Just Some Thoughts

"Your blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and your heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world." Matthew 5

 "When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it - quiet and unobtrusively." Matthew 6

I think I need to work on my insides instead of working on my outside and being concerned with what people think of me.

Pictures Around Camp

back deck Freezer that the bear got into and ate about 20 lbs of chicken and 8 peanut butter pies

we bake ALOT of cookies

wildflowers out front

i like these flowers a lot

homemade bread that i will seriously miss

silverware that i've washed probably a million times

benji, the smartest dog i know

maui, the cat 2 years older than me that has dreadlocks

i'm going to miss the aspen trees

Home Stretch

[The first and second pictures are views from the peak of blackhead mountain...an intense hike we do with the high school kids. The second is part of my team from the "reality check" games which is basically a day of games based off reality TV where you compete against other teams and dress up silly.]

It has been a very long time since my last update. I never have the motivation to update my blog when I have free time.. because I'm usually sleeping. :-)

Things have gotten much better since that last post.. I think I was just really worn out.

Everyone here is exhausted! We have had a very busy summer and the final stretch is really wearing us out. This week is a rental group. Its kids aged 4th grade through 12th grade that are Florida College Alumni's children. They are a specific denomination of christianity that is super duper conservative. For instance this week I can't wear shorts above the knee or tank tops because that is their dress code. They are really nice people though, and AMAZING SINGERS. They harmonize and everything and they sound like a church choir, but I guess thats just the way everyone sings in their denomination.

Last week was 5th and 6th grade. It took a lot of motivation to get through that week. But I was with Katie counseling so it was all good. She left last weekend though so I'm super sad this week. 

The week before that was High School II. Those kids were GREAT. They totally made the week for me. It helped that a lot of them were only a couple years younger than me so it was like hanging out with kids my own age. They have a fall retreat that a lot of these kids go to that I would LOVE to work at... but I need a way to get there which is the problem.

I'm going to post some more pictures of stuff around camp.

Peace,

Heather

Missing

I want to go home. I'm tired, and I miss my friends and family hardcore. I can't wait to see my parents in 3 weeks, and I can't wait to move into my apartment with Jordan and Anna.

It can't come soon enough.

The People Around Me

No matter what anyone says about themselves, we are all influenced by people who we spend a substantial amount of time with. 

There are a few people here who I am completely grateful for. First of all Mary Marugg, one of the camp directors, is one of the most amazing women I have ever met. She has inspired me to be quiet, and instead of running my mouth I should lead by example. She has taught me gentleness and the impact a quiet spirit can make by actions alone. She pours herself into anything and is constantly putting herself aside to help these kids by either cooking, being in the office, working on the website, or being the camp nurse... she's amazing.

An 68 year old maintenance man from Texas, Charlie, is impacting the 19 and twenty something year old staff here in ways that are unimaginable. Who says that the older have nothing relevant or in common with our generation? Charlie works harder than anyone I know, he always has an incredible attitude and has a multitude of advice that he blesses us with. He always shares with us his own life lessons that he has learned by his personal experience and mistakes and tells us constantly the importance of our heavenly Father in our lives. I've adopted him as my honorary grandpa... he loves to fish, too.

This summer has been great; but I'm not saying its been easy or tear-free, its been hard work, frustrating at times, and stressful. But some people here have led by example and shown me love that is overflowing from their Father. 

Peace Out

Texan Catholics

Our rental group this week consists of very Texan catholic teenagers, a few chaperones, and their priests. Its been a crazy week, pretty good for the most part... and the group is really nice. I'm learning a lot about the lone star state and getting called M'am quite often. Its been really fun to have everyone together on support.. its gonna be sad when we are split between support and counseling again.

I got to work a lot in the kitchen this week. It was really awesome. I really enjoy working in there. Next week I'm on support again & I'll get to help Mary out in the kitchen again. Besides the kitchen, I've been a construction/maintenance girl. Its been so cool! I helped fix the cattle fence for a little bit today and learned how to use a wench. This week I've also split tons of wood with a hydraulic wood splitter, learned how to start a tractor, and used a router to make a sign for our cabin... which is now named "The Closet" because of its size and the fact that me and Katie have so much clothing. We saved a cool looking branch from the wood splitter to paint and make into a totem pole, so thats what our sign is now attached to. Its so awesome.

This week I've really concentrated on working hard. In my devo about a month ago Oswald Chambers said that "Drudgery is the touchstone of character, we are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God."

Basically, shining for God is in the small stuff: washing dishes, doing laundry, fixing miles of fence and splitting wood... so I've been trying to really practice that.

I think this weekend we are going waterfall/cliff jumping in Durango, and whatever that entails.

I love you all very much!

