This is Not the End

This is the last week of summer camp. Holy cow.

No matter how long the summer looks at the start of camp, it always goes by like this. It's way too soon to be time to go. Especially for me, who might be calling this my last summer, this last week has been mourned. But in ways, I am ready for it now.

Last week was a session to remember. I had incredible girls, incredible sponsors, and an incredible partner. Not to mention, my parents came for the first time to see chapel service. What a great way to end up the summer!

I've talked before about how I don't always get to see the harvest even though I plant seeds, but this week I got to see some of the harvest while the girls were still at camp, it was such a blessing!

One of my favorite examples of this concerned an adorable little thing named Marissa. She was terrified of our ropes course after trying it at night. So terrified in fact, she cried when I mentioned we would be doing it again the next day. But I talked with her at bed time prayers, and I told her she didn't have to be afraid of the ropes course because God has not given her a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). Then we talked about how she can do anything because of the strength of Christ (Philippians 4:13). And the next day, to my surprise, she got on the ropes course again, and went straight to the top level! As I made my way over to help her she looked at me and said "I remember what we talked about last night!"

Lord have mercy. It doesn't get any better than that.

All of the moments like this make my job all the more rewarding.
And all of this makes the ending all the more bittersweet.

I have peace about this being the end of my counselor days, I think.
I will miss it, but I know my God gives me all the desires of my heart, (Psalm 37:4) and in years past, my desire to be a counselor has been crazy passionate. This year, I feel like I have to chance to pass that desire on to some awesome newcomers. They can carry the fire over, and they will be awesome at it.

As for me, I think the Lord is preparing for something new. He knows what is best for me, and he asks that I commit my ways to him so he can establish my course (Proverbs 16:3). All I do is committed to him, so I can rest in knowing that my new course will be something I have the desire to do. Or at the least, the grace to do. He will be enough.

But with all of that said, I also know this will not be my last time out at Dry Gulch. I don't know if the Lord will have me to come back in another capacity, if I'll just be returning as a guest, or if I'll just come out at other points during the year, but I know this is not goodbye. The Lord has given me so much at this place, and I fully believe he has many plans for me to return!

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."(Colossians 1:17) I am excited for what is in store!





The Best Part is...

Chapel. Hands down, no arguments. Chapel is the best part of Camp Dry Gulch.
This is our main event, so we treat it like a pretty big deal.

 Back in session five, I had a bunk of girls who were all new to Dry Gulch. Everyone was a first-timer.  A few of them had been to other camps before, and they were quickly excited by some advantages Dry Gulch presented, such as air conditioning (my goodness, Lord bless the counselors of other camps who do not have air conditioning!)

But above all else, they were blown away by our chapel services.

 Then this past week, in session six, I had a bunk with a few specific girls who largely influenced the rest into being very disrespectful. For the first time this summer I had to do some benching and I had to take one girl to the office. That was a shame.
It stinks to discipline kids when you only get to see them for a week. It can be hard to really move past it all and have a good time again. Therefore, I felt like this week ended a bit awkwardly.
But the good news is that I am a seed planter. Even though I do not get to see the fruit of my labor within the small week these girls are here, I trust that the seeds I planted will grow into something good.
And the even better news, that is how chapels work, too.  In every chapel hundreds of seeds are thrown out, and we hardly get to see their results while the kids are still here. Only heaven will be able to reveal its impact!

 So now then, I just wanted to share with you a brief synopsis of each chapel, so you can be in on the magic, too.

Here's what you need to know about chapels before we begin:
Camp Theme: “I am a Child of God”
Camp Memory Verse: “Come close to God and He will come close to you.” (James 4:8)
Chapel Phrase: Each night there is a different phrase used to sum up the lesson for the night. The kids must remember this phrase, and they also get a wristband that says the phrase as they leave chapel.

