Amazing love how can it be?

Hola!!

Wow I have written anything here for a while. It's my birthday today :) hehe

I've had an amazing b-day though. We did big blue and wide eyed and liquified today, which are my FAVORITE events, and they were on my b-day which was pretty sweet :)

Well nothing really new to talk of. I have an autistic girl in my cabin this week, it's been pretty tough. She's 18 (the other girls are 13 and 14) and she has the mental capacity of a 5 year old. So thats been kinda tough and draining cause we have to tell her to do EVERYTHING, but she's a real sweetheart. 

There are some other difficult parts in the cabin but all in all it's lots of fun.

I started a no mirror or makeup day today. So I havn't looked in a mirror all day and I didn't put makeup on, so I have no idea how I look right now. But I think it's pretty sweet. Lots of other counsillors are doing it too and lots of kids, which is sweet.

It's blistering hot here. Like soooooo hot, I'm always sweating. Which reminds me, i'm so thirsty. I'm kinda sick too, which sucks, but oh well, God has got my back :)

A house burnt down last night, I woke up at 2 in the morning to a burning smell, and i didn't know what it was, turns out it was a house in crofton that burned down. 

Well I should get going. 2 weeks til I come home! I am excited but really sad at the same time. I love camp a lot. I'm going to miss it a lot too and all the amazing people. But lets not think of that. haha

anyway ciao!

God Bless,

LOVELOVELOVE

Courtney

as long as i have breath to breathe i will sing your praise

Another week of camp! Woot!

Got new campers yesterday! So exciting! They are a great group of girls. High energy for sure! They are go go go all the time. Most of them are 13 years old. They are lots of fun to be around. 

I'm so happy i'm counsilling again! Yay!

Well i learned how to drive a tractor. Yes I did!! Guess it adds to my Albertan roots. haha. But I quite enjoy it. It's standard and I thought I was going to stall it, but I didn't!

Anyway on friday I went and saw Ice Age 3D and went shopping and bought this cool clock thats shaped like an eggs and it changes color and tells you the time, temperature, date, has an alarm and something else, I forget. It's super cool and was like 5 bucks. Sweet, I know :P

I am super thirsty right now. Just throwing it out there. I have been for like an hour now :(

Im in challenge course again this week. Pretty sure i'm going to always be there from here on out :P But I love the challenge course so it's all good. 

I had the most hilarious ride on the ionator with megan and leala. We got flipped!! Supposdly the ionator doesn't flip...but it i did, let me tell you.

And I got blobbed and landed on my back, so my lower back is all red from saturday. Ow :(

Well I don't have tons to say. It's super super hot today! Like dying of heat hot!

I'm gonna get going, Jenalee is waiting for a computer. Bye

God bless,

LOVELOVELOVE

Courtney

Today is the last day of juniors camp!! I'm excited but kinda sad to see my girls go. It's been quite the week. They were really unresponsive to most talk of God during the day, but there was one night we went down to the dock that was amazing, and only the Holy Spirit could have moved them like they were. We went down there and I told my testimony and made up a song to Psalms 139. They cried a bit during my testimony but they were bawling during the song. I had my guitar out. Then we talked to them about how much God really loves them and how much he wants them, relating back to Psalms 139 and how he wrote their days in his books and how he knit them together in their mothers womb. They were all crying and the Holy Spirit was definatly moving in them, it was evident. And we told them to look up at the stars and see every single one up there, and that they were all made for them by God, because of his love. And the words from me and Alycia poured out, they were definatly not from us but from God. And the song I sang did not come from me, but from God, it was pretty amazing i think. So then we let them sit by themselves some place on the dock and I played my guitar (played some of my favorite worship songs), and Alycia went around and prayed with them and talked with them and asked them like "is this what you want? are you sure? you want to follow him with your life?" and they all said yes, except for one girl who thought it was all a little too fast for her. And then during the days again they just seemed to be uninterested in God, but that one night was very moving, it was incredible.

