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.