rental houses for us all to move into. About two or three days before I came to Spring Arbor, we officially moved out of the town and house that I had spent nearly my entire life in, and then directly afterward I left again. I really felt like I had no home...that feeling didn't go away until probably the end of this last summer. My first year at Spring Arbor was definitely an interesting one, and most of the friends that I have now don't know much about my first semester...but that's a different story. During that fall and winter, I wasn't really sure at ALL if I was returning to Center Lake the next year...that's probably a surprise for most of my camp friends who may read this. Even with all of the good things that happened, I felt like I was totally inadequate as a counselor. I felt like I relied too much on my co-counselors all summer to lead the Bible studies, tell funny stories, handle conflicts within the cabin, etc... I really felt like there was no way that I could do as well as they had, or could handle the responsibility of leading the younger staff who would be somewhat under me, just as I was under the older staff. I'll continue that story later.

I went to a night of testimonies upstairs in the Ormston lounge this evening. We sang worship songs, gave and listened to testimonies, and took communion. There was also a time for confessions, and I ended up confessing some serious stuff that God put on my heart to speak up about...I didn't think I would be doing that when I went.

Anyways, I'm going to bed soon. Last night I didn't sleep very well, so the extra hour from the time change wasn't as amazing as I had hoped it would be.

By the way, I'm really dang glad that this auto-saves while I'm typing...I just tried posting this, and it totally failed and I thought I had lost it.

Peace.