Overwhelming

There is so much going on right now in my life, little of which I can even talk about, but I can tell you a little of what I'm learning. God is bigger than the boogie man. We all have boogie man's in our lives. Mine typically show up as fear, insecurity, and pride, and when they do, they tend to wreak havoc all over th place. So I'm constantly having to fall at the Cross, surrender my fears, my insecurities, and my pride...confessing that only He knows the end result and it will bring Him glory. Seriously, it's a constant battle, a constant surrender.

Sometimes I feel like I just barely have one nostril above the water. It's overwhelming, but God is showing up. He's comforting me, showing me extensive amounts of grace, and answering prayer. In the darkness, He is there guiding me, holding me up.

I'd like to request your prayers today. I covet them. I'll explain later, but let's just say I could really use them. Pray for wisdom, discernment, and direction. But overall pray for God's glory in all things.

I apologize for the vagueness. Please know that it's not the end of the world, just not something I'm able to talk about at this moment. Thank you.

If you're a parent, you can probably relate to how I've been feeling lately (or at least I hope you can). Can I just say that Satan certainly knows where we are the weakest, and for me, it's my worth? This has been a challenging week for me, one I wasn't going to even blog about because of the fear of what people might think. Isn't that just down right silly? Believe me, it probably keeps me writing half of what I would write (and sometimes that's a good thing). Ok, Hillary, get to the point, right? I have to open camp this morning, so I only have about 7 minutes to get this out.

So Monday, Owen's sitting in assembly looking a bit sluggish. I get down on my knees and beckon him over where he sits on my squatted knee and gives me a giant hug. Uh oh, he's warm. Immediately I take him to the nurse. Yep, Owen has a fever. Normal people with normal jobs would probably leave right away, but given that he had absolutely no other symtoms, I let him hang with the nurse for a while and then take a nap. By the time we got home that day, his fever was gone. It must have been something he was fighting off and he won...not so fast. On Tuesday, Neil stayed home with him half a day and then brought him to camp. Turns out that the church's policy is that if he had a fever in the last 24 hours, he can't come to camp. Being the calm, cool, and collective person that I am, I totally freaked out on Michelle, Karin, and Amy D when I realized that Owen was pulled from his group. But there was a bit more going on than just Owen's symtomless illness.

Moments prior to this, I had just arrived back at camp from Madison's six month check up. It seems that not only is she still tiny, but she's actually lost a pound since her 4 month visit. The whole way back to camp, I was kicking myself for not knowing. Of course, I'd noticed that she was tiny, but how did I not see that she'd actually lost weight? Needless to say I was already in a vulnerable place, and then to come back and see Owen sitting in the big green chair (that is the coolest chair ever) in the nurse's station, I just lost it. It had nothing to do with whomever was in the room. I was feeling like a failure and easily went into fight or flight mode. Suddenly I felt the need to protect myself and my family.

We went straight home. It'd been a long time since I was home at 2:30 in the afternoon. I wasn't sure what to do with myself or my kids. How sad is that? I could tell my patience was thin, and this nagging feeling in my gut would not go away. Satan kept feeding me the lies. "How could you not have known?" "A good mom would have kept her kids home all day today?" "You're just not enough for either of them."

Oh but it gets better. My symtomless kid starts complaining that his ear hurts. Oops, maybe he is sick and has an ear infection. I decided that a good mom would take her son to the doctor, and that's just what I did. I even asked for a strep culture even though his throat wasn't even the slightest bit pink. The doctor thought I was being overzealous, but since he'd been exposed to it at camp, I thought it was best to be sure. Never in a million years did I expect that test to come back positive. I mean his hurting ear turned out to be a mild case of swimmer's ear, and let's remember that he has no other symptoms. Seconds after I got the prescription filled for the ear drops, the nurse calls...positive for strep. Are you kidding me? Let's just stab another dagger in my heart. Immediately I turned around, marched back into the pharmacy, and got him some amoxicillan (which he took right away at 12:19). Of course this means he has to be away from other kids for 24 hours. He'll be at camp today at 12:20 (or somewhere around there), after my more than awesome hubby hangs out with him this morning.

Actually when it comes to sicknesses, I don't get all germaphobic, but I see how people respond to sick kids. It's like they have leprosy or something. Owen got strep from another boy at camp, and somebody may get it from him. I get the whole not wanting to get sick thing, but considering the incubation period on most illnesses, there is no way, we can protect our kids from everything. Owen had strep and it was barely noticeable, if at all. Normally, he's a pretty healthy kid despite my lack of germaphobia.