 Night One:
Chapel Phrase: “I have a new Spirit”
Main Point: This is salvation night. We are teaching the kids the very first step of coming close to God and becoming his child, which would be asking him into our hearts.
Illustration:  We bring out a friend of all the kids named Andrew. He’s in his 20’s but he portrays the mind of a child. Andrew invents things that usually do not work. This time, he has invented teleportation and he believes the only way to come close to God is to be physically close to God, therefore, he tries to teleport to heaven. At the end of chapel, Andrew returns from the opposite of heaven (“Arkansas”) and learns that the way we come close to God is with our spirit.

 Night Two:
Chapel Phrase: “I Will Win the Battle”
Main Point: We can do the right thing even when we do not feel like doing it. Our new spirit knows the right thing to do, but sometimes our feelings try to take control of us and make us do the wrong thing. Therefore, our feelings and our spirit are in a battle, and we want our spirit to win.
Illustration: This is what we all call “Ultimate Fight Night.” You see, the stage is consumed by a boxing ring, in which two actual fighters take their marks. The lights go down and get crazy, and actual announcers boom through the room. One fighter represents our “Feelings” and the other one represents our (new) “Spirit.”
They fight two rounds before the message, where Spirit wins once and Feelings win once. Then after the message, round three commences, and of course, Spirit wins.

 Night Three:
Chapel Phrase: “I make my Spirit Strong”
Main Point: To win the battle over our feelings, we need to have a strong spirit. Just like we feed our bodies every day, we should feed our spirit everyday to make it strong.
Illustration:
Three trays of food sit covered up on the stage. Each plate represents a way we can feed our spirit. Plate one has a big slice of pizza-and this represents how we can feed our spirit by talking (or praying) to God. Then we have a big hamburger under plate two, this represents thinking about God. Such as when we read our Bibles or go to church. And then the third is a big bowl or ice cream, (except it is really Crisco because ice cream would totally melt if it was left on stage) which represents thanking God and worshipping him.


Night Four:
Chapel Phrase:” I Will Win the Race”
Main Point: When we sin or mess up in life, we have to confess it and let it go so we can keep getting closer to God. If we hold onto it, it will weigh us down.
Illustration: We have this enormous backpack like thing with all these other ridiculous things connected to it. It looks really cumbersome and heavy, so it represents our sin. Pastor Gabe wears it around to represent how sin put a weight on us, and it is not as easy to run close to God with the weight. Then at the end he drops the weight, and this represents how we drop our sin, confess it to God, and keep running.

Well, that is everything my friends. Now I’m off to work with a church group I have happily kept in my bunk for the past three years. I’m so excited to see them!

Melody

I am Blessed

I am blessed beyond belief every year I work here, but especially this year.
I am amazed it has been four whole sessions and I have not needed to bench anyone at all!
It makes me wonder if I'm doing something differently this year, maybe my approach to each session this year is changing my results?
Or maybe I'm really just receiving incredible girls every week.
Regardless, I'm liking it.

One of the best blessings is just hearing the sweet things these girls say. I have received an extra large dosage of great notes this year, even more than any other year. And since words of affirmation are totally one of my top love languages, this is really exciting for me.

Last session in particular blessed me in this.
Just sitting at the lunch table one day and I hear "I am so happy you are my counselor."
Just walking to an activity and I get "I like you, you're nice."
Just after winning the golden sombrero and all my girls say "Thank you for helping us clean!"
Just filling up water balloons to get the boys back....(long story) and someone says "Wow, you are just so fun!"

I treasure these things.

However, the most important blessing of all is evidently praying the prayer of salvation with my campers.
One salvation in particular this week was extra special to me.
The girl's parents are divorced because of religous differences.
She liked going to church, but she didn't really understand what she was supposed to believe.
And all of our chapels were able to clear that up.

I should devote an entire blog to how awesome every chapel service is, but for now, I will just say this: each night we have a key phrase to sum up the message and tie into the bible verse for the week. Our theme verse is James 4:8, "Come close to God and he will come close to you."
So on night one, we talk about the first step of coming closer to God, asking him into your heart.
Therefore our theme phrase is "I have a new spirit."

The next day after I prayed the salvation prayer with my camper she gave me this note:
"Ms. Melody- thank you for helping me understand the word of Jesus. My mom is saying thank you, too (most likely). I didn't come here JUST to enjoy the activities, I came to learn, and you helped. Thanks!"

