Week 8: My Final Week of Counseling

Week Eight at Kidder Creek was my final week of counseling. It was also one of the best weeks and most fun that I had counseling at camp this summer. God allowed so many good and fun things to happen and I got a very fun and sweet group of five highschool girls ages 14-16 in my cabin. Each one of their personalities was so different and unique from one another but they got along and we all helped each other through the week.

One of the cool things that God did that week was to give me the courage to finally speak in frong of a crowd without being afraid which was something that I had been struggling with all summer long! Sunday afternoon when all the campers came in I was asked to give the message that evening around the campfire. Most nights I had been teaching on Tuesdays and had a message and outline all written out that I usually gave. This time though I had very little time to prepare anything beforehand. I was a little nervous about how everything was going to go but prayed about and jotted down a few notes about what I wanted to talk on. Up to the very moment before I was supposed to talk I was scared. Right before I was supposed to speak I prayed about it again though. Suddenly I felt like all the fear I had been struggling with vanished in an instant. I stood up and in a clear, steady voice addressed all of the 20 or so girls staring up at me and started to talk. I didn't have much of an outline, my message wasn't written out but I know that I had a message from the Bible in my heart that I wanted to share with these girls and so started in on it. I felt the Holy Spirit work through me and give me the courage to speak unlike I ever had before. It was awesome experience and I praised God for speaking through me and getting to share the gospel message with people who had perhaps never heard it before.

The rest of the week after that I spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each of my campers and hearing stories about their lives. We played card games together, had some good discussions during devotions, and made each other laugh a lot during horse science and vaulting throughout the day. In the afternoon I had a blast kicking soccer balls in the grass with them in the afternoon.

I did have a very sobering evening at camp though that showed me that underneath all the smiles and laughter of a bunch of the girls at camp they had also been through some very tough or terrible experiences throughout their young lives. It was during the Thursday night campfire that many of the girls shared their life experiences and how God had helped them through some really sad or rough situations and by the end of it there was hardly a dry eye to be seen. All of the girls cried and prayed together and I know that God helped to heal some hurts and wounds and bring these girls closer to Him.

Week Eight ended on a high note with one of the best dance nights we had, had during the whole summer and we all celebrated a fantastic week together. I finished that week strong. I found out that weekend also that I was not to be counseling for the last week. I was going to be put on maintenance. The race that I had been running as a counselor all summer long had ended. I wasn't even going to be in the same cabin for my final week there. That Saturday I packed up and cleaned up the "Paint" cabin that I had counseled in for so many weeks. In the quiet and solitude of my cabin I thought about each and everyone of the girls that had passed through it in the many weeks of my counseling. I sat down by my bunk and prayed and thanked God for each and everyone of them. No matter if they were easy or hard, whether they were Christians or not, whether they liked me as their counselor or not I was thankful for each and everyone of them and for the chance that God had given me to make an impact upon their lives in that one short week that they had each had there. And then I thanked God for allowing me to be a counselor this summer. His ways are so much higher and better than my ways and plans! I thanked him for both the good moments and the bad that I had experienced. He used them all for his glory and I grew closer to him through it. Below are several pictures from the week. Enjoy! ~Anna

My campers and I at breakfast together.

That's me doing a trick in vaulting called "The bunk bed." Not easy!

Katie and Bayleigh. Playing soccer with these two was so fun!

Four of my campers and I right before they headed back home. We had so much fun together that week!

Me in front of my cabin.

This was my home for the summer.

Laughing like crazy. Just cause it's fun!