Fire!

It's cliche, I know, but it's hard to believe the summer has gone by so quickly. There are only 3 weeks left!

It has been good to get to know the other staff. As different ones got sick and drank firewater; stepped on nails; overheated, hallucinated, and/or collapsed; or broke bones, we have drawn together to care for each other and grown into a team I don't want to leave.

God has worked in the hearts of many campers, softening hard hearts, transferring children and teenagers from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son.

This week was perhaps the most exciting yet, and certainly the most difficult. We got back to camp and visited the pet baby rabbit (who died a couple days later), played a couple rounds of Jungle Speed, and hurried around preparing for a surprise birthday party.

After dinner, we heard an awesome testimony from a newish couple on staff, then hiked down to the lake to jump and swim in those beautiful waters.

Monday morning, 175 campers arrived. They ate, played, and went swimming. They had a powerful worship service where the preacher encouraged us to give ourselves completely to God (Romans 12:1-2). They ate candy and went to bed, then woke up for another day of the same. Or so they thought.

The wind picked up, and around 3:00 it rained - an answer to a couple weeks of prayer! And oh, it smelled so good! The staff didn't eat much at dinner, saving room for the tea party that night.

Everyone had to wear a hat, and we voted on the most creative one. We went around the room and shared stories of our most embarrassing moments, and halfway around the room someone's phone rang.

"There's a fire!" We thought it was just a brush fire, or a forest fire; but it turned out to be in one of the dorms. It was hard to believe, standing there in the dark watching flames lick the walls and roof of a building where so much had happened over the years, an investment of many loving hands and a tool of our loving God. It seemed so purposeless.

And yet, all of the campers were safe. It was understandably traumatic, and those girls shed many tears. While the firefighters fought the flames, two girls were eternally saved from Hell's fire.

Camp will continue for the rest of the summer; it will just require a little rearranging. Please pray for the camp, and for the director and his family.