You better bet I'll be keeping that note forever. What a blessing to see some fruit of my labor on this side of eternity!

In addition to all of this, I was blessed to get to return home briefly last week.
Due to this mini-session of teen camp, no kids were at camp this week.
Therefore, I didn't have to miss anything.
And, I got to participate in my dear friend Sam's wedding.
It could not have been better timing.
Her wedding was on the 3rd, I came back to DG on the 4th, and I get to be here for teen camp which started yesterday on the 5th.

Somebody say amen.

My Ammo

Counselors are not allowed to have real weapons in their possession.

In fact, I’m not even allowed to have my epi-pen in my possession (which is alright, considering it is expired anyway)

However, most of us, if not all of us, carry sources to aid us (like weapons) in the various battles we have with campers. So today, I thought I would share some of them with you.

Session three was wonderful. I was so blessed to receive four girls who had been in my bunk last year plus another nine girls who were all very well behaved.

I was so proud of how good they were at listening.

However, we still had some regular camp issues arise, but luckily, I was prepared for most all of them.

1. Scripture Cards

Every morning before I wake my campers up, I try to get alone and just dwell on a scripture for a moment. This helps me focus my day and get it devoted on the right track.
I pick a verse to dwell on for the week.

This past week’s verse was from Ephesians 5:15
 “Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

With this verse fresh in my mind every morning, I was able to use it as a weapon to push every ounce of energy into my work. No sleeping during movie time. No going back to the bunk to grab a snack. All effort is with connecting to the kids.

This also helps when campers have specific prayer requests where they need a Bible verse to stand on. With my little scripture cards, I can find them a suitable verse fairly quick.
One girl in particular had trouble with getting angry at her friends this week, so she asked me for help.
I was able to direct her to James 1:19 “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry”

2.  I feel sick
I had a girl who threw up on the second to last day. She didn’t feel well enough to come participate in the outdoor events, so she would just stay in the Nurse’s station and watch Disney movies.
I was puzzled on how to reach out to her and make her feel loved.
I didn’t want my opportunity to impact her slip by.

So I thank the Lord for coloring books.

They were my weapon for this. I had to think quickly so I could continue getting the rest of my bunk to our activities, so I just ran to my bunk and brought the girl two coloring books with some markers and crayons. Her face just lit up the room.
It truly did the trick.

3. When the Ropes Course is Scary
Our ropes course is incredible. But even for me, it can get a little scary at times.
We encourage every camper to at least try it, but if they won’t budge, or get too scared to stay up, their only other option is to sit at the bottom and talk or play games with other campers.

But then I started to bring chalk.
So simple, once again, but it made a huge difference.
This week I went out and bought a 52 pack to last the rest of the summer-it’s going to be awesome!

4. Goodnight
You would not believe how much ice cream my girls consumed on the last night of camp.
Within a two hour period we had three servings.
Once at the dining hall with dinner.
Second at the ice cream party for winning the cleanest bunk award.
And third at the Saloon while they heard country music.
It was insane.

When we got back to the bunk they were off the wall. I had no idea how we would sleep.
So we had a dance party. Then we had a pillow fight. And then I promised to sing a lullaby if they all got in their beds and stayed quiet. It totally worked.
Their energy was out and the song practically knocked them out.

5. Sweet Talks
Isabella was one of my returners last session. She is eight, and she is adorable.
As soon as she walked in the door to the cabin last year my heart melted…
Who is our counselor, where is she?!”
Then she saw me.
“MISS MELODY! It is you! Yes! I missed you so bad!”
Oh. Sweetheart.

She said other adorable little things throughout the session like:
“I’m going to stay with you wherever you go.”
“I can’t believe I got you again! We were like best friends last year!”
Many people at camp actually commented that she was my “mini-me” because we’ve both got brown wavy hair.  She really enjoyed it when they said that.

The only downfall to all of this is that she became a bit of a clinger.
We line up. Isabella is at the back of the line. We start walking. All of a sudden she is at the front so she can hold my hand.
This type of thing did not go over well with the other girls.

