Friday, August 17, 2012
Closing Up Shop!
Well as the summer ended, I have never felt so filled by God. It is just how it goes that by the end of the summer your staff knows each other so well and you are so tired that you start to pick and be snappy with each other, but even through it all, God ended the summer amazingly! There is so much to do when we get down to the end and the nitty gritty, but it was so smooth this year! Everything packed, everything cleaned, everyone taken care of, it was honestly beautiful. For example, Chelsea one of our staff members got in a wreck and total her care during the 4th precamp, but God provided we got a vehicle traded from another camp and worked everything out! On top of that she was going through a lot of things at home and it amazingly opened up our staff to a new level of intimacy with each other and we had some amazingly powerful prayers together that fourth camp week.
After the campers left, we only had a minimal amount to do and we even had the chance to have an amazing Staff Celebration before returning to Concord. Each Staff is supposed to have a final Celebration to close the summer, but most times you only go to dinner together. Our staff was able to have a final worship together which incorporated different things including a foot washing and it was so powerful! Then we went to Ruby Tuesday, yumm, and after two hours got back to Concord. I love reuniting with the whole staff and the next two days are super busy, but Celebration and the end of the summer is a ton of fun. With it all coming to an end, I can honestly say how thankful and blessed I was to be a part of it all and I can't wait to see where God will take CCC next summer. I fully intend and hope to come back another year, as I really couldn't do anything more meaningful!
With that I am signing off, and I hope you have enjoyed my blog!
After the campers left, we only had a minimal amount to do and we even had the chance to have an amazing Staff Celebration before returning to Concord. Each Staff is supposed to have a final Celebration to close the summer, but most times you only go to dinner together. Our staff was able to have a final worship together which incorporated different things including a foot washing and it was so powerful! Then we went to Ruby Tuesday, yumm, and after two hours got back to Concord. I love reuniting with the whole staff and the next two days are super busy, but Celebration and the end of the summer is a ton of fun. With it all coming to an end, I can honestly say how thankful and blessed I was to be a part of it all and I can't wait to see where God will take CCC next summer. I fully intend and hope to come back another year, as I really couldn't do anything more meaningful!
With that I am signing off, and I hope you have enjoyed my blog!
The Work!
As you know I was not a Field this summer, so I met far less families than last summer, but there are a few families I think I should mention from this week. First off we worked for the Swamey's both the mother and her son and his wife and they are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. When I visited them, all they told me was well we would love the work, but please if someone else needs it more work for them instead and this has been the third year in a row they have said that to us and Mrs. Swamey has given us the names of about 4 neighbors on her street and we worked for all of them before even working for her! There is so much God in that lady it was awesome! Then we worked for the Lee family! Mrs. Lee can't get out of her house as she is bed ridden and I have been wanting to do this project all summer, so I was so glad that we were finally able to do it! She has two sons who are about my age and I know they were a blast and helped that group through the whole 32 foot ramp! This week I also had to go and talk with quite a few people who we didn't get to this summer, and will have to go back out to visit next summer. The Brawn family, first off, live at the top of South Mountain in the middle of a gated community. It has to be the hardest house I've ever tried to get to, but they are the sweetest old couple I have ever met! They literally live right on top of the mountain though, in this tiny little cottage house! Also, both the Wilson family and Rash family were so understanding and that is just a blessing from God! When the Wilson's who do really need a ramp, were just so nice I was astounded because I was expecting Mrs. Wilson to be very upset even though I shouldn't have and the Rash family who are a very sweet couple actually originally from here in Gastonia asked me to come in and fixed me a glass of tea and a promise it isn't every day that when I tell someone we aren't going to be able to work for them they fix me a drink.
Even though I don't see a lot of the work, I do get to visit with a lot of people in the community who provide us with names. To end the summer we put together gifts for these people and our staff decided to design Journey Jars for them. These are little glass jars that had lots of inspirational messages inside them and I have to say making those gifts was my favorite part of the summer and seeing their faces light up when they received them was awesome. Mrs. Barbara Houston at Blue Ridge Community Action was one of the sweetest ladies I worked with all summer and she cried when I gave her the gift! The lovely ladies at DSS were also awesome and I loved getting to go in and chat with them one last time, it is just awesome how much good work they do.
