The 32 ft. Ramp and some Handrails

Camp Week 1 - The Worksite

As I previously mentioned we were able to work for 41 amazing families this week which consisted of a wide variety of jobs including quite a bit of yardwork, exterior painting, floor repairs, and porches being built as well as some extensive handrails, a set of steps, and a 32 foot wheelchair ramp.  Because I am on the program team and not the field team I deal a lot less with the projects and seeing a finished product (part of the reason I don't really have many pictures), but I do visit a lot of families for the very first time.  Mrs. Ruth Franklin for instance I visited with Mary Claire on my staff and that is the lovely lady we built a wheel chair ramp for.  Her arthritis would flair up in her knees every time she had to leave the house and walk down some very unstable steps and I am so happy we were able to work for her.  Also, one of my staff member Christina was still in the process of graduating and so she missed a few days of pre-camp and since I was a field last year I spent a few afternoons scheduling a few of her projects and also got to meet Mrs. Lovett, Mrs. Kencaid, and Mrs. Pagent.  First off Mrs. Pagent was a talker!  We were going to do a two day painting project of her whole house and she was very thankful for it, but I got to hear all about her house and dog and four chickens and garden and this black racer she killed a few years ago etc etc, but she was such an awesome woman and I loved hearing every story.  Second Mrs. Kencaid, once a very sweet old lady who needed a new back porch and steps, because literally when I walked on her old one I fell through and one of my other staff members did too!  (Go ahead and feel free to chuckle it was quite funny, because it was luckily only a two foot drop!)  Lastly, Mrs. Lovett was amazing!  Her mobile home was, well it was one of those houses that if you could you would just get her a whole new one, but that lady has more grattitude than I think I will ever be able to have and she was super inspirational just to visit with.  She kept her house open to her whole family and I had to meet at least five long lost cousins in just the thirty minutes I was there!  Also, on Monday I was Field for a Day and got to see three projects to completion.  Mrs. Burcham was one of those ladies who you really just need to talk to because I needed to stop by once, just to pick up a weed eater and take it to another group and I talked/laughed (mostly laughed) with her for fifteen minutes!  Also, the Made family has a special place in my heart because they were such an inspiration!  We fixed two boards in their eaves and then painted all the trim work, as well as did a little yardwork!  They were an awesome family and unbelievable grateful even though we hadn't really done all that much and they just wanted to give to us!  Mr. Made, a man who has had far to much tragedy in his life, told me a little story.  Brandy (his wife) and I were out running errands when I found a one dollar bill on the ground.  Then as we were looking for something in the car I also found out a $20 bill.  We decided we might as well go buy a few scratch off lottery tickets cause we didn't even know we had this money.  They then won $100 in a scratch off ticket.  As they arrived back at home they saw a flier in their door and it was a note from CCC saying that we had been by to visit earlier, but no one was at home!  He told me that he had never had such a God blessed day and that we were certainly the biggest blessing.  All in a good days work!!! :)