Therefore, my ammo for this was just sweet little talks.
I would say something sweet to Isabella, but then I would tell her that I needed to spend some time with the other girls, and could she please come back in a few minutes.
I know this may not seem like ammo. But keeping it sweet was the key.
If I was stern with her, or said something in front of everyone, she would get offended.

Well. That’s all the ammo talk I have time for now. Session four is on their way!

Keepers

Let’s just talk irony for a moment.

Last year, during the second session of camp, I stayed in bunk 12. It was the hardest session of my counseling career.

This year, during the second session of camp, I was assigned to bunk 12, and it now has a place in my top five bunks of all time.

 I was nervous waiting for the girls to arrive. In particular, I was dreading over the news I heard through the grapevine; the church I had was known for being rambunctious.

Therefore, I was reciting scripture and shooting up prayers in preparation as I waited for my girls to arrive. I was dwelling especially over this verse;

 “All her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; all who lay hold of her will be blessed.” (Proverbs 3:17-18)

 That’s who I want to be for my girls. I want to be pleasant and peaceful with them. I want to speak life to them and bless them with any influence I may have over them.

But this is really hard when you are also a disciplinarian.

 However, the Bible says the wise woman is like this, so this means it is possible to be a disciplinarian and a pleasant blessing at the same time. There is no excuse!

My prayer was to be this kind of woman for my girls during session two, and boy did the Lord bless me with opportunity.

 These girls were golden.

 Moments after they walked in I discovered their so called reputation for being rambunctious was misplaced-these girls were from a different state but had the same name as the bad rep church.

 Without much hesitation, I can say the first day I spent with these girls is the best first day I’ve ever had with a single bunk.

 We bonded instantly.

I told them about the commonly used attention call for girl bunks where the counselor says “Hey Ladies” and the girls respond with “Hey What?”, and they decided they wanted their response to be “Hey Miss Melody” instead. I was ecstatic.

Then, as they were coloring their name plates, I told them I would be right back, because I had to go drop something off by the store. When I came back, everyone was missing. Then all at once, they opened the bathroom door and yelled out “Surprise Miss Melody, we love you!”

 Could they be any sweeter?

 Additionally, before we even left for dinner, I received several notes in my white paper bag mailbox (an idea developed from the wonderful Samantha Sikes).

 One read “Dear Miss Melody, I love you and I will miss you!”

 I was blown away. From just two hours that little one decided she would miss me when she left. Crazy.

 I could tell from here that these girls were keepers.

 That was just the first day, but the rest of the week followed suit.

 -We won the Golden Sombrero (the Cleanest Bunk Award) twice out of four chances, which gave us an ice cream party on the last night.
-We found time to do about every fun extra thing I had brought: face paint, wash out hair color, disco light dance party, and so on.
-At every transition stage (such as walking in line, or waiting in line at dinner) they were asking to make it fun. So we sang the camp song and chants, went over the memory verse, played follow the leader, and yelled at the boys, of course.

The only real issue that came up throughout the entire session was over self image issues. Some of my girls were trying to get approval and affirmation from young boys, instead of their loving creator, and it was getting out of hand.

Thankfully though, the Lord brought me to Psalm 139:14 “You are beautifully and wonderfully made.”

I was able to address the girls with this verse, telling them that the Lord who created them thinks they are beautiful, and he wants them to look to him, and not boys.

 I think my point came across clear to them. All praise and glory to the Lord for that.

 By the end of the week, most of the girls were begging to stay. All of them asked if I could be their counselor next year, too.

 I am thinking the answer to their question is no, but I am already praying that whoever gets them will be even more fantastic for them.

I really can’t keep them for but a week, but I know I’ll be keeping the memory of their session, and I hope they can keep those memories, too.

It’s not usually like this….

In four years of counseling, I have seen a lot. Dealing with the unexpected camper problems is part of my job description. From wet beds to stitches, puke to homesickness, there is a lot to manage. But never in all the sessions I’ve been through have I seen a session quite like the one I just experienced.