Well I have to get going

lovelovelove

courtney

Another day of camp. Today was big blue and wide eyed. Def. wasn't as cold as  weeks ago which was nice. I got shot right in the eye. I was pretty convinced my eye was going to explode after that. And the shaving cream stun my eyes. Lunch was good, but i didn't get any breakfast cause one of my campers took enough food for about 5 people and ate it herself. The food situation can sometimes be very frusterating. The girls have been fun, but very unresponsive to discussion and what not. They aren't very interested in what we have to say about God but they highly enjoy stories from the bible (when told in modern times). I seem to have so easily forgotten what 10 and 11 year olds were like til now. Crying is a daily thing and injuries are very commen which initiates more crying. Oh those days. I love counsilling with Alycia though, she's so much fun to counsil with. Well i've got some time off right now, and then cabin time and then working in the challenge course. I have also decided that I am going to gain lots of weight from being here or become fit from walking up and down from the beach and running around playing all the games. Haha. Not sure which way it will fall :P 

When I went home on the weekend it was so great to come home for a night, but when I came back I got such a home-like feeling. Like I was coming back to my family here at camp. It's a neat feeling. 

I went to the doctor yesterday to get my leg checked out. Turns out I had a staph infection on it so I got some antibacterial cream and now I am good to go!

Well I think I am going to go and play my guitar and read the bible a bit. Please keep praying, it really does mean a lot to me! 

But I have really come to appreciate all these kids. I talk to lots of them cause tons come through the challenge course and I met lots coming over on the ferry, and just to hear some of their stories is amazing, and they are such precious individual lives. They are gods children, the sheep to the shepard. God is so amazing. I almost started crying yesterday just thinking about how great he is. 

Oh I also forgot to mention that 2 weeks ago Sid rapped to Jesus Freak! It was awesome!!

Our speaker this week is really cool! His name is Johnny Mo. 

Well I really have to go now.

God bless,

LOVELOVELOVE

Courtney

Would the wind be at my back?

So the week is finally over!! Kitchen was tons of fun, but i am so exhausted from it, and im glad the week is over. Def. had tons of fun with Jenalee and Amy! Such amazing times in there!! Haha! The work wasn't really that hard, but it was long and tedious. Haha and we were supposed to make an apple and berry crisp 2 nights ago...but we had no berries or apples. So we were told to use rhubarb and strawberries and pears. Me and Jen cut up the rhubarb and made the crisp top and she did the rest. We were stoked for the end result and we thought the campers would love it cause last week the crisp we had was soooo good! Well we watched one girl eat some of the crisp and it looked like she was experiencing death. We were like "what the heck?". Well about 10 campers came up to me and told me it the was the worst thing ever, and some staff said it was pretty nasty. We were like what the heck? So we went and tried some. It was terrible. A staff asked if there was meat in it.... It tasted rotten, it was pretty gross. We think it was cause one of the head cooks didn't add sugar...so we are blaming him for the terrible end result. But other than that the food was good. Except this one day we had mac n cheese, and i was sooo looking foward to it, but there was none left in the end...which was really sad. I won't tell who i blamed it on but ya haha. We had to wake up at 6 this morning...we were supposed to start at 6, but didn't wake up like then :P I was late, but oh well, i was exhausted. We were out on the dock last night which was fun. Haha one of the staff was walking down the dock cause he was locking up and stuff and we didn't know who it was. So we thought it was Ken Bailey and we were terrified of getting Bailey beamed (which we had also gotten a scare of earlier, cause someone saw a light coming down the stairs which made us hit the deck!!! haha). We also thought he was all white so we were like "IT'S JESUS!!!" haha. So in the end it was either Ken Bailey or Jesus. It was Kevin. haha. It was funny. And we made the water glow!! I was waving my hand through it and things were glowing! It was the most amazing thing i've ever seen!!! CRAZY!! I was there for a while :P

But the campers were crazy this week. I didn't have any but they seemed insane!! Some were pretty brutal and I think a lot of them got sent home.

Well im waiting for laura to get home, and im on her computer, and there is no Y key, so I had to press this empty spot every time i want the letter Y. And it shocked me once when i tried to press it, so im trying to use that letter the least amount that I can. I think i've been doing well haha.

It was cold for a few days at camp. Like I was wearing jeans and long sleeve in kitchen which is unheard of cause its usually super super hot in there.

Well I don't really know what else to speak of. This week was lots of fun though, i'm counsilling next week. Cabin 15! With Alycia! Im super excited, should be lots of fun, tireing probably, but im stoked. I don't know what to do right now, maybe i'll make laura a card. I am going to go now. Farewell

With love

God Bless

Courtney

So im in kitchen this week.