And when it comes to Madison, the doc thinks it's simply a caloric thing. We went through this with Blake, not this extreme, but still the same thing. We are going to beef up her solid intake and recheck her weight in 2 weeks. Right now, I am focusing on the calories and the recheck, trying desperately not to think about what happens if she's still not gaining in 2 weeks. I'd appreciate your prayers for all my kids as well as myself in this time.

Gotta go...or I'm going to be late.

So Totally Stoked; This Entry May Seem More Like Rambling

About a month or so ago, I blogged about some exciting stuff going on in our lives that I wasn't able to talk about...yet! Well, as of last night, this very same exciting stuff has become public knowledge so now I can talk about it all I want. To be honest, I'm not a very good secret keeper in general, but when the secret is this huge, I'm more of a secret keeper failure. I may have let it slip on more than one occassion, but I chalk it up to more of an outburst of the overflow of my heart then anything else.

For five years, Neil and I have been attending Grace Community Church. More specifically, we go to Fusion, a young adults service that meets on Sunday evenings. In all actuality, to us atleast, Fusion is more than just a service. It's our church, our community, our family. So when I heard that TJ was moving towards "transplanting" Fusion to the Catonsville/Elkridge area, it was a no brainer. Hello, we live in Catonsville. We love Fusion. Basically, we're changing the location of where we worship.

I don't really have a lot of time to go into all the details of the whys and hows and what nots? But I will say that my first response to TJ was "why didn't we do this 3 years ago?" It's a good move for TJ, for Fusion, and for us. I'm so excited, I can barely keep it together. Seriously, I felt like I was going to explode last night as TJ & Mark Norman were making the official announcement to Fusionites.

So what comes next? People will have to decide whether they stay at Grace and join a movement to shepherd the young adults left behind or to go with Fusion, or whatever it's new name might be, on an exciting adventure in the Catonsville area.

Can I just say that Grace Community Church is 100% behind this move, prayerfully and financially? There have been some rumors floating around that are simply not true. And even if they were, who cares? It's clear to me that God is all up in this. And in case you're wondering, this decision in no way impacts my ministry at and through camp.

Speaking of camp, if you want to know what's going on, check out www.graceadventuresdaycamp.blogspot.com!

A Litmus Test

I just finished reading our camp devotional for this morning that rubbed me the wrong way. The writer pulled out the 3rd of the Great Ten Commandments. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain." (Exodus 20:7). He then, like usual, applied this command to people texting "omg" or saying "swear to god" or "holy cow." Now I don't know this for sure, but I don't think God was so concerned about the Israelites speech patterns that he sent Moses up on a mountain to tell him about it. If you're going to pick only 10 commandments, you'd think they would be pretty darn important, right? Especially the 3rd one. Can I get an amen? (Why do people say that anyways?)

In my opinion taking the Lord's name in vain goes deep below the words or phrases that we say, far beneath the common sayings in our culture. Do we give glory to God in all that we do? If not, then we're breaking the 3rd commandment, which I probably break 80% of the time. I think that we take the Lord's name in pride when we speak from a root of pride, when we take credit for what is obviously (or not so obviously) the Lord's hand moving, when we presume that we know what is going to happen, even when we speak of what the Lord will do for us. Yes, I believe that Exodus 20:17 was intended to warn His people not to glorify themselves or take credit for what He has done.

Now let's go back to the beginning for a minute. Don't get me wrong. I think it's important to have clean and appropriate speech, but how would you define that? Cuss words are completely cultural. What is considered bad here in America may not be considered so bad in another country. Of course, we could substitute cutesy words for the bad ones, but does it really change the meaning? If I say "what the flipper," have I changed the meaning than if I said "wtf?" Or what about "oh my gosh," as opposed to "omg?" Or "shoot" instead of "shit?" My point is that a word is simply a word until you add the emotion behind the word, that is what gives it true, contextual meaning. And changing the word doesn't at all change the intended use of the word.

So what is the litmus test for word usage? "Do let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building others up, according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Eph 4:29

God is more concerned about our hearts, our intent, our motives, our actions. Let's take a look around us before we speak. What effect would whatever we were going to say have on the people around us? Would it build them up?

This is definitely something that I will be thinking about throughout the day. I struggle with sarcasm and a lack of tactfulness. I could use a litmus test for my speech, and the intended use of it.

Now This Makes Me Proud...

