IfYouGiveAMindensenABlog

I feel like I've slightly summed up May in my 'Ode to 21', but at the same time as that was not strictly speaking a 'Newsletter' update, I will attempt to quickly sum-up the month of May now...

Camp-wise, the beginning of May=Mens' Retreat weekend. Which went amazingly well. It was Baseball themed, and the speaker was the Chaplin from the Detroit Tigers. From what I saw and heard it was a successful weekend. At the end of that weekend we had two people join 'the staff' as early-arrival summer workers. One, is officially apart of the Senior Staff on Maintenance, and the other will be 'Interning' this summer as 'The Nature Guy'. I'm excited to see how things go with the Nature Center this summer. He has a lot of GREAT ideas.
A week or so later, my fellow Outfitters and I left with the Stiles on a surprise trip to the Detroit area. It was AWESOME. We went to Greenfield Village, which I'd never been to before. We also got to stay at Sarah Stile's parents house. They were so welcoming. Spending time with her parents was DEFINITELY one of the highlights for me. We also visited the Detroit Holocaust museum, and spent one of the evenings in Greek time. We ended our surprising traveling by going to Shipshewana(sp?). We went to the Mennonite museum, and to the Flea-market (I've wanted to go there for awhile, it was great!) All-in-all, it was a fun time being together.

Another 'main event' was my launching party. Bair Lake exists as a launching pad for people to make Jesus Christ known to their communities and world. Therefore, since I was getting ready to 'graduate' from the discipleship program, it was thus dubbed as getting ready 'to launch'. I had ZERO part in the planning. They decided to completely surprise me, and I was certainly surprised. I made it almost through their entire 'surprise' breakfast without suspecting a thing...they had to tell me what was going on...I LOVE my fellow Outfitters...it was certainly a VERY special day for me...THANKS GUYS! (if you're reading this...) ...the day closed with a big cook-out with the rest of staff and other friends. I was very touched, and it has certainly been a privilege to have worked these last two years with such godly, loving people. I'm going to miss them all dearly.

My younger brother Caleb graduated High School on the 25th, so I went home for that. I returned with a car! :)

Memorial Day weekend, found all four of us Outfitters working camp's Open House, but once we shut-down, we all piled into my car and drove the FOUR hours (which turned into 5) down to where my family was camping for the weekend. Camping Memorial Day weekend is one of my personal highlights of the year. I was really excited to be able to share it with my fellow Outfitters. It was fun having them be able to interact with my family and our friends for the weekend...I think everyone had fun... =D

So, this isn't turning into a 'quick' summary...oh well...I'm almost finished! =D

I was able to spend my 21st birthday at camp, but then on June 3rd (after driving home to switch vehicles/pick-up my younger brother), I moved back home from camp. My younger brother, Caleb is on the Senior Staff this year, so I moved him onto camp, and he helped me load the van with my stuff. It was a bittersweet moment, but I'm excited for his time at camp. I pray that his experience at camp will draw him close to God as well.

I'm currently in that 'awkward' in between stage. I'm not officially doing anything right now. It's hard, but it's kind of nice. I've been able to set-up my room, so I don't have to do that when I move back again in August. It has also given me a chance to kind of reflect and process through some stuff before moving onto the next thing. My time at camp has been good...not always easy, but good. I've learned a lot. I've been challenged, and I've grown. I know that I am much stronger now in my faith then before, and have a greater peace about who God is; specifically who He is to me...(Psalm 113) and I look forward to all that He is going to continue to do in my life and in the lives of the people around me. To those of you still at camp...Keep in touch...for those of you who aren't...SAME! =D

I love you guys! Thanks for all the prayers, support, and encouragement! ♥

God is GOOD!♥