Peace

p.s. Check out the "whats new" page at sonlights website.. there are some pictures from the week on there. :-)

Telluride & By Myself Time

Who we bumped into in Telluride!

Telluride was a lot of fun! Me and Katie took the above picture there, which was a highlight, but we felt like total creepers about it. T-Ride, as they call it, is a very beautiful town, I would love to spend the fourth there again;  its a little too pricey and touristy for my taste, however. The fireworks show was great!

Right now I am sitting in a coffee shop in Pagosa by myself and I am super excited about it. 

For the last 24 hours I have been BY MYSELF and its been wonderful. Not that I'm a loner or anything but being with everyone all the time and never being able to do my own thing is not very relaxing. My roomie Katie leant me her car so I've been able to go anywhere I want and just do what I want to do. Just having the freedom to not have to fit other peoples opinions into my plans has been wonderful.

 I have also decided that if I bought a decent sized car, I could totally live in it - highway vagabond style. Last night when I came back into town I went up to camp to get some stuff together, then I drove back down and slept in the car for the night. Now, I know this sounds super sketch but I couldn't bring myself to stay at camp quite yet. I made sure I was in a safe area... at first I was going to camp out in the national forest but I just got super freaked out and had to drive someplace else. 

Anyways next week is a rental group, so we are all on support in the back. Hopefully it will be fun. It means we have some time off every night, so that will be very nice to relax and not have to be "on" around kids the whole week.

Brad J has a quote on his blog that I really like, so I think I'll end with that. 

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin -- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

Peace in Him

WHEW!

Its been a while since my last post.. and there is a reason for that.. I've been SUPER SUPER busy! Its been fun, but busy all the same.

The photos up top are from last week.. the first is me and Elizabeth (another counselor here) on banquet night. The second is some of the girls in my cabin from high school week at banquet.. the third is me and elizabeth when we went fishing with some other people on our day off.. and the fourth is the sun setting over the mountains on the drive home that same night. (It looked way better in person let me tell you)

The week before this was high school. It was a rough week for me just because of a bunch of unfortunate and stressful things that went down through out the week, but I made it through. Not without accidently cutting my hair when I was upset and trying to cut some earrings out of my ears. So now I have some super cute styling going on on the left side of my face.

This week is third and fourth graders. Let me tell you, they have SO SO many questions about EVERYTHING! Its understandable, because its most of them's first time here. They also get homesick a lot, so I've been waken up quite a bit in the middle of the night. Last night I leant out my teddy bear at 3 in the morning so one girl would go to sleep. They have been great though.. super excited about everything we do. And their week is only four days long, since they are so young, so this afternoon they leave and we all get a long weekend!

I can't believe the fourth of July is already here, and I've been in Colorado for 5 weeks already! Crazy.

I think this weekend I'm going to Telluride with some friends.. my roomie's parents are getting a condo for the weekend. I'm excited for some time off!

I wish everyone the best wherever you are!

In the peace of Christ

-H

Campfire Skits

First week of counseling! I am super happy about it. It was fun to take pictures for a while, but its nice to just be with kids now.

I don't usually have much time to go online or anything, but we have like 20 min breaks here and there, hence this post.

I'm in a cabin with a volunteer counselor who is here for the week, its working out pretty good. We have awesome CITs and super awesome girls. They are 5th and 6th graders.. tons of energy, which isn't ALWAYS a great thing, but most of the time it is.

We have the campfire skit tonight, it is pretty cute.

Love

TIRED

I am super super tired.

Last day or so in a nutshell:

-We went sledding yesterday IN JUNE! and to get there it was the most beautiful drive I have ever taken. Mom and Dad: We are going there when you come out.

-I learned how to ride a riding lawn mower.. but it took me a while to figure it out.

-Dishes Dishes Dishes

-Pictures Pictures Pictures

-Me and Josh have been working on a slideshow non stop.

-Everyone (staff) was pretty worn out today.

-I sleep in the staff room, because 1. its lonely without Katie (my roommate) in there and 2. it gets cold at night

-It is very dry up here, my lips are chapped, my throat hurts, etc

-Mary told me today that I was good at everything. She was just kidding but thats just an example of the great compliments she gives.

-I really like breakfast burritos.

I miss everyone from home!

Peace Love & Mountains

CHUBBY!

One thing thats great about Sonlight is all the food they feed us. It is soooo good and tasty, and therefore I eat a lot of it, so I'm feeling very bloated at the moment.

Support staff is going okay.. I miss being with all my friends who are counselors! I only have Josh, who is the other photographer/support this week, so we are bonding... but we're sad, because we want to be with the kids on counseling staff. One of the favorite parts of my day is when the two of us get to play a game with the kids, because the counselors have their morning meeting. Last night we had a dance party with the kids, that was funnn.