My Aunt sent me an email with a link to a video. Normally, I wouldn't pay any attention, but for some reason, I clicked on the link, scrolled down the page, and pressed play. It wasn't 15 seconds later that warm tears were flowing freely down my face, feeling both sad and proud all at the same moment...proud to be an American, proud to be a Georgian (at heart), and proud to be part of the human race. That's all I'm going to say...just watch the video.

Picnics, Laundry, and Chic-Flicks!

It's amazing how much you can cram into 48 hours. What is supposed to be a time of relaxation and refreshment ends up being a marathon event, running from place to place, accomplishing task after task. I honestly believe that I wake up more tired on Monday morning then I do on any other day of the week. So where does the time go? Let's recount.

Friday we decided to stay home, eat leftovers and just chill. Great decision because we were about to hit overdrive. While we're "just chilling," Neil says, "Oh, I forgot, the Canoe Club picnic is tomorrow." OK Hillary, don't freak. How often do I omit tiny details such as this? "Sure, honey, as long as we are down at Maple Lawn by 5."

Saturday morning wasn't too bad. I weighed in 3.6 pounds lighter (which I'm thinking might be more muscle loss than fat loss, but we'll see). The rest of the morning consisted of me trying to put a dent in Mt. Dirty Hamper and preparing to be gone the entire day. And when you're going to two large events that both contain some sort of swimming attraction and of course the sun, there is a lot to think about...snacks, drinks, sun block, swim stuff, change of clothes, food for Madison, etc...! It's enough to send someone to the funny farm (only it wasn't so funny, and definitely not how I wanted to start the day). Of course by the time we got in the car, I was spouting off at Neil how he hadn't helped enough or noticed any of the amazing stuff I was doing for our family. Seriously, Hills, it's just sun block, but in the moment, it seemed so important. Doesn't it always? The forty minute drive to Pasadena was a bit stressed to say the least. All was resolved by the time we reached the shore, but it makes me wonder why I have to be so stinkin' sensitive?

The Baltimore Canoe Club picnic turned out the be the windiest event I think I've ever been to. It's probably the first time I've experienced a constant wind strong enough to blow anything away that isn't securely anchored that isn't associated with a rather large storm. It was just windy, and apparently normal for the shore, but just annoying to me. But it didn't ruin the event. At first Owen kept saying he wanted to go home. "Why Owen?"

"I'm just scared, Mommy. The water is too big." I'm thinking that the meer expanse of the water firghtened him. He's used to swimming in a pool, but by the end of the picnic, he was out there swimming in the muck of the Magothy (with a water snake might I add). Blake and Owen both enjoyed their time there, but didn't fight us when it was time to go to the next party.

Maple Lawn is a community across the street from Grace Community Church. Let's just say that Neil and I could probably afford a closet there. Once a year, they open up their "doors" to the community for a day of free fun, food, and fireworks. This year, Grace decided to be part of that. We set up a sand art table (left over from the picnic), and had at it. It actually became more of a camp thing, and what good exposure it was for us. We didn't have a ton of conversations about camp or church, but people knew we were there. It's just another opportunity to sprinkle our vision over the community. I'm pretty sure we'll be back next year, if for no other reason than the boys to play in their kick-butt pools. Neil, Blake & Owen spent more time in the water on Saturday than out of it, or so it seemed. Saturday night I simply could not fall asleep. Maybe I was too tired. I stayed up watching Chick-flicks until 2 am, and 7 am came pretty early.

Sunday wasn't so eventful as it was packed full with the mundane tasks required to kick off a new week, sea of laundry, grocery shopping, packing bags, etc... By the time we left for church, I was just done. Thankfully it was food & fellowship night because that means I don't have to worry about what to feed my family for dinner. When we got home, I consciously dedided to do nothing to rest of the night, and nothing consisted of watching The Parent Trap until 11:30...way too late when you have to get up at 5 am, not a good choice as I sit here now trying to process the fact that I have to leave my house in 20 minutes and wishing I had done some prep work last night. Oh well, you live and you learn. I could have chosen not to blog, or spend time in the word, but those things are more important to me then getting out of the house on time.

I bet you're wondering what happened to me? Here I was blogging every morning and then poof, there she goes again. Actually, it's not that I haven't thought about it (constantly actually). It's more that I was choosing to blog instead of spending time with God, and it was taking a toll on me through out the day. So I thought, since I'm blogging about camp, I'll just find time during camp to blog. And here we are on Wednesday morning and I've yet to write about anything this week. Solution? The only one I could come up with is to have my quiet time and then blog, all before I leave the house. We'll see how it goes.