“Abnormally crazy” is probably the best description I can give to sum everything up. It seems like every camper issue under the sun plus a few came down on all the bunks in Dry Gulch-not just mine. At our end of the session meeting there were countless stories of simply hilarious incidents that don’t usually occur. And to add to it, this was just session one! All those poor new people...they must be ready for anything now.

Gratefully though, all of my fifteen girls were totally awesome. I didn’t have to bench a soul and most discipline issues resolved very quickly. All these girls were already saved walking into camp, so I had the chance to go a little deeper with them in devotionals than normal. It looked like the things we discussed in chapel really clicked for them, and I hope it continues to.

But now for your enjoyment, I thought I would just mention some highlights of the insane events that happened during camp. Brace yourself….this truly is abnormal!

1. How did the window break?
I was just cleaning the lunch table while the girls lined up by the wall, waiting for me to finish. Then all of a sudden there is a shatter. One of the window panels along the wall where my girls are standing is now cracked into many pieces.

And how did that happen, you ask? “Miss Melody, Abby broke the window!”

No joke. My tiniest camper, so tiny she could still be in pre-K camper, has broken the window, and with her head!

"Abby what happened?!”                                     
 “I don’t know. I was just standing there and I knocked my head against the window and it broke.”
“Why did you do that?!”
“I don’t know. I guess sometimes I just need to knock my head against something.”

Isn’t that cute. 

(The photo does not do the window justice because it had already been taped at that time.)

On top of this, Abby is now standing with one hand covering her eye, which apparently hurt from the impact. We get an ice-pack. She’s a-okay. And now the girls in my bunk have spread a rumor that Abby is getting her eye replaced with a glass eye. And that spreads around the whole camp.  My bunk is practically famous.

2. What is that in the lake?
The lake water is gross enough by itself, but we got an added bonus.

“Miss Melody, I found poop in the lake!”

And it wasn’t from an animal; it was from a little girl.
Absolutely disgusting. This little one from another bunk decided the lake was a better option than getting out and using the port-o-potty.

I think I’ll be staying in the canoes from now on.

3. Where is Amelia?
It’s after nap time. We’re headed to the movie. We get there. We count 29 girls, and we’re supposed to have 30.

So the counselor from my sister bunk and I run back to the bunks. The bathrooms are empty, the bunk is empty. We start to worry child #30 has ran off with some other bunk’s line on accident. And then we check the top bunks. She has gone back to sleep.

I distinctly remember waking this camper up from her rest- but that sneakster crawled back up and knocked out. And her mom happened to be a sponsor, too. So thereafter her mom asked one of the other girls in the bunk to ensure her daughter woke up the next day at rest time….oops.

4. Christina gives me a heart attack

There was the sweetest mentally challenged girl in the bunk right beside mine this session. Her name is Christina, and I’ve actually had her in one of my bunks previously. She was fairly easy to work with when I had her, but this year her counselors faced one problem with her way beyond the norm.

Multiple times she would refuse to get up out of bed. One day after rest time her counselors could not get her to come down, so they called me in for back-up. I was able to just talk to her for a bit and get her down. But then she needed to get her swimsuit on.

After a few minutes  we called her name in the bathroom and received no reply. We don’t go into the restroom with campers for privacy, so we recruited another girl from my bunk to check on her. She wasn’t in any of the stalls. So we asked her to check the showers. (In this bunk, there is a door leading to the showers because they use the building for other purposes during the year.)  My girl goes to the door and pulls…and it doesn’t open. She tries again and looks over at us… “I think it’s locked.”

Well that can’t be good.

Christina has locked herself in the shower room, on purpose, no doubt!
Honestly people, I didn’t even know the shower room could lock, at least not without a special key of some kind. And even greater, why do they lock from the inside?!
The only other option is going outside to see if the back door into the shower room is unlocked. I am running the possibility through my mind that she may have escaped out this back door and could now be anywhere in Dry Gulch.  But praise the Lord, the door was somehow unlocked.
And there we find her, sitting in a shower stall.  We are just so relieved we forget to punish her. So we just get her to put her swimsuit on after a lot more coaxing. Goodness gracious. 

