camp highland 10

Hey guys! Friday night I got home from camp. I don't really know how to start except to just tell you all the amazing things that happened. First of all, you should know that I Love Camp. It is one of my favorite things in the world. This was my tenth year to go! I joke about not liking fun things, but camp is just so solid and fun and has only gotten better every single year. Here's how it went down.

On Sunday, first of all I taught my 8th grade James class that morning, and during service, two of our teenagers, Nick and Ethan, got baptized! So awesome to witness. After church I went home and had lunch with my family for Father's Day, and then headed out to camp to get ready! We were so so happy to be back at Camp Cordova (Now called "the grove at red lake" ... what a joke), where we have had camp forever. For the past two years, it has been closed down and we've had to go to a camp in Imboden, Arkansas. Ha! Good grief we just love camp cordova and have so many memories there. It was so so good to be back. The campers' parents dropped them off at about 5. After dinner, we had our first devotional led by one of our dads. He introduced our theme for the week: "Re." Throughout the week we would focus on the ideas of Reveal, React, Restore, Remain, and Reflect. We tied these words into following the command in Micah 6:8. Also, can I just say that the worship at camp highland is one of the most powerful and genuine things! So amazing.

After worship, all the campers divided up into their teams. Each camper is put on a team varying in age from 4th-12th grade, and each team is led by a rising senior. Being a senior leader is such a big deal and definitely sets the tone for that class being leaders in the youth group throughout the next year. Once they divided up into their teams, Chet and I were in charge of leading several team bonding/competitive games to kick off the week-long point competition. They start off by having to make up a team name, designing a banner, and creating a team cheer. They are all hilarious (the team my friend Scott and I were assigned to be the. "adult" supervisors for was named the Gtown Protein Shakes and was led by a very intense football player at Germantown high school). There were relays, apple stacking contests, keeping a balloon in the air, stacking cupcakes on your forehead, and other minute to win it type games. It was so much fun. The first night of camp is definitely the most chaotic but it went pretty well and everyone had fun! At the end of the night the youth group and children's ministry split up- HYG goes up to the lodge (where the 11th and 12th graders stay) to hang out and have snacks and pretty much rage.

The schedj for each day was pretty much like this. 8:00- breakfast. 9:00- team sports (teams play different sports each day against different teams). 10:30- Bible class. The morning Bible classes are split up between guys and girls. I taught 9th grade girls in the morning. It went so well! Such a blessing! Being in a smaller setting (12 girls) anddd it being all girls I think really boosted my confidence and made me much more sure of myself as a teacher. We had some good discussions and the theme of the week was really relatable for all of them. It was cool to get to know this group of girls too because I haven't spent a ton of time with them. Three of them, Abbey, Morgan, and Chesney, got baptized at the end of the week! That was such a special and mind blowing moment to witness.

Also, we were able to share some really impactful words of aff via warm fuzzies (the 'encouragement cards' we all do at camp). This is probably the first time I really felt like I was making a difference!

After class we had lunch, then SHAFT. Oh shaft oh shaft. It actually went better than I expected. We got Hannah, one of our super energetic and hilarious seniors, to lead the songs, and she loved it and the campers loved it! That was a win win. We played more games that involved the whole camp which I think is a step up from past years that just included a few volunteers each day at shaft. People were pied in the face, people had to eat baby food, we played the Dating Game (4 guys vying for the heart of our beautiful Lipscomb recruiter, Katy) (she picked the 5^th grader), and of course some totally nast shakes of the day. Still obvs not my favorite part of the day, but it turned out fine! We even shaved off Chet’s beard!!

After shaft, we had Bible classes with each entire class. Chet and I co-taught the 9th grade guys and girls. The afternoon class is more of an active learning class. Really, really powerful activities that helped them grow a lot closer to one another and learn more about God! After that, the afternoon is basically free time. Around 4:15 they met with their teams to practice for Wednesday night’s lipsync competition. The theme this year was 80s. The team I was helping with, led by Ryan, performed Livin on a Prayer and they did awesome (I am pretty sure they would have won if he hadn’t shaken Bisquick powder (supposed to look like protein powder) all over the stage. Come onnnn.

