2.53 The one about lake day n stuff

Yesterday was a great lake day. We got going in the morning and arrived at the lake mid-morning at which point I got the interesting challenge of making a point of playing with my kids while being blind... and not being able to see my kids. (or at least pick them out of a crowd of 100)

I got a few minutes to get caught up with a good camp friend (our annual check in) oddly it wasn't at a campfire this time but it was good. Unfortunately I feel like I talked for most of it... and I might have cried a bit during parts of the 'how has the last year been' thing. But even with that it was a blessing.

We returned to camp and the evening went fairly well, the only trick is that a few of the boys here have decided to stage games of hide-and-seek whenever they can, so those of us in guy cabins are really having to stay on our toes just to keep them accounted for. Really thankful for the fact that they do get worn out by the end of the day so bedtimes are relatively quick.

Today is another day of activities! My group gets to go rappelling among other things and I'm looking forward to it. We also are planning some sort of cabin party or stay-up-late thing tonight, and I'm not sure what that'll look like, but if the blog post tomorrow doesn't come until the evening (or at all) that is likely the culprit you can blame.

and breakfast approaches, back to it!

-Nick

2.52 The one about saturday and counseling.

Merry Wednesday to ya!

Saturday (as promised) was a great day, and a rough one all at the same time. I started out the day sleeping in for a while (yay!) and then discovered that there was very little food for the weekend (boo!) and even fewer of which was desirable (boo!) so a small group of us headed into town to run a few errands involving my wayward and non-functional car (very boo!) and the laundromat (meh).

Now to put the car woes in perspective, I somehow misplaced my keys in the last 2 weeks (^&*^&%) while my car was stranded in torington after it died a while back. I remembered that I normally keep a spare in the car so we used a nice lil coat hanger and broke in (yay!) during which someone called the cops on us (kinda neutral, annoying for us, good for the community) but the officer that responded was entertaining and kinda cute (yay!). From there we discovered that I did not have a spare in there anymore... (booooo)

I then made a flurry of phone calls on monday to various car-y type places, to get the car towed (it still is broken, we still don't know why) and to get a key made (so the other guys can work on why it's broken).
All of those things are in progress and I haven't heard anything since monday morning... (no news is good news maybe?) Please be praying about this... even if the car is dead for good I don't want to spend much learning that is a thing.

Counseling is a blast, I got a group of 5 boys and am paired with a group of 5 girls. The group we got is full of challenges and Monday-Tuesday lunch was a struggle to get them to stay as a group, participate, etc. but yesterday afternoon our boys anyway were much better about being involved.

I also got to have a bit of an impromptu hike with another camper who got a little overwhelmed by things and needed some space... it was 'fun' and as the mild sunburn fades in and the dehydration fades into memory... it actually was a bit enjoyable, and at very least it was quite memorable.

Thus far I love being a counselor again, It is filled with challenges I expected and many that I didn't know. I am glad to have this opportunity and the wranglers seem pretty happy without me looking over their shoulders.

Because I've got to get back to my cabin (my boys alarm goes off any minute) I'll throw the rest of the stuff I've got into a list for prayer, perusal, or whatnot.

-Pray that the group continues to grow closer and that friendships improve.
-I've got school coming up, and a move on top of that...
-School costs money and that stresses me out
-This is the last week of camp, and in about 55 hours we're done for the season
-When I get stressed my shoulders get all tense.. i'm doing the best I can with ibuprofen but it's still uncomfortable
-today is lake day
-there are 80 kids here for our camp this week (the largest one all summer)
-there are 160+ people here at camp this week (the largest group during any week)
 -a host of other things I don't have time to extrapolate...

I love you mysterious reader. May this find you well and may your adventures this season have been as magnificent as mine (or far more so)

-Nick

2.51 The one where i write a lot of things about a lot of things.

Wow... I think that's a new low. I haven't updated to you guys since Tuesday.

Let me first reassure you that the sick horse mentioned in Tuesday's post is now back to normal and is very happy and healthy once more.

Wednesday heralded the second pool day of the summer! I avoided getting sunburned this time and still had a great deal of fun swimming around and whatnot. I did notice in passing that I had far more lung capacity when I was a wee one, either that or I had such a short attention span that it seemed like much longer underwater than it does now.

Thursday we had two rides in the morning and a host of water games in the afternoon. The rides went smoothly and marked the last rides of the summer as a wrangler for me. I'll still be around to consult the others next week but this was it for me. It was a smooth day though and I really enjoyed it.

Thursday afternoon we played water games again and I was at least in part responsible for the pipe game (take a bunch of 3ft. PVC pipes and get water from a hose to a bucket a ways away) it was great fun and the winning time was to fill a 5 gallon bucket in 1:02. it was quite impressive.

