We had our first day of setup for our last camp in Elizabethtown, or e-town as all the locals call it, today! It seriously could not have gone any better! We have all been pretty drained for the last few weeks & today was exactly what we needed to finish off strong. This is the first camp they’ve ever done & we all had good vibes coming into it. We started the morning off right by stopping for breakfast & there were signs in town that said welcome Workcamps! Pretty sweet! The school we are staying in is beyond prepared for us and basically had questions answered before they were asked! My program area is literally a dream! It’s in a nice cold, dark gym! :). We joked that the day couldn’t get any better all morning but every time we turned around…it did! The list could go on forever! The cosponsors are wonderful and have so much planned for the week! Everyone here is so excited for us to be here & we have felt so loved all day! We got some work done (& acted like 5 year olds while doing it!), played some basketball, and ate at some fun local places! I haven’t laughed as hard as we did today in a while! We have been feeling drained and honestly not too excited about pulling off one more awesome camp but today definitely changed that! We are beyond excited about this camp and we already know its going to be an amazing week! God knew exactly what we needed and it’s sweet to see Him answer my prayers in ways I’d never imagine; simple little nothings that can change your attitude and brighten your day! :)

Well we just finished up our second camp in Frostburg Maryland! I can’t believe we are already halfway through all our camps. It was a great camp for the most part! I wasn’t able to set any of my program up until Sunday morning, just a few hours before the campers arrived, which was kind of a bummer…but my awesome program team and a few other red shirts helped me knock it out! It wasn’t the best space to hold our programs either but we made it work throughout the week! We had another amazing staff and some pretty interesting campers! It was our smallest camp, only 220 campers, of the summer but a lot more challenging than Hammond! Our director genuinely cared about us and the camp and our MC was very enthusiastic & has a real passion for what he’s doing! All the worksites were in Cumberland MD which was a pretty sweet city! Overall, the week was pretty easy and I got to see my family on our afternoon off!!! :) We slept yesterday afternoon, went to dinner & got some delicious ice cream, and got a good nights sleep! We are on the road again today and heading to Brandens house for a couple nights in Naperville, IL! The its off to Res Lake, MN for camp numero tres! :)

This week could not have been better! We had the best 320 campers that anyone could ever ask for, some of the most servant hearted volunteers I’ve ever had, and my crew continues to rock! The evening programs were so powerful (& went pretty flawlessly if I do say so myself hah) and getting to be a part of a life changing experience for some was even more powerful to me! We had our ups and downs throughout the week…that I know we laugh about later…but let’s just say this camp set the bar extremely high for the rest of the summer!

I slept an impressive 17 hours on Saturday afternoon/evening after camp! Branden’s parents, sister and grandparents took us out to delicious dinner & dessert last night and we spent today on the road! We made it to Sandusky Ohio and we are going to Cedar Point tomorrow! We are taking advantage of all the time we have before our next camp since we have some serious driving to do between the others!

We are pretty loopy right now but we finally found a place to do some laundry & we may even have time to hit up the hot tub when we get back to the hotel!

We made it to our afternoon off! This week has been amazing! I have been exhausted but that hasn’t stopped me yet! We have an awesome staff, great campers, wonderful residents & surprisingly the weather has held out for us! It’s been full of laughs, surprises, hard work, and everything else that is camp! I am enjoying the change in job position and it’s great getting the opportunity to get out to the sites everyday to take pictures and get to know campers!

Last night was our first more serious program and it went almost flawlessly! It was so sweet sitting and watching campers respond to what Roy, our MC, shared with them as the program came to an end. Seeing them realize ( or be reminded) that they are children of God, teens and adults alike, was so powerful and it was sweet being able to watch God work and shape hearts and change lives right in front of my eyes! God is so good!

The four of us…plus my PTM Travis…currently have our air mattresses set up in the program area while the campers are out having fun in chicago and elsewhere! We are about to watch a movie on the big screen…or in my case fall asleep! Haha

We have officially invaded Hammond Indiana! Our first camp finally kicks off today! We have amazing cosponsors and a great staff! It’s going to be an awesome week! We have 325 campers arriving this afternoon and we will be working on about 40 homes this week! I’m excited to see what God will do through it all in the city of Hammond!

Sorry I have been a complete fail at keeping this updated! :( I’m going to try harder starting now!