After practice, we had dinner, powerful devos every night, and amazing worship. After that we had different activities each night. Monday we played 3's a crowd, a camp highland CLASSIC. I love that game so much. Friends who know I hate games: I Love this game!! Tuesday night we had night swimming with the youth group in the pool. Wednesday night was the Lipsync competition! It is always so fun and hilarious, especially when the shy kids and teenagers go all out and just have fun (Garrett). All of the teams did such a great job.

The tradition at camp highland is on Thursday night to have the devotional and response time in an amphitheater out by the lake. It has been the most powerful night of the year for most of the years I have been alive! Mostly because afterward, we all go to the pool and have several baptisms, of kids who decided that week to make that decision, kids who have been studying with parents and mentors for a really long time, and kids who have known for a while that they wanted to do it AT camp. It is so special having that experience at the pool because each person gets to be surrounded by everyone, and circled by their closest friends, being brought into the family in the arms of so many people who love them. It creates such an amazing memory! I mean, how often do you get to see 19 people get baptized one after the other? That is the happiest thing that I could ever ever imagine.

Here's the thing. It started RAINING. A lot. A lot a lot. Donnie had spent hours getting ready outside, setting up a stage and sound equipment and lights. A group of teenagers had been practicing a profoundly powerful skit all week and were ready to do it outside. RAINING. Storming. Ruined?? Satan definitely had our number. For a minute, everyone was so bummed. We ended up having it inside. It was SO not ruined. Actually it turned out so so much better than we ever could have imagined.

Buster and Donnie spoke, we had an absolutely amazing time of worship, and got to watch the skit that they had worked so hard on. John, Katy, Farron, Randi, Hannah, Mason, Holt, and Bradley did the "Everything" skit. Take it from me, that I don't even like skits, and this was one of the most powerful things I have witnessed!

You may have seen it on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA) but seeing in person shook all of our worlds. Man, God is so powerful. Also, we had a time of response and the teenagers wrote down things that were creating a walls between them and God, and nailed those pieces of paper to a cross. Afterwards, I got to have some powerful, special, and important conversations with teenagers. Hearing their response to God in their lives was amazing. What a special moment. After at least an hour of fellowshipping and sharing with one another, classes getting together and praying with each other, and getting to pray with individuals, we hoped we would be able to go have the baptisms. It had stopped raining briefly, but was still thundering, and they wouldn't let us get in the pool. Bummed for a second, but we soon learned again that God's plan was way better.

Plan B: we did something we had never done before- walked in a big group, carrying the cross, around the whole camp on the main road up to the lodge. It was awesome. People were holding hands, SINGING, and sharing the burden of the cross with one another. !!!! When we got there, we hung out for a while, and then ended the night all sitting around and sharing how we have seen God and what he has done in our hearts this week. I was blown away by some of the things people said!: "I am usually a pretty conservative worshiper, but when we were singing this week, I wanted to scream." "I feel new." "I never knew God was so powerful until this week." "This is by far the best week of my life." "Committing my life to God was the best decision I have ever made." "God should not love us, but he does." "Nothing else matters besides God, so why do I treat people differently based on what they look like?" "God's love is all that matters." “This week changed every way I think.” Younger kids encouraging older teenagers, senior encouraging and empowering the rest of the youth group, even counselors and college students encouraging the teenagers. Pretty cool.

They decided to instead have the baptisms on Friday afternoon. It rained again. A lot. Even more than Thursday. Satan has our number. But God is bigger. We ended Friday with a slip n slide and at the end of the night, family night with all the parents. We decided to just get everyone to head back to our church building after family night to do the baptisms. We got there. The baptistry broke this week (we joked that the building is brand new but we've already worn out the baptistry- HA). It got fixed on Friday. We weren't supposed to use it for a couple days. We covered it in plastic so the front part wouldn't get wet and did it anyway. 120 minutes, and 19 baptisms! So special. I'll try to post some videos later because I know a lot were taken.

I learned a lot this week! I knew camp was awesome, because it's always been awesome, but I didn't know how it would be on the planning side of it. JUST AS AWESOME. More awesome.

I learned to actively love people, not to wait for them to love me. I learned what it means to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. I learned to actively remain in God. Just a special week!

The past six months have definitely not been the easiest when it came to my faith. Somehow everything became dull and serious and concrete and analytical and logical. Covering up my heart with all of those things put together do not leave much room for the Spirit to move and work and do exciting things in my life and fill me with love and awe and wonder and childlike faith. This week God has REvealed himself to me and I will REspond by letting him Restore me, and I will REmain in his love by REflecting and letting him do what he will with me.