5. Aubree
She was the youngest of my bunch, and it was also her very first time away from home.
As cute as a button, but also full of surprises.

*Sleepwalker. Once she was just sitting up on her bed in the middle of the night panting. I said "Hey Aubree, can you lay down for me?" and she fell down right where she was, in a ball at the end of her bed....at least she wasn't walking out of the bunk?
*"Can I call my mom?"  happened within thirty minutes of being at camp. This was a battle, but I was so proud of how well she did. We called mom once, but otherwise, she was able to have a lot of fun.
*"Miss Melody, I found some glass". She kept finding it and picking it up to show me. Then I asked her not to pick and up and just to come get me when she found some, but we had to stop that too because she would come and get me like every five minutes.
*My eye hurts. The sunscreen would go on, she'd wipe her eyes, and sunscreen would be in them. I would help her wash it out and then try to distract her with something, such as a canoe ride. That worked like a gem.
*And lastly: "this note is for you." She wrote me possible the sweetest note of the session. It read: "Dear Miss Melody, I like you. Remember you can do good things through Christ. Love, Aubree"
Precious.

It makes me a little tired just thinking of all that again. But at the same time, it makes me laugh. Camp would not be camp without these sweet memories.

Except this coming session, I am going to pray for less of them.

Talk to you all next week!

Love,

Miss Melody

Edit. Edit. Edit.

Editing is my weakness.

When writing papers for English or Newspaper class in High School, I would always try to skip the editing step. You see, writing the actual paper is no big deal, but then I want to be done with it. Case closed, it is good enough.

But "good enough" is neither. It is not good, and it's definitely lacking in effort.

I think the reason I dislike editing is because it forces me to acknowledge a failure or a lack within myself. It is more fun to rest and assume everything is fine.

Isn't it funny though, how editing the performance of others is so easy? We see the flaws in others naturally, but it takes more effort to see the flaws within oneself.

And now this brings me to Dry Gulch; this place has an insane culture or re-evaluation.

I would not even call this place the same camp I worked at in 2009 because of all the changes that have taken place. This year in particular there have been a lot more of them. I am still adjusting to some, but I am in awe of how much has been altered to make the camp experience just that much better.

The full time staff of Dry Gulch, along with Church on the Move, continue to edit because editing brings improvement.

I think it is fair to say that sometimes editing brings some pain. It can be hard to adjust, and sometimes we might miss the way things were. But in the long run, many changes prove to be worth the pain.

For example: The snack choices for the kiddos this year have moved to healthy selections such has goldfish, raisins, apple slices, and so on. There has been some pain in this change, because many of the kids miss getting their candy bar and coke each day. However, it saves them from crashing from their sugar high, and it also saves a lot of time because there are fewer options for the campers to choose from each day.

As well, some changes made here have added immediate benefits with a relatively short amount of pain.

One: The life jacket shack at the cove has moved to the bottom of the hill so the campers no longer have to haul the life jackets up to put them away. All the staff has to do was endure the pain of physically moving the shack. Why did I never think to do that?

Two: Instead of throwing wet clothes over the porch wood to dry, we now have individual hooks for each camper. Installation is the only pain. And DG now looks more like a resort and less like an actual campground. Awesome.

These are just a few of the so many changes. Not to mention the massive changes in scheduling and the added day of camp.

As I noted all of this change during orientation last week, I realized I should do some editing with how I do my job. Nothing major, but just some tweaks.
I think I've been doing a good job, just as I think Dry Gulch was just fine the way it was last year. But there is still room for improvement. There always is.

I just need to look for it, instead of avoiding it.

And beyond counseling, it probably wouldn't hurt to edit my day to day living when I go back home. There are improvements to be made there, too. (Especially when it comes to being on time for that rotten 8 a.m. class)

So this session I am going to try some new changes, and if they don't work, I'll just change it again.

Wish me luck!

(P.S My reflection over session one will come soon...maybe tomorrow even.)