So I've decided that every day this week I will review some significant event that has happened this summer and maybe upload some pictures of it too! So here is what is to come:
1. VBS X-treme
2. Illinois with JR and Aly
3. Peru!
4. FASET/ thoughts of college
5. Personal stuff/ things that God is teaching me
And I might not put them in that order either. We'll just see how I feel later n about it.
So I guess I'll start with X-treme.
It was awesome! If you had asked me before that week whether I thought 5th graders liked me that much and I would have said absolutely not at all. But hanging out with those kids was an absolute blast, and they taught me a lot about leadership and how to teach children about God. Jonathan Noa and I were the blue team leaders (Whoo Go blue!). We a neat group of kids, some of our boys were a little immature (as expected) but the girls I had were so beautiful. I love them. We had small group time every day and they asked me some really good questions about middle school and about Jesus. I loved pouring into them. And one time ( I forget how this topic got started) but I got to tell them story and how I came to love Jesus and how important it was for them to accurately reflect Christ because they could save somebody's soul. They seemed to be really listening too, they were all quiet and looking right at me (undivided attention was unusual). I really enjoyed talking with them. I think Jonathan had a harder time just because he is more passive than I am and his boys were more ADD than my girls were. So I would look over at his small group and two of the boys would be up running around while the others were having small group. Jon didn't seem to mind.
On a less serious note though it was so messy! The first day was a water day so we got soaked through different games and such. I actually won the counselor challenge that day. It wasn't because I'm awesome or anything it was really because Kyle and the yellow male counselor got each other out at the same time and I was the only one left (we had to knock the other counselors cups of water out of their hands). But it was still fun to win and it was fun to see how excited my kids were about our team winning. We won squad of the day that first day and that was very exciting (we had a ton of spirit). The next day we had a chocolate syrup tug-of-war and me and Jonathan almost won but, I tell you what, Dustin Sutton is a lot stronger than you would think he is. I forget all of the other challenges but one day for the camper challenge the kids had to lick chocolate syrup off of a piece of plastic and our kids (Well Caroline) won that one. Caroline was so tough I loved her. She was doing the slip n' slide one of the days and she accidentally sipped her pants while she was sliding. I felt so bad for her but she didn't look too embarrassed even though it was a pretty bad rip. Luckily I had some extra shorts I could give her to change into. And then another day the counselor challenge was to get in these giant bumper things and knock our opponents out of the circle. The guys didn't compete with us girls so I won the challenge for the girls that day. It was way exciting. In the end we had a lot of fun and our kids were fantastic ad I thought we were going to win squad of the week, but we didn't, the green team did. But my kids (who all thought we were going to win also) handled it so maturely. I was so proud of them and what good sports they were that i don't even care that we lost.
The Wednesday was the shift invasion and I was really excited about seeing my girls there. Only 4 or 5 of the 15 showed up but I was so happy to be there for them. As it turned out they didn't really need me that much and I didn't have to help them get plugged in at all, but it was still fun to be able to let them know that they are cared for and if the had needed help I would have been there in a second. I care very much about the 14 girls that were in my group that week. I wish that I had a picture of us all to put up here and I meant to take one on the last day but I forgot :/
Overall it was messy, exhausting, time consuming, but well-worth it. It was beautiful, inspiring, fun, and very personal. I thank God for giving me the chance to pour into some of the next generation.
te amo Dios :)
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