Love and miss you all my Pdine friends. I hopefully made 200 kids want to be Waves this week.

wonderful days

Me and co-intern Chet!


I've had so many long days, but so full of such good things! That's how I've felt about basically the whole summer so far, and it is so inspiring to know that this is an actual job that people have! Youth ministry was something that I considered for a second when I was actually in high school, and as soon as I got out, wrote it off as something that I was only interested in because it was like my whole life at the time and I couldn't imagine my life without it! ha! But now that I am seeing more of the behind the scenes/ organizational side of it, and am more drawn to certain aspects of the way the whole thing works as I learn more and more about it.

Pictures of the new Youth Mission (taken by Jess Terry)

One of my responsibilities for the summer has been to plan Sunday night activities for the youth group. Two Sundays ago, we went bowling! I am not awesome at bowling, but it's surprisingly a game that I like (!) and compared to a lot of middle and high schoolers, I am actually pretty good. Ha! That was a fun thing to do and I haven't done it in years!

The Monday after bowling, we started setting up for Memphis Workcamp. White Station church of Christ hosts it ever since Highland moved buildings, but it is directed by Highland. We met on Monday mornings at 8:00 for pump-up songs/games and to meet with our work crews (about 13 kids on each crew, varying ages and churches). We scraped/painted/worked on houses til about 3, and came back together each night for dinner and worship. The camp started Monday night and it was just awesome. 428 teams from 20 churches from 7 states came together and made 64 houses new across Memphis neighborhoods. Praise God for that!!

Workcamp is always such a fun experience because 1. we are not taking God into the Orange Mound community, but revealing him there. 2. teenagers get to meet complete strangers and share God with them. 3. Memphis heat and humidity is just fun. 4. a couple coats of paint can totally transform a house. It is always so neat to see the homeowners' faces when they are so full of pride for their home! So many said how the teenagers were angels sent by God, that they had been praying that He would send someone to paint their houses. So cool. Also, one of my favorite parts is when we all worship together at night and hear amazing speakers! So cool, and definitely a life shaping experience for teenagers serving God by serving people. There were a couple of girls from our youth group on my work crew, so it was great to get to spend time with them! Oh also, I got the chance to get breakfast with Anna Wade one morning before workcamp, which totally made my day!!! She spent second semester studying abroad in Greece, was home for a second, and then spent 3 weeks in Rwanda! What a great connection we have!!!! Oh my goodness. So so good to connect with old friends, if even for an hour, and share life and our maturing worldviews! gah!

The Sunday after workcamp was a busy but fun day. I started out that morning teaching my 8th grade class about James. It is getting a little better, but teaching is definitely my biggest challenge! After church we had meetings for our mission trips. I think I have written that in July I am taking a group of 30 kids (and a couple adults) to Houston to work at a VBS at Impact Church. We are preparing lessons, crafts, puppet shows, songs, games, devotional journals, and more! It is a little crazy trying to focus on 30 kids (big group!) but I am definitely excited about the trip. Over 3/4 of the group have been before, and there are 5 or 6 guys who just graduated from high school and this is their 6th time to go! Even though they have had chances to go other places instead, even Belize! They love it SO much and that makes me even more excited!

After our TIME trip meetings, we had a camp counselor meeting. Everyone knows that Camp is the greatest week of the year! The teenagers have LITERALLY been counting down 51 weeks. I was a "teen counselor" 2 years ago with the 5th graders, but this year I am a legit counselor, and get to be in the nice lodge with the senior girls! Woohoo! It is going to be awesome. Most of my best and most meaningful memories of my life (that took place in this country) happened at camp! It has been a little stressful, personally, preparing for camp in the position of a Bible class teacher, and being in charge of SHAFT. I guess since camp was always such a big deal for me, I feel pressure to make it that good for everyone else who is experiencing it now! But then I remember that I am just a dumb intern and do not have THAT much weight on making or breaking camp! HA! What a joke! Anyway, let me just say that SHAFT stands for super happy action fun time. It happens every day after lunch. We sing VBS songs a la Father Abraham, play dumb games, and have gross eating competitions. Sick! IF you know me at all, you probably know that this is not my favorite thing. It has taught me that my ideal career would never have me in charge of anything fun or funny!