Camp Week 1 - Worships

So as a Lead Program one of my most important jobs is to facilitate worship and really be the staff member who makes sure everything is prepared and set worship as well as making sure worships are logistically sound.  Well as this being our first camp week this was the first time we ran through every worship and although we did run into a few technical and transitional difficulties, I really do believe every worship was phenomenal and certainly had the potential to impact our campers in amazing ways!  As previously mentioned our worships were designed around the theme of Let Go and Let God, so Sunday night was about letting go of expectations and letting God guide your path.  This worship allowed our campers to paint an expectation onto a sheet and then as we read scripture where Abraham, Peter, the Samaritan, and Mary had expectations we tore down pieces of the sheet to reveal a new sheet with the a cross and the phrase "Let God" painted on it!  Cool?  I know!  Monday nights worship, consisted of a skit of an average high school girl in which we tried to show it is important to Let go and Be Real to who you are and to who God made you!  Tuesday night we went with our classic Vespers worship, which is traditionally an early evening worship that is upbeat and contains a lot of singing!  In this worship we utilized a balloon theme and asked them to write things they need to control on the balloons and then we let them rise into the sky and let go of our controls to God.  Our Wednesday night worship focused on letting go off our pasts, which was our testimony worship and gave the campers a chance to come talk with any staff members if need be.  Thursday nights worship was Letting go of our futures!  We had the campers do a little journaling about their futures and then asked them to lay it at the foot of the cross because God has our futures in His hands.  And lastly, Friday night was the commissioning of our campers to truly Let God lead in their lives!  Needless to say I think our worships were quite powerful and I truly saw God come alive in our campers specifically this week in our Vespers worship when the singing was phenomenal as well as the Thursday night worship, which Sharing immediately followed (a time to talk about where you saw God in your day) and the campers really opened up about their days.  Sharing is also something that we do everyday and it is really in and of itself another form of worship where our campers can share about their days!

Week 1 Overview

So since I can only update the blog once every two weeks I'm gonna make quite a few posts!  First off Camp Week One is now finished and it was great!  We had about sixty campers, which is about maxed out a little ole Camp McCall.  They came from four different churches and were ages 13 to 20  and then some adults.  With so many campers we were able to create ten CMGs (Christian Mission Groups), which is something I never experienced last summer, and honestly more CMGs is a blessing because we can work for more households!  This week we worked for forty-one different families!  Our projects ranged through many different types and I'll speak to those later in another post!  We also had six amazing worships focusing on Letting Go and Letting God, our theme for the summer, which I think is completely appropriate for campers.  I still don't have near as many pictures as I would like so I will try to get a few posted, but I will resolve to do a little better with that in the coming weeks!  Continue to read the other posts to find out specifically what happened with worships, my job specifically, leading up to camp, and different shenanigans within the week!  Thanks again for all the prayers and blessings!!!!

Staff Training

So Staff Training is already over and I am about to head off (literally in about a hour) to camp McCall to start preparing for week one.  There are so many good stories to share from staff training, but I am amazed at the awesome staff of I think 43 that God put together for the whole CCC Summer 2012 staff.  I also am so excited for my staff members!!!!  My Director is Luke Setliff and Lead Field is Jozy Mendez, I am the Lead Program and together we form the Camp McCall triad!  On Staff Reveal we received four more awesome ladies on our staff!  My two new programs are Mary Claire Grube and Molly Hayes who I know will do excellent things!  Jozy's two fields are Chelsea Spyres and Christina Ingelles!  So yes we are a staff of mostly girls, but what an awesome staff!  I wish I had some pictures to share, but unfortunately I do not have any from staff training!  I will make sure to grab some during the upcoming Camp Week Numero Uno to share with everyone, especially one of my whole staff.  If anyone remembers Chelsea and I were on staff together last year and now are again, so that is super exciting and unexpected!  McCall is a beautiful little camp if you have never seen it you most!  The staff quarters were just redone so I most say I will be living large this summer, haha!  It is infamous for its bugs and bad showers, so I'm taking lots of bug spray and the staff plans to just shower with biodegradable shampoo in the pond, good times!!!  I am super excited for the worships we have planned, our theme is Let Go and Let God!  I would share some of our ideas, but they need to be surprises for our campers, so I will have to wait and share at the end of the summer, but I promise they are so awesome!!!!!!  If you can't tell I am super excited!  My county is Burke so I will be doing lots of work there this summer and McCall also services Rutherford and McDowell!  I hope to have stories from first camp week that are a little more specific about campers and the community work!  Sorry this was a little brief and not super specific about training, I might share more later!  I also want to let everyone know that I will probably be unable to update the blog while at a camp week, which means I will only update the blog every two weeks, but in two weeks from now expect to see some great pictures and hear some awesome stories.  Please pray for safety at our camp and that God just fills us during our first week!!!