Camp!

Camp has come and gone this year and I have to say that it was a great year. We had a good staff and really awesome campers. I learned a lot from them and I hope they learned a lot from me as well. I seriously can't imagine my life without camp. It has changed my life in more ways than I can think of and I've made some of the best decisions of my life at camp. For that, I am greatful. Camp has become a mainstay for me and I intend to do it for as long as I can because it is an amazing experience to learn what kids think about God and that gives me new perspectives that I either thought about and forgot, or didn't even think about until it was mentioned.

Most of the staff consists of former campers, that, at one point or another, were so inspired by their experience at camp that they decided to become couselors and hopefully influence people in a way that they were as young individuals. I wish I cold say the same. Although I was a camper for 2 years, I don't really remember much of my experience at camp as a camper. In 2005, I was going through some changes in my life - one being a change of churches. My church was going through financial difficulties so the members decided to merge with another United Methodist church in the area. We made our change and started attending the new church. At the same time, I was deciding what I was going to do for the summer and decided it would be a neat experience to be a camp counselor. It was my mom that told me that our new associate pastor, Allan Strout, was the Dean of our church district's Jr. High camp. I don't remember calling him, but the next thing I knew, I was talking to him on the phone and accepting a position on the staff for that same summer. And my life has been changed ever since.

Camp has helped get me through the toughest time in my life and without it (among other people) I literally would not be here and I just felt the need to share my amazing experience with you all.