That night, we had a girls swimming party at one of our 10th graders, Chandler's house! Over 30 girls came and we had dinner and swimming and a small devo/prayer time. So special! Love those girls!

This past week was VBS at Highland. The youth group doesn't really have anything to do with it except many of the teenagers volunteer to help out in the different age group classes, transporting them from classrooms to the puppet show to the drama to crafts to snacks, etc! I decided to go two of the nights. First of all let me just say that the puppets are HILARIOUS. I am not kidding. Also, the same people have been doing the puppets' voices since I was a small child. They must have so much fun because they throw in so many jokes that just the adults get. Pretty much the kids just laugh at the dumb stuff. Typical. Haha just kidding. But anyway, "Brother Jay," (my friend Chris Shappley's dad) is the emcee, and the night I went, I was innocently sitting on the floor with my class of super hilarious three year olds, and Cool Ray (one of the puppets) said, "Is Rachel O'Connor in the house?" HAha! What a joke! He had me come up to the front, and all of the puppets sang a song. Chet wasn't there, but the song was written for the two of us. Something along the lines of "they're our favorite youth interns, doo da, doo da, they're our favorite youth interns, oh doo da day. one's a pretty girl, one has a beard, they're our favorite youth interns, oh doo da day." Such a classic. And obviously I love being the center of attention. Haha what?

On Tuesdays our youth group does something called Power Hour. We go to Raleigh and put on a small VBS for neighborhood kids! About 65 kids from Highland showed up (amazing) when we met at the building at 8 AM to prepare. We split up into two groups. I went to a neighborhood where we knocked on doors, gathered kids, and met outside in a grassy park and had songs, games, a lesson about Abraham, a craft, and snacks. Chet's group went to a day camp that was inside Raleigh Community church. Power hour is super fun... and hot. It always amazes me the enthusiasm our youth groupers have, though! I see God so much not only in the precious little kids, but also our compassionate, smart, and loving teenagers.

On Wednesday night after work and before VBS I get to grab dinner with Rebekah (12th), Kristen (11th), Ellie (8th), Katelyn (8th), and Karli (7th). It was awesome!!! I loved it! I ran into several of their parents last night, who thanked me for doing that. What?? It was too much fun and a highlight of my week. Also, without talking too much about it, a bigg lesson that I have learned is to not focus so much/not make the ultimate goal of making people like me. It is seriously not that important. I'm not just talking about this summer, but in general - it's been a good lesson to learn. The ultimate goal is not being liked, but showing people Jesus. Again, not just as an intern, but in the day to day. Ding ding ding! Hi maturity.

Tonight I got to have dinner with Patrick (brother) and catch up. I haven't seen him in like 2 weeks! What!? We are such busy grown ups! Anyway, it's so good to have my big brother in town! He's so cool! We ate at S.O.B. (South of Beale) down town and afterward I pulled over and watched the sun go down because it was just beautiful. I've said it before and I'll say it again that the sky just amazes me, and I cannot get over how God paints a different sunset every. single. day. and gives it to me/us as a gift. How cool!

I was hoping to get to drive down to Cleveland, Mississippi today to see Thiersten and maybe Blake, two of the best people I know!! who are in the middle of Teach for America training! Obviously I have been packing for camp and doing random important things all day and didn't get to, but really hope I will be able to at some point this summer. I am soo proud of them!

Also, Hannah Perrin and I just solidified plans for her to come visit me in Memphis in August, and then we are going to drive out to Malibu together! IT WILL BE AMAZING!

Also, it is 11:30 PM, I have to finish planning my James class for the morning, and am leaving for camp in the afternoon, and will not be getting much sleep in the next week! :) not to mention I have already written 239087 pages. Love everyone! Please pray:

For my Pepp friend Sandy who is really sick in the hospital in London!

For me to have confidence/not worry/let God speak through me/relax about teaching

For kids and teenagers this week to be able to focus, leave behind distractions, have fun, be safe, build relationships, create unity, learn things about God, be able to apply what they learn to their lives

For all the directors in charge of camp

For kids and teenagers thinking about getting baptized this week

For everyone including me to invest in not only the people who are easy to love

Everything to go smoothly overall

So. much. love. Talk to y'all in a week!

recent happenings

Oh what's up Friday night! Having a "real job" is real funny because at night all I want to do is just sit around and then go to sleep! It feels so great to have productive days though.