Even though I don't see a lot of the work, I do get to visit with a lot of people in the community who provide us with names. To end the summer we put together gifts for these people and our staff decided to design Journey Jars for them. These are little glass jars that had lots of inspirational messages inside them and I have to say making those gifts was my favorite part of the summer and seeing their faces light up when they received them was awesome. Mrs. Barbara Houston at Blue Ridge Community Action was one of the sweetest ladies I worked with all summer and she cried when I gave her the gift! The lovely ladies at DSS were also awesome and I loved getting to go in and chat with them one last time, it is just awesome how much good work they do.
Worships - Tuesday to Friday
Tuesday - Let Go of Control/Worries
So Tuesday which is our "Vespers" worship was a big hit this year. The administration really liked, I think because it was simple yet we gave the Vespers a more specific topic. Vespers worship is a worship done in the early evening, usually right after dinner that incorporates a lot of singing and joyful worshiping, lots of camps will do a Worship as if you were a Child type thing. Ours was very much like a celebration as well. We had our campers split into their six person Christian mission groups, which is the group we work with during the day. Then we walked them down to the lake and presented them each with a helium balloon and a sharpie and had them discuss with each other something they needed to let go of control of and that they could write on the balloon. Once every member of the group had written on the balloon they prayed over it and released it letting go of their worries/controls. After that we had them come up to the pavilion to sing and dance, which was being decorated by a few of us staff members while they were down at the pond. Definitely, one of my favorite worships and really super cool to do!
Wednesday - Letting Go of the Past
Normally most camps also incorporate a night where each staff members gives their personal testimony. This is usually a late night worship and definitely more serious, a lot of campers call it the cry night, which we never specifically create a worship to make campers cry and honestly all of our worships are powerful in there own way and could effect people in different ways making them cry on any night. We did this down by the pond as well and each staff member stood ankle deep in the water as we gave our testimonies. This is because we gave each camper a marker and asked them at the end to write in one word something about their past that they needed to let go of and told them once they were ready to come and wash it away.
Thursday - Letting Go of the Future
This is worship in design was very similar to Sunday night's worship as it started with three speakers who each had a specific scripture to read about worrying about the future and they Jozy, MC, and Chelsea each talked about different worries of the future like Where, What, and Why and after they spoke we let each of the campers journal for about five minutes and then allowed them to each come forward and lay their future's at the foot of the cross. Then we sing and the singing on Thursday was always super powerful. Right after worship we had sharing on Thursday and that is the night I led sharing. The Sharing on Thursday was really powerful most weeks.
Friday - Letting God guide your future!
Friday night worship is basically already mapped out for you, but it requires the most set up! Friday worship we use luminaries and every single mason jar we own to really set the most powerful worship mood. (However, on 2nd and 4th camp week we had a copperhead join us in worship and I most say that they kill the worship mood really quickly) Anyways, we always have Holy Communion on Friday as well and part of my job as Lead Program was to make sure it got blessed. I must say I had fun with that a few weeks, setting up appointments with local pastors can be tough! If you have a camper adult that is a pastor they can do Communion however, and that only happened for us one week, and I was setting up worship Friday afternoon and was like oh my goodness I never had communion blessed, but I had just forgotten that a camper was handling it that week... it was quite a good 15 minute freak out. Then after Communion the Camp Director normally gives a personal story about following God, and then they tell the Fishhook story from a fishers of men perspective and we begin to commission all of our campers to go out and do God's work! Giving Campers their fishhooks is honestly one of my favorite parts of the week.
The only other note on worship I might add is that we used the songs Never Let Go and I Will Follow as theme songs and I really recommend them if you have never heard them! As well as All the Poor and Powerless, such a good song!