It's been quite the gong show so far. I washed so much fruit and vegetables yesterday, I am pretty much master at it. 8 boxes of apples, 5 boxes of peppers, 2 boxes of broccoli and 2 boxes of oranges. Yup. And it was tragic yesterday when we ran out of knives and forks for the campers, which became a mad pandemic but we had pizza so it was all good. Theres a great group of people in the kitchen I think the week will be fun. We prepped breakfast lunch and dinner yesterday which was pretty awesome so today is going to be a breeze hopefully, and we can just prep tomorrow and all that jazz. Me and Amy were serving people the food during dinner yesterday, we had  a pretty epic system going on with the pizzas, but we some how ran out of firsts, which was not good. But we got more trays which saved us. Sometimes we wonder how bad of an idea it is that we're in kitchen together. We also have some awesome singing skills in the kitchen. Random worship songs are pretty much the best.

So my shift is from 10 - 715 this week, and on friday it's from 6-1. So it's not bad at all. I can't really sleep in though cause I have to go for breakfast and staff meeting. But thats ok. I really feel like I'm serving God by being in kitchen. Like theres a real purpose to my work, it's great. Like of course you feel more direct by being a counsilor to the kids, but I just really feel good being in the kitchen too. It's pretty neat.

I slept in today, which wasn't good. I missed breakfast and staff meeting and now i'm starving.

So I am going to snag an apple or something and get going so I can start cooking some food, woot!

Oh I would also like to mention that 8 out of 9 of my girls in my cabin gave their lives to Christ! PRAISE GOD!! It was amazing. My girls were so awesome, and it was so hard to say goodbye to them, some of them were crying and it was heartbreaking! I'm going to miss them! But it was really awesome to see the fruits of my labor after.

Ok I really have to go, I start work, well, now.

Bye!

With love,

God bless

Courtney

Feels like I finally see, you've really got a hold on me

Got another 5 minutes to write a blog..i'm pretty sure eventually i won't be able to write one everyday, but ya.
I got a camp purity ring today. I already have one, but the ones they give you at camp are pretty cool. It's black and it's not metal, its kinda like a plastic, but different...its hard to explain, but i'm really stoked to have another one! I hope that maybe I can get some of my girls some time this summer to get one if I tell them why I have it and stuff. I think that would be cool.
Today was water games! Big blue and wide eyed and liquified. Big blue is a giant slip with water and soap and slide and wide eyed is a game where you have to shoot shaving cream off peoples heads and try to shoot water into either yoda or darth vader on the other team. It was tons of fun, but I was sooo cold!
Eating time is getting a little frusterating with the girls. I have one girl and she is a tank!!! Like, no joke!! I pass the food out evenly to everyone, but if I put an extra down on the table she grabs is away and scarfs it down!! She's def. well off seeing as she has enough money in her tuck account to feed all of camp for 2 weeks, but she just eats alot! Its a bit frusterating cause sometimes i've put the food down on the table for myself and I layed it there so I could help out another girl and then she eats it, but whatever, they're just kids. But my girls eat a lot generally. I barely get to eat at all cause i'm always running to get 5ths for them. Theres also like 2 or 3 of them that i'm pretty sure don't know how to chew with their mouths closed! YUCK! But again, they're just kids!
Last night was neat. We gave them the opportunity to give their lives to Christ! We didn't do the typical "Jesus, I invite you into my heart..." thing, we prayed thanking God for everything and we told the girls they could pray it to themselves, but it wasn't really inviting Jesus into the heart because Sid has been talking a lot about how becoming a follower of Christ isn't about saying the words, it's about believing it in your heart and following him in your haert and with your actions. So praise Jesus!
Theres also a really difficult girl that has been causing a lot of trouble and quarrel among the others. Me and jacqui sat to talk with her today during big blue and wide eyed, but she didn't want to talk. So I decided to leave thinking maybe she was intimidated by two counsilors, and I think that was it. I looked back and she had started talking.
Well i'm off to do a devo cause i didn't wake up early this morning for one cause i was so tired.
Please pray for me for God to help me keep my focus on him and to really connect with him. It's very tiresome out here!
Farewell, with love
God bless,
Courtney