On Tuesday-Thursday, I was in Pensacola, FL with the 7th through 9th graders. Super quick trip (1 full day at the beach) but so much fun! I haven't been to Florida since my freshman year in high school and I forgot how fun it is. I can't count the number of remarks from parents and my youth ministers about how I must be comparing it to Malibu (the joke of the summer is that I am a snob...please) but in reality, Florida beaches are great (soft white sand and WARM water that you can swim around in all day if you want). Whatever, obviously I love California, but Florida was great. And, luckily we made it there and left before the oil spill reached. It is so so sad and I can't even imagine its implications for the next several years.

Anyway, the middle schoolers are hilarious! Oh man. I have seriously written so many stories down that I'll have to tell y'all in person or over the phone. They say the funniest things, have a really big faith, are incredibly innocent, and, for the most part, treat each other really well. I spent most of my time with the girls- getting to know guys in the youth group who I didn't already know (or whose siblings I didn't already know) might be one of my big challenges. But the girls are super fun, especially the new 7th graders. I had a really weird moment of realization one day at lunch when I was sitting at a table with 5 7th graders and they all ordered off the kids' menu, which was for kids 12 and under, and they totally could, because they were 12. TWELVE. They aren't teenagers. The weird thing: Neither am I!!!!!! What??? It was a really weird moment. Think of all the things we have done (realized, experienced, been hurt, learned from mistakes, gained, etc) in ages 13-19? I can't help but laugh when I think about it!! What a JOKE!! They're not quite sure what to do with me (pretty sure there was at least one "yes ma'am") but it is pretty fun to try to relate to them. There is never an awkward silence because they all love to talk and tell stories about anything and everything. A few 9th graders were checking out my wallet and looking at my license, saw that it expired when I turn 21, and the conversation quickly turned to them asking me if I am going to drink when I turn 21. Ha! Oh hey spotlight/pedestal, no pressure or anything.

I do love those moments when I feel like I can connect with the girls though, remind them that they are beautiful, let them be their crazy selves, and encourage them that boyfriends aren't everything and other various things! I see parts of myself in each of them, the ones who stay behind and have conversations when everyone else goes in the hall to rave/have a dance party - the ones who are super into their classes and middle school choir - the ones who are a little insecure - the ones who love themselves ;) - the younger siblings. It's cool slash scary.

On Wednesday night, we had a devo at the beach and a dad who came on the trip spoke. So, the middle school girls obviously always talk about the boys they like in the youth group, and they are always the guys who are seniors or just graduated! haha!! aka the ones I consider in my age range. Oops. Weird. But at least they are super amazing, solid Christian leaders who they are so interested in. The older guys, and girls, in the youth group are so solid. Anyway, the dad who spoke kind of took a spin off of that and asked the girls to say some names of older guys in the youth group who they thought the jr. high guys should try to be like. He asked the guys the same thing about the older girls. It was so cool to hear their answers.

So today (and most days lately) in the office we were super busy doing little administrative tasks like printing off and organizing maps for Memphis Workcamp next week, making calls, planning events, making lists, etc., which is like totally my comfort zone. I would totally be a secretary for the rest of my life! Ha! I love it. It's about to get crazy though! Next week is Workcamp.

I also found out today that on Sunday mornings for the rest of the summer I am going to be TEACHING 8TH GRADERS ABOUT THE BOOK OF JAMES. This is like one of the scariest things I've done, but the conditions could NOT be more perfect!!!! For a big portion of my middle and high school years, I seriously wanted to teach 8th grade, principally because I am fascinated! / obsessed with middle school culture. It is so interesting to me. So that will be interesting. AND, additionally, I probably know the book of James better than any other book. In January 2006, I started a big push with two of my best friends, Annaleigh and Anna, to read my Bible every day, and we started with the book of James. That definitely changed, shaped, and stabilized me as a Christian teenager.

I am going to need a lot of help in executing a smooth-running, non-awkward class, but if nothing else, I can see this opportunity being one of my biggest learning experiences of the summer.

On another note, I am missing my college friends so much! Most of them are together in California, and I am actually so much more jealous of them right now, than I even was this past year when they were overseas! It's very strange but it's a comfort to know that this is God's place for me right now. Junior year is just getting that much more exciting! :)

Love to all of you!