Anyways today the kids are going on a day hike, and since I'm on photo I get to go too. Mary is putting pictures up online.. Mom, I'll email you the username and password.

I'm tired! 

Peace

First Day O' Camp

The campers are finally coming today! It's nice, after alll the staff training, we actually get to be with kids.

This week I don't get to be a counselor, I'm on support doing photography and other stuff this week.

Look at sonlightcamp.org .. the pictures are going to be mine.

Peace

PS

It snowed today.

Rain Rain Rain

Here at Sonlight we dry our clothes on the line to save on the electrical bill. (Whatever money is left over at the end of the summer is split into bonuses for the staff, so we all are pretty good at conserving energy.) Unfortunately the day I decide to do laundry it rained, and its still raining.. so I guess its just an extra rinse cycle.

Staff training is almost over, we are kind of just doing some last minute counselor training and chores that need to be done before campers get here.

We went backpacking a couple nights ago.. that was pretty fun. I took some pictures and hopefully I can put them up soon. I'm pretty tired though from everything that has been going on and am totally looking forward to our day off on Saturday. A few of us are going to Durango for the day to hang out outside of camp. 

Anyways I've been really lucky to meet some very awesome people here, and I'm SUPER excited for campers to get here.

Staff Training

I'm sitting in an old ski lift chair that has been remodeled into a porch swing. Its pretty cool. 

'Nayways we had our first day of staff training today, pretty basic stuff, and now we are done and on a "break" until dinner starts at 6... so I'm enjoying the mountain scenery WHILE taking advantage of wireless... I'm pretty excited about it. 

Some quick highlights:

-I got to paint the craft bus yesterday! It was pretty cool. Its a school bus renovated into a craft area.. its cool its painted neon green and pink and yeahhh I want to live in it.

-I took some pictures of the area, if I don't post pictures today I will tomorrow hopefully.

-Tonight we are going on a hike to the spring (the camps water source), and I'm helping Mary (one of the directors) paint blazes unto the trees to mark the trail. She and Winston went on the A.T. over april and thats where she got the idea.

Mom and Dad, the wireless might be too slow to do skype. I dunno.

A view from the top of the climbing wall.

The meadow, dining room, and some cabins.

In Colorado!

Some photos from the ride:

The bus was so packed at one point that people were sitting on the floor

How Nick passed about 90% of the time, playing Pokemon.

Waiting to leave in Tulsa OK

Right at the border of NM and CO, see the mountain peaks in the distance?

After spending about two days on a greyhound bus, I am super excited to be at Sonlight! It was strange, I never really came to terms with the fact that I was actually going until I reached the Durango bus stop & Heidi, the camp director, was picking me up. The trip wasn't too bad; actually, I would do it again.. some highlights of the bus ride were: people watching in Chicago (lots of amish people ride the bus), seeing the St. Louis arch & the Mississippi River, driving through New Mexico (beautiful scenery), and eating a real sandwich. The only downsides were when me and Nick didn't get to sit together, so I was trying to sleep next to some random guy form Chicago to St. Louis, and that was kind of awkward. Another con was the food. It was super nasty and nothing ever sounded good so I think I ate like some vending machine crackers and a muffin.

Anyways on to where I am now. Its beautiful! The mountains are gorgeous, the stars are awesome (I saw three shooting stars when we were in the hot tub tonight) and the weather is nice too. Everyone here is making me feel really welcome and right at home. I feel SO BLESSED that everything is working out. I think thats why I never really got too nervous about it, it was just God taking care of everything.

I am SUPER tired, so I'm going to head to bed. 

West Side Weekend

I'm pretty bad at saying good bye for a while. Not because I get all emotional or whatever, but because I don't really believe people when they tell me I won't be seeing them for a while. I mean, it makes sense that I will not be, since I am going to CO and whatever; I don't know its just weird.

Anyways, the weekend was fun. Nice seeing everyone before they leave, etc. I'm pretty tired today though, and not feeling so hot thanks to the long car ride home and all the junk food we ate during it.

(We went to the beach to watch the sunset last night.)

Last Days at Home

So sometime between me being utterly bored on the computer and mowing the lawn for fun, May kind of flew by. Although I really don't believe it, in a few days I'll be sitting on a bus for 40 hours heading out to Sonlight for the summer. 

I guess I'm just trying to make the most of out Michigan right now. Nick and Anna came over last weekend, and me and Jordo are heading out their way tomorrow. It will be nice to spend time together before everyone ships off for the summer. I'm not sure I will get to see Brad or not, kind of bummed about that & the fact that Dylan can't make it.

Aside from that, I've been trying to spend time with my family, see some old friends from high school, and just take things easy. (Which is definitely easier said than done.)

some pictures from the weekend

(jumping on jordan's tramp)