Some Like it HOT!

Our Creekside Session 2 Assignment Team

Friends,

We are now home, catching up, enjoying time with our own kids, reflecting on the week that has happened. 

On Saturday, the 18th, we sent our 3rd week of campers home 2 days early. The departure was SAD and tearful, but without incident. Young Life's VP of camping, the camp managers and us camp directors came up with a plan to execute orders to set up leaders to lead their kids home and to other camp opportunties--- that were fantastic weeks, actually.  The communications department did an excellent job of notifying parents of campers and workers and keeping them updated.

While at camp for 3 days without the middle school friends there, our 43 work crew (high school aged) and 27 Summer staff (college aged) and our 30 assignment team members (including families) played, worked, and did some discipleship. We MARVELED and wept at what God did to prepare us and continue his good work in kids and leaders. 

Our work crew on fancy dinner night.

Our last camp, week 4, was smokey, so we put our heads together to come up with indoor activities so that people could take a break from the heat and smoke. The 'Tin Cup' cafe was equipped with puzzles, bracelet making kits, board games, oragami, and our club room was dedicated to movie festivals, karaoke and 'Just Dance'!

 

After the campers left, we began cleaning up the camp! I had some wrap up activities like hosting a seminar on finding meaningful work (to launch high school/college students into life), a fancy dinner with toasts, group photos and a funny 'opera' performance of our favorite inside jokes and camp memories. During the performance, I had to deliver the urgent news of our camp reaching 'level 3' (go now!) requiring our immediate evacuation. As I interrupted the 45 min skit night, the crowd did not believe me, thinking it was part of the act. (That was an abrupt moment I'll never forget!)

We rapidly packed our suitcases and quickly evacuated to Madras Middle School.  Upon arrival, our Creekside team was in charge of checking our own team in, as well as making a system to check in the 600+ campers, leaders and team from Canyon (the high school camp).  We spent the whole night checking everyone in, assigning groups to gyms and rooms in the middle school, and sleeping for a few uncomfortable hours on the floor with a few camp blankets and snacks. It was an exhausting night, but I was so impressed with how our whole team rallied. We all traveled home the next morning after scuptuouslty checking out every camper we had checked in the night before.

Since then, due to the encroaching and untameable fires, Washington Family Ranch decided to cancel the rest of summer camping. The areas who planned to bring campers are now creatively and courageously rallying to build camp experiences for kids. This has been fun to watch. 

Here are specific ways we saw God show up:

-Seeing groups like North Idaho (pic to the right) with leaders Bonnie Drake and Casey Price pouring so beautiufully into their middle school kids they brought was a joy. Especially watching the last morning when almost all of them showed up to the early morning 'new believers experience' to start a relationship with God and make plans to start meeting weekly to grow together.

*Months ago Phil (head leader from Denver) and I planned for him to give a short sermon on the day off before camp week 3 to our work staff.  We sensed that a sermon on 'dealing with disappointment' would be helpful. Who knew how true and timely that message would be? Then Jeff Huber taught a prayer practice also at the beginning of week 3 called the 'welcome prayer,' where you welcome those 'unwanted' emotions and hold them in the presence of God before releasing them to God. We used BOTH of these practices, referring to them in midst of the evacuations. BOY did we need them to deal with the disappointment, fear, anxiety and frustration of sending campers home. But God knew and provided us with the right tools to lead our team.

*In week 4, 139 campers made decisions to follow Jesus.

*For many campers, this written here was their 1st ever prayer!

Translation: Dear God, I am ready to receive your gift if you can see me for wo I am and look past my sins. I am ready, God. Please look upon me and give me your gift. I am ready. 

"Translation: Dear God, I don't really think I'm ready for such a big jump but I would love to reflect on u making me. I do really appreciate that you took time for me and loved me this long."

Dear God, I would like to accept this gift of living water and a forever relationship with you. It can be very hard for me to do the right things and I want to be in a relationship with you because you can help me. You know my struggles and have been there for all my highs and my lows. Yet you still love me and forgive me, so I feel that I am ready even though I won't be perfect, to accept your gift of living water.

-At our end of camp wrap up, I used Ephesians Chapter 3 as the benediction. One of the kitchen interns mentioned to me that she loves this passage on how long and high, wide and deep is the love of Jesus, beyond our comprehension, and she makes a practice to read it at the beginning and end of every summer camping season. I was thinking merely that it was a nice scripture. I didn't know it would actually be the end of her camping season. God had a way of wrapping it up for her, and us. 

-All the decisions that had to be made at the Middle School on that unforgettable night-- were provided by God. The head of housekeeping (Jesenia Meza, my old 'Emerging Leader' I invested in for years) arrived shortly after I did and asked if I wanted her help with assigning rooms to the groups of people in this maze of a school. Of course I did because I had NO IDEA the special needs of our Canyon group-- but she did-- so that we could house our campers with disabilities on the ground floor and families in their own wing.

-Jeff was assigned to checking in the busses who arrived with campers. He knew more people than anyone else and could convey a spirit of peace and calmness to the campers and leaders who really didn't know what would become of their camp trips.  Leaders were so happy to see their beloved Jeff Huber, hug him and were receptive to his warm welcome into a less than ideal 'shelter' for a long sleep deprived night. 

God truly holds all things together. We were blessed to have a close knit team to serve the rest of Washington Family Ranch.  Our campers had gone home and so we could focus on serving and being together. During our wrap up, we shared many letters from God/letters to God that were left behind after our Creekside 10 minutes of quiet. During the time, the campers were given a letter from God and encouraged to write back-- in response of His invitation.   I hope you enjoyed reading them here!

YOUR prayer and partnership has transformed lives. We are so very grateful for how you have supported us and our team and made a significant impact in so many lives... 1500 lives.