How Refreshing to Know...How Amazing to Find...

Wow! It's been six weeks since I blogged last and it's simply because I have been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off! (And yes after killing the chicken to the right in Africa I know that phrase all to well!)Lots went on over the past six weeks. Everything from big events to little tasks and crazy things like everything just not wanting to work when trying to get ready for kamp to breaking down on the side of the interstate at 11pm with a van full of middle schoolers on the way back from Atlanta! Needless to say it's been an interesting six weeks.
Kidz Kamp with the 4th-6th graders came and went and like always, it was AWESOME!

I love spending time with the kids and I love when my world from Pelham and my world from Milan come together and enjoy a week together! I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of kamp from teaching the kids and watching them ride the zip-line and climb the wall to spending time with some of my favorite people in the world!

After kamp (and my 25th birthday...ugh!) I turned right around and went on the church wide mission trip to Moulton, AL and had a long, but rewarding week working there.

After mission trip I had a few short days to chill and then pretty much jumped into getting ready for Jr Kidz Kamp. While getting ready for Jr Kamp I had the pleasure of helping my best friend prepare for her wedding and the joy of standing beside her on her big day! You can read more about that experience in my next blog! :)

This past week was spent at Jr Kidz Kamp with crazy 1st-3rd graders in the big city of Tishomingo, MS at the state park. While the conditions are not very desirable, a great time was had by all! I LOVE this kamp. I love

that after the shaving cream fight when we go down to the creek to wash off that a few of us take our razors and make good use of all that shaving cream! I love that I get to be a big kid and throw my body down the 100ft slip-n-slide! (Even though as I type this my back hurts every time I take a deep breath!) I love that I get to flip kids out of their inner-tube at the creek when they splash me! I love teaching them about God's Word and watching their light bulbs come on when they get it! I just love spending time with some of my favorite people! Now I love both kamps, but this one just makes me smile! :) Why? Because of the looks on the kids faces while they are there. While at kamp they get to ride down a 100ft slip-n-slide as many times as their little bodies can take it, ride a rather large zip-line, do crafts, play super soaker summer softball (try saying that 4 times fast!), swim, have a shaving cream fight, inner-tube down a creek and a few other things. Most of the kids who come have never done any of these things. It's an awesome thing to watch when they do one of the things for the first time. Their faces simply light up and it's like they're doing the best thing in the world. They can't believe that they can slip-n-slide as much as they want to or that it's OK to throw rocks into the creek or that they can take shaving cream and squirt it all over everyone. It's simply amazing to them! It absolutely blows their minds that they get to do some of the things they get to do. Almost every year a kid stands in awe at canteen simply because they can buy any kind of candy and drink they want to and no one is going to stop them. It's great! They simply are thrilled that we let them do those things! LOVE IT!

Just like the kids stood in awe at the things they got to do, I too stood in awe at both Shocco and Tishomingo. Both moments came at the same time of kamp and both times I walked away scratching my head...10 years ago I went to these kamps as a counselor and fell in love with them. Three years later Niki asked me to work for her and help her do the kamps and honestly, I still don't understand why she chose to take a chance on me, but I am forever grateful! The next year we stepped out and decided to not only do everything for kamp, but write the curriculum for it also. Since that year we continue to do so and wow...I stand amazed.

Each night at kamp we have a campfire and the last night we use that time as our commitment/decision time. It is a time where the kids can approach a counselor and talk with them if they feel like God is speaking to them. I usually step away from the group, pray for the kids and counselors and watch as God moves. This year I stood in awe. As kids began to get out of their seats my heart began to stir. At both kamps children prayed and received Christ! Pure awesomeness! As I stood and watched tears began to fill my eyes and my heart began to ask why. Why God? Why have you blessed me beyond what I could ever imagine? Why do you choose to use me? Why am I a part of the chosen vessel in which you deliver your message to the kids? Why do you speak to my heart and give me the talent and words to write? Why? I am so incredibly not worthy. I am nothing, but a dirty, filthy, rotten sinner who is worthy of nothing, but your wrath. God, you don't need me, but yet you want me. You choose to use me. I stand in awe. I felt like a kid standing in front of the slip-n-slide or on top of the zip-line or at canteen who simply could not believe that they were allowed to do these awesome things.

I definitely do not understand why, but I will always thank Him and praise Him for it. We are not worthy, but yet He makes us worthy. May I never be able to get over the fact that the God of the universe allows me to be a part of the incredible things He is doing. I think Casting Crowns hit the nail on it's head when they wrote "In Me"...

'Cause when I'm weak, You make me strong

When I'm blind you shine Your light on me

'Cause I'll never get by living on my own ability

How refreshing to know You don't need me

How amazing to find that You want me

So I'll stand on Your Truth,

and I'll fight with Your Strength

Until You bring the victory,

by the power of Christ in me

To reach out with Your hands

To learn through Your eyes

To love with the love of a savior

To feel with Your heart and

to think with Your mind

I'd give my last breath for Your glory...