So, week 1; not technically the first week of camp, but since it's the first full-day week of camp, we're calling it week 1. We'll rethink that for next year. I just have to get this off my chest, so bear with me for a moment...we have the best staff ever. From the leadership to the counselors, I see people hungry for the Lord and excited to be on the "mission field" at Grace Adventures Day Camp.

Getting to know people in a camp environment is no easy task. Sure we spend 11 hours a day together, but how much time do we have to go deeper? I'm so thankful for our devo times, but in all honesty, most of us are still waking up so the depth can be a bit shallow (& not in the conceited way). But those that I have had a chance to spend some quality time with have been nothing short of an encouragement to me. To see their character lived out on the soccer field or back deep in the "non-woods" we call the hollow, or their hearts lived out in during camp song in assembly...it's a privilege to be in a position where I can observe, and hopefully exhort.

Now God has not made exhortation a key gift for me, but I know of it's great importance, so I'm at least attempting to use it regardless. I'm also trying to encourage the staff to lift each other up through prayer, notes in boxes, etc.... As the weeks go by, and bonds continue to form, it will be cool to see the different ways that they carry each other through the summer.

I wanted to highlight one counselor in particular. Iman was one of the first people to apply to camp, way back in February. She was also one of the first we hired. From the get go, I could see her excitement for this summer. But it wasn't until staff training that I began to see her heart. Granted, I haven't had much time to spend with her outside of camp, but because of a particular circumstance, I've had a couple opportunities to get to know her better.

During staff training, Iman came to me and asked about the room I had for rent. She had heard me talking to Amy about possibly renting out Mat's room when he goes off and gets married. Neil and I had decided if God sent someone to us that met our criteria, then we'd love to have another roommate. Of course Mat's shoes are hard to fill. He's like family.

So I told her about the room, the basement, the house, and the chaos, and it didn't scare her away. Then I told her about our expectations like the fact that we want that person to not just be a tenant, but part of the family (oh and they have to keep their bathroom clean). Iman seemed intrigued, but moving out of mom's house is a huge step for her, for anyone. On Monday, she came over after camp for dinner and to see the room. It was so much fun to have her there and to be able to hear more of her story. She fit right in, and yesterday let me know that she was pretty sure she wanted to do it. Yay! I'm actually pretty stoked about having a girl live with us. Fun girl time without leaving the house? Yay again! Plus Iman does have the gift of exhortation, so I can totally learn a bunch from her. I hope she rubs off on me.

Oh goodness, I so have to go take a shower, or I may never get to camp this morning.

A 4th I'll Remember...especially my achy body.

By the time I rolled into bed last night around 11:45, I was exhausted to say the least. Oh what a day. Let's see, it started off with both boys parading around our room at about 7:00 am. I'm thinking they haven't mastered the idea of sleeping in on weekends. It's cool though, it was still sleeping in to me considering I get up around 5 am during the week (at least during camp time). I made breakfast for my family (and Neil's uncle, aunt, and cousin...which I'll tell about later), good old cheese grits, eggs, sausage, and fresh fruit. Then Owen, Madison and I took off to Target for a couple necessities like pop-tarts (they make camp mornings so much easier), snacks for lunch, and a birthday present for Tucker. Owen actually picked out a remote control tarantula which I thought was pretty cool, but decided that it was better for Michelle's family then my own. Plus it just so happened to be on clearance. Have I mentioned how much a love a good deal?

After Target we were off to Michelle's house to celebrate Tucker's 4th birthday. Of course Owen was confused by this. "Mommy, why isn't it my birthday. My birthday is next." Yeah, I'm starting to rethink my recent strategy to divert his attention from Blake's birthday by making sure he knew that his birthday was coming up next...in our family. Oh well, we're in the why stage anyways, so really any topic would have annoyed me at that point. The party was great/ Lots of friends, both mine and Owen's. Lots of food, enough to make me feel glutenous (but that faded later). And even a little camp talk, though we tried to keep it to a minimum.

Oh goodness, I have to tell you about the phone call I got earlier that morning. So my phone is ringing and I look down and notice it's not a number I recognize. Now, on any other day of the year (except maybe Christmas), I would answer it "Grace Adventures Day Camp, This is Hillary. How may I help you?" Since my cell phone doubles as the camp phone, it makes sense. But yesterday, when I saw this number, I thought, "oh it's the 4th and no one would call camp on the 4th." Sure enough, it was a mom wanting to sign her three kids (not the same lady whose message I deleted) up for camp next week. From now on, I'll make sure to stick to my self=imposed policy.

