Last camp

So this is my last camp of the summer! its kind of crazy i feel like the summer just started, and now it is almost done. i have Sr High this week and they are all almost my age which is crazy, but they are great! its a little overwhelming to try and counsel girls who are going through things i haven't even got to, like being in relationships and dealing with issues at home, but it is still great. i cant wait to see everyone. we will have to have a huge party when we get home and tell our stories all night long. miss you all and cant wait to see you!

here are some pictures of the crazy things that happen at camp

we have a beach bash( it involves noodle sword fighting)

we have the pack attack

we go to out camp

First Day At QMC

So i think i can contribute here. I just recently got back last Sunday night from the first camp of the summer at Quaker Meadow Christian Camp. It was intense let me tell you lol. This camp was not a church related one it was a Girl Scout camp, meaning lots and lots of little 9 year old girls running around with dumb catch phrases making fun of everybody. Like one was an acronym for cool, it stood for C - Constipated O - Overrated O - Out of Style L - Loser. yea... I dunno.

But anyways, as soon as I drove into camp I was welcomed by everyone that was already there and they were glad to see me so that was nice. Immediately after I got out of my car I had to run over to the rappel rock and relieve my manager Matt who had a disc removed from his back so he really should not have been doing that, but who listens to doctors. The one thing I totally did not even think about was that in the mountains the weather is very different than down here and so it didn't really hit me that it would be cold. Luckily at the last minute I realized this so I grabbed a beanie, gloves, and a long sleeve shirt, which together saved my life from the cold lol. It was around 40 degrees in the middle of the day and you constantly saw your breath, so standing outside running the zip line was very very cold. That didnt matter to any of the campers though as they all seemed to want to go swimming. brrr.... It was heated though but still imagine getting out ahhh!

It felt good to be back but I knew the next couple weeks would be stressful until I finally officially stayed up there. I am leaving again tomorrow and I will be back home on Saturday, and then the next time I go up I won't be back home again until August. So I hope all your summers are still going well, its good to hear from all of you! :)

This is an amphitheater I helped build last year with all the seats and such behind it. Its not complete here, but I realized I never took one of it now. I was glad to see it survived the winter and I thought I would just show you something I helped work on.

first campers

hey guys... well i just finished my first week as a counselor it was crazy, i am now recovering i am working again tomorrow at 10 am. but it was amazing! i am so tired now, that may be because i spent the whole afternoon in the sun on the raft at the lake, but i prefer to believe it is from chasing third graders around all day for 3 days. everything went really well. we didn't have any home sick campers, and only one that would really talk your ear off, and one who had night terrors. but all in all it was incredible, these kids will really blow your socks off when you least expect it. miss you all tell me more of what your up too, i think the OC project sounds amazing miss you all!

ahh! Grace that sunset is beautiful!! and Hannah I can't believe how fearless you are, your ability to go talk to random strangers like that amazes me :) I wanna see pictures!
We had our first South County Project event on Saturday, an end-of-school bash. It was incredible! Lake Hills has this amazing field the size of a football field, and it was there that we had five different inflatables, a golf cart obstacle course (the kids were allowed to drive-i was horrified lol), face painting, a big game area where they played kickball or dodgeball or some other kind of ball, and tons more I can't even think of now. Chick-fil-a donated 500 sandwiches, and we also had popcorn, chips, cotton candy, and sno-cones. I worked the sno-cone machine all day :) I'm thinking we should get one of those for the house!

Early in the day when we were setting up, it was pretty cloudy and reallllly windy (you should've seen us trying to set up despite the wind, pretty hilarious) and I was nervous that it was going to rain, but by the time the event started it was sunny and perfect. There ended up being about 500 people there, which was SO incredible!! I loved seeing all the little kids who were SO excited to get their sno-cones, and the parents were all so appreciative of what we were doing. My aunt, cousin, and her two daughters ended up coming, and they brought 2 other families, none of which are Christians, it was such a blessing! I am really praying that they saw a difference in what they experienced that day, and that they will be curious for more.

I didn't realize how exhausted I was until after the event was over, but it was so worth it. Everything turned out GREAT :)

I hope you guys are doing well and I can't wait to hear more stories!
Praying for you,
Jenna

Guatemala

Buenos tardes! I’ve been here in Guatemala for a couple days now and I love it! I had a few days to explore on my own before I could move in with the local family that I’ll be staying with for two weeks so I’ve been wandering the streets for the past few days just getting to now the city. It is so beautiful, it’s situated in a little valley surrounded by densely forested volcanoes, and it’s all cobblestones and brightly painted buildings. I’ve been staying at this lovely little hostel for just $5 a night, including breakfast which is amazing to me! I’m sharing a room with a young Israeli guy who’s been traveling South and Central America since January, and than I met this young couple who just finished they’re Teach for America programs back in The States and I loved getting to hear them talk about that, oh and than, this morning I met another older guy whose been traveling for 30 some odd years and we got to chat bit. Everyone seems so much more open to talking when they’re on vacation, so I’m really excited to see how God uses that!

I hope you all are enjoying your summers and I want to hear stories of life back in LB and how God is using our life group! Like Jenna, you should write about the south county project, I’d love to hear about that!

First Days

so it is my first day and night at camp i am really excited and i have been meeting tons of people and seeing all my old friends. it is beautiful here on my ride up i couldn't stop talking about how beautiful minnesota is. i got my room assignment, i am living in the anex ;) hahaha, but i wont be here for long sometime in the next 11 days i will be moving into my cabin, along with my roommate who is also a counselor. it is a little overwhelming to see all these kids who i will by the end of the summer love, but at this time i am a little tired ;) hope that you all are doing well i think you should right your first days too ;)

p.s. this is just a little look at what sunset is like at camp