Friday was a sad farewell to another 30+ kids who hopefully have fallen in love with this place... we saw them off, cleaned up a bit and then myself and 2 of the other guys on staff went on a little adventure out on the 6 wheeler. we found lots of exciting places... acted a bit silly and generally rested a lot. on our way home the vehicle broke down so we got the joy of towing it back to camp and hopefully it'll get fixed soon.

yesterday.... was a story all its own and as I don't have much time before I must leave for church. I'll tell it in a different post.

-Nick

2.50 the one with a sick horse, and a team of Wranglers!

The last 48 hours were long... We hit a few walls of exhaustion and blasted through them.

We also had a horse get a little bit of colic this morning, quite a few hours of walking him around and a shot of medicine later the horse appears to be ok but time will tell.

I noticed two things about our team today. The first was during a brief afternoon break, every Wrangler took a nap (some planned, others during the meeting they were in or on the floor shortly after their meeting).

When the afternoon ride was done and we flew through cleanup we were walking back to camp and everyone was laughing and joking with each other... I love the camaraderie that grows out of working closely with this crew.

2.49 the one with another weekend in casper and the second to last beginning of the summer

The drive to casper went well, turns out with high school kids you can tell them to use the restroom and then not worry about stopping on the way to a place.

We arrived on time and all of the kids filtered away to their various rides and guardians n whatnot and I headed over to what is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. 5 guys is one tasty burger... I then spent the rest of the night napping, and finishing my book (age of fire book 6). I then started off the next morning with beginning The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, thus far I'm intrigued but haven't decided if I just like it... or if I love it.

Otherwise I enjoyed a few good meals (the cheese barrel? and olive garden) and some traditional bachelor meals (club crackers, cheese whiz, and mtn dew!) and slept lots and did whatever came to mind. Sadly this did not include blogging so you folks were left in the dark over the weekend.

This morning started slow and began to pick up speed, I'm safely back at camp and have a full roster of wranglers and assistants (I've even got one back from last year for a week). Somewhat worrisome and definitely a cause for prayer is that many of our crew is beginning to show our wear points even after a full weekend. I'd like to think I'm immune but I know I am not... Pray that we bounce well and that the remaining two weeks we are able to finish strong. (I get to be a counselor next week! I'm very looking forward to it!)

Morning feeding comes too soon... goodnight my friends.

2.48 The one with a late night

The last few days have been incredibly charged emotionally... The campers have been incredibly vulnerable in sharing the struggles they have and the (often horrible) things they've been through in their lives. I've given and received a lot of hugs recently and that's a pretty cool thing.

This week has been a challenge because we've had so much that is new and unknown, we often don't know what is coming up more than a meal in advance. However it has been great, the strange and new assortment of activities that have been offered this week are great and are incredibly well received by the kids. It has also been a great experience to have the kids really dig in and try to improve themselves in a host of ways this week.

Last night chapel/worship etc. all went a bit long which is fine... but one of the gals here decided to ask for a prayer request that night games get cancelled. The director this week said no, but a short time into the game God answered that prayer and dropped a lot of water on our heads. The kids retreated to the main hall and we had a lampfire (a camp lantern surrounded by rings of chairs with all other lights off) and the kids worshiped and shared testimonies until about midnight-thirty. Due to an odd sense of dedication I stayed up until curfew at about 1:30 with the kids before I crashed.

It has also come to pass that I'm driving a van-load back to casper this afternoon... due to my current tired levels I'm going to take a nap before I go but I'm really looking forward to reading lots of the books I acquired last weekend and sleeping an insane amount. (and maybe writing a bit for you peoples)

With that I'm off to take my "be-a-safe-driver" nap.

2.47 the one with joy, and pain (and a song about rain)

Tonight was a great night in almost every way. I had the opportunity to clean bathrooms with some dear friends during chapel. You might think that it's very bad of me to skip chapel and do something that I 'could' do during another time... but it was incredibly refreshing to be able to do a good job at something without constant interruption by people who need to use the facilities, It was also very reminiscent of my first summer out here and it was nice to be reminded where some of my greatest friendships began.

It is also very important to mention that this afternoon I was allowed to teach a basic horsemanship class... it was very fun to teach a group of high school kids how to saddle their own horses (with lots of supervision of course) and then watch them take ownership of their teamwork with the horses. I used a few things that I learned back at camp as a kid, and it was a welcome thing to recall that home.

This evening during chapel (the one that I missed) I am told that during the alter call there was no less than 9 kids who came forward and accepted Christ for the first time. It was a joy to see how encouraged everyone was and how it did refocus us very well on what is really going on here.

Also I recieved a text from my little sister yesterday asking me "can you believe it has been 6 months?"... and I couldn't. (to be honest I hadn't even noticed until she texted me) I don't know why it slipped my mind, but it really hit me tonight with the addition of 9 (or more) to the kingdom, I'm a bit of a cynic about alter calls... but I also couldn't help but recall something from dad's service that I hope will be true of us here at camp, but especially that I embrace it myself. I hope our new brothers and sisters embrace this quickly because it gets rough when you really get after this life.

MercyMe – Bring The Rain

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Might He be glorified In all we do here... and forevermore.