So Tuesday which is our "Vespers" worship was a big hit this year. The administration really liked, I think because it was simple yet we gave the Vespers a more specific topic. Vespers worship is a worship done in the early evening, usually right after dinner that incorporates a lot of singing and joyful worshiping, lots of camps will do a Worship as if you were a Child type thing. Ours was very much like a celebration as well. We had our campers split into their six person Christian mission groups, which is the group we work with during the day. Then we walked them down to the lake and presented them each with a helium balloon and a sharpie and had them discuss with each other something they needed to let go of control of and that they could write on the balloon. Once every member of the group had written on the balloon they prayed over it and released it letting go of their worries/controls. After that we had them come up to the pavilion to sing and dance, which was being decorated by a few of us staff members while they were down at the pond. Definitely, one of my favorite worships and really super cool to do!
Wednesday - Letting Go of the Past
Normally most camps also incorporate a night where each staff members gives their personal testimony. This is usually a late night worship and definitely more serious, a lot of campers call it the cry night, which we never specifically create a worship to make campers cry and honestly all of our worships are powerful in there own way and could effect people in different ways making them cry on any night. We did this down by the pond as well and each staff member stood ankle deep in the water as we gave our testimonies. This is because we gave each camper a marker and asked them at the end to write in one word something about their past that they needed to let go of and told them once they were ready to come and wash it away.
Thursday - Letting Go of the Future
This is worship in design was very similar to Sunday night's worship as it started with three speakers who each had a specific scripture to read about worrying about the future and they Jozy, MC, and Chelsea each talked about different worries of the future like Where, What, and Why and after they spoke we let each of the campers journal for about five minutes and then allowed them to each come forward and lay their future's at the foot of the cross. Then we sing and the singing on Thursday was always super powerful. Right after worship we had sharing on Thursday and that is the night I led sharing. The Sharing on Thursday was really powerful most weeks.
Friday - Letting God guide your future!
Friday night worship is basically already mapped out for you, but it requires the most set up! Friday worship we use luminaries and every single mason jar we own to really set the most powerful worship mood. (However, on 2nd and 4th camp week we had a copperhead join us in worship and I most say that they kill the worship mood really quickly) Anyways, we always have Holy Communion on Friday as well and part of my job as Lead Program was to make sure it got blessed. I must say I had fun with that a few weeks, setting up appointments with local pastors can be tough! If you have a camper adult that is a pastor they can do Communion however, and that only happened for us one week, and I was setting up worship Friday afternoon and was like oh my goodness I never had communion blessed, but I had just forgotten that a camper was handling it that week... it was quite a good 15 minute freak out. Then after Communion the Camp Director normally gives a personal story about following God, and then they tell the Fishhook story from a fishers of men perspective and we begin to commission all of our campers to go out and do God's work! Giving Campers their fishhooks is honestly one of my favorite parts of the week.
The only other note on worship I might add is that we used the songs Never Let Go and I Will Follow as theme songs and I really recommend them if you have never heard them! As well as All the Poor and Powerless, such a good song!
Our Worships - Sunday/Monday
I told you at the end of the summer I would be able to share all of our worships with you and, so here it goes. Our theme as I previously mentioned was Let Go and Let God, which was specifically the theme I wanted for our camp this summer. I know it has spoke volumes in my past and I truly believed it would be super helpful for our campers. Also, my job as a lead program is to directly facilitate all worships and so I'm super proud of the role I took in not only helping design the worships, but making sure each was implemented in the way we planned. Also, as a side note we pray, read scripture, and sing in all of our worships, but I am only going to talk about the "meat" of each worship.
Sunday Night: Letting Go of Expectations
On Sunday we began our week by trying to let go of expectations in life. Our Sunday worship was our biggest worship to set up, which was honestly ironic as Sunday is already your hardest day in a lot of ways. So, what we did was take a Queen size sheet to a mattress and painted a cross across it and Let God on the top. Then we took another Queen size sheet and Velcroed it to the first one, but cut into to four pieces. The four pieces each had something different written on them. The first has No Children to relate to Abraham's story of not expecting Children, the second said No Help as the injured man on the side of the road would have never expected a Samaritan to offer help, the third said to sink, as Peter was fully expecting to sink when he walked onto the water, and lastly death was painted on one because as the two Mary's came to the tomb they were expecting to find a dead body, but instead found a risen God. As these bible stories were ready each of the four corners were ripped off slowly displaying the Let God, bottom sheet. Once all scriptures were shared I came forward to and explained them as well as also giving an example of my expectations in where I would go to college and how that changed and briefly giving examples of what type of expectations they might have in their lives. After this we asked them to each come up and sign their names to the sheet in paint. If you have been looking through my pictures there is a great picture of the finished product of this worship.
Monday Night: Letting Go of Fakeness
On Monday night we went a little more simple and did a skit of a girl going through a day at school. She chats with her friends about a bad weekend party, making fun of other kids, goes to lunch and is pulled in a lot of different directions to please people, she has to wake up extremely early to get ready for school, and she is very good at volleyball and will probably go to college for it. However, she doesn't want any of this. She doesn't really want to get up early and would care a lot less about how she looked. She doesn't want to partake in making fun of people or weekend parties and even shopping and playing video games with her friends, she would much rather spend time painting which is what she likes to do. She even hates volleyball and doesn't want to go to school for it! She finally realizes this and then asked to let go of all of those fake things. Molly is the main girl in the skit and basically does most of this worship, so us as a staff would call it By golly Miss Molly Mondays!
Sunday Night: Letting Go of Expectations
On Sunday we began our week by trying to let go of expectations in life. Our Sunday worship was our biggest worship to set up, which was honestly ironic as Sunday is already your hardest day in a lot of ways. So, what we did was take a Queen size sheet to a mattress and painted a cross across it and Let God on the top. Then we took another Queen size sheet and Velcroed it to the first one, but cut into to four pieces. The four pieces each had something different written on them. The first has No Children to relate to Abraham's story of not expecting Children, the second said No Help as the injured man on the side of the road would have never expected a Samaritan to offer help, the third said to sink, as Peter was fully expecting to sink when he walked onto the water, and lastly death was painted on one because as the two Mary's came to the tomb they were expecting to find a dead body, but instead found a risen God. As these bible stories were ready each of the four corners were ripped off slowly displaying the Let God, bottom sheet. Once all scriptures were shared I came forward to and explained them as well as also giving an example of my expectations in where I would go to college and how that changed and briefly giving examples of what type of expectations they might have in their lives. After this we asked them to each come up and sign their names to the sheet in paint. If you have been looking through my pictures there is a great picture of the finished product of this worship.
Monday Night: Letting Go of Fakeness
On Monday night we went a little more simple and did a skit of a girl going through a day at school. She chats with her friends about a bad weekend party, making fun of other kids, goes to lunch and is pulled in a lot of different directions to please people, she has to wake up extremely early to get ready for school, and she is very good at volleyball and will probably go to college for it. However, she doesn't want any of this. She doesn't really want to get up early and would care a lot less about how she looked. She doesn't want to partake in making fun of people or weekend parties and even shopping and playing video games with her friends, she would much rather spend time painting which is what she likes to do. She even hates volleyball and doesn't want to go to school for it! She finally realizes this and then asked to let go of all of those fake things. Molly is the main girl in the skit and basically does most of this worship, so us as a staff would call it By golly Miss Molly Mondays!
The End is Only the Beginning
Well to start off these final set of posts, I just wanted to say thank you to all of my sponsors again. I really couldn't have done it without your support this summer and an even bigger thank you to my church family and anyone else out there praying for me. If there is anything evident about being on staff at CCC, it is how powerful prayer can be and really how much a person ought to use it. This summer has been an amazing summer and I couldn't have asked for more, really! God blessed me in so many ways I never thought possible and maybe this summer truly unforgettable!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
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