We left the party around 1:30. I had almost decided not to go to the parade. I was tired. Owen was tired. Madison was teething and cranky. So I went over to Old Navy to see if I could find some shorts. They had 1 pair in the whole store in my size, so I bought it. We roll up to the dressing room and I realize Owen is asleep in the back of the cart. Great, now what? I get him into the car and decide to wait a few minutes, still on the fence as to whether to walk in the parade. Around 2:30 Owen wakes up. "Mommy, are we going to the parade now?" That sealed it. But the parade started at 3:00 and we were supposed to be there at 2:00 to line up. I called my friend Leslie who is the secretary of the republican club (and also lives in my neighborhood) and asked if it was too late. Nope, she just told me where I needed to go. Since we live so close, it was easier to just go home and walk then it would have been to try and find a parking space. In super hero speed, I parked, went potty, got out the stroller, loaded up the kids, and literally ran (in flip flops) about a mile to where they were lining up.

Owen was intrigued, to say the least. He'd never seen a parade before. Since our float was about half way through the line up, we got to watch the first half of the parade from an up close and personal vantage point. When it was our turn to start walking, I asked Owen if he wanted to walk and wave. He said no, and he literally sat in the stroller the entire time. We were walking with the Patapsco Valley Republican Club. Surprisingly enough, we weren't greeted by many boos. Actually I only heard one from a loony looking guy who looked three sheets to the wind and a little off his knocker. Mostly we were greeted by enthusiastic cheers and even a few people who joined us in the parade. Once we got to the end of the parade route, it was time to walk home. I'm guessing it's about a two miles. Keep in mind, I'd already walked that if not more. By the time we got home, I was utterly exhausted, aching even, and no longer feel glutenous.

We were home for a few hours, ate dinner, relaxed, and then got ready to head out again. This time were going to see the fireworks at the high school. We figure it's about 2 1/2 to 3 miles to the school. Since we were walking we didn't have to deal with traffic or the hassle of finding a parking space. But it was a long walk, and of course, we still had to get home. But we got there, found a place to sit, and waited for the 'works to begin. The kids were beyond tired, but the excitement and anticipation kept them up for a little while.

The show began around 9:30. Blake was intrigued, Owen was scared and Madison cackled at the sparkly fun. I'm not sure exactly how long the show lasted, but by the end, we had three sleeping children and two sleepy parents. On the walk home, Blake was snoozing in the little red wagon, Madison was snoozing in her car seat, and Owen was trying to snooze in the back of the stroller (but it's really not that conducive for snoozing).

All in all, I'd say I got plenty of exercise yesterday. In fact, my muscles will attest to that this morning. The kids had a lot of fun being exposed, for the first time, to all the 4th festivities.

Today I'm taking a Sabbath. This is the first Sunday, in so long I can't remember, that I haven't had to go in to work. So we're just chilling out (except for the grocery shopping). This morning, we're going out to breakfast, and then off to run some family errands, maybe a park for the kids, and then home to rest. I'll pick up tomorrow with a few more camp stories. I want to tell you about our picnic on Friday and Neil's family's visit, but right now I hear the sound of a very hungry baby.

"Друг"

"Я имею друга, который говорит на русском языке." One of our campers went home and uttered this phrase to his mom. "I have a friend who speaks Russian." See, Ethan was recently adopted from Kazakhstan, along with his brother Alex, by a friend of mine, who just happened to be part of our orginial curriculum team for camp. A few weeks ago, I saw her name pop up on our registration software, and I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to see it. Immediately I gave her a call. Were they really thinking of sending their children to camp. I mean, they've only been back in the States for a few weeks?

They decided to try out the Taste of Camp week to see how they do. Alex is 4 and the most adorable little thing you've ever seen. His smile literally lights up the room. He and his brother know very little English, but I'm thinking being immersed into an environment with 35 other kids spitting out 500 words a minute is a pretty good way to learn. We placed Ethan in HJ's group. Poor HJ, I kind of forgot to clue him in on the language barrier (and a few other things), but this guy rose to the occassion. Tuesday afternoon I noticed he was reading a Russian/English dictionary. Now this was after Ethan had already gone home for the night. Can I just say that it's this type of behavior that makes me so proud of the staff we have at camp? The next day Jaclyn (the mom) told me that Ethan had come home and said, "friend, I have a friend who speaks Russian." As a mom myself, I know how that would make me feel, confident, safe, and proud. I'm not saying that's how Jaclyn felt, but I'll bet it made her glad she had decided to send them to camp.

They're thinking of coming back another week in the summer so Ethan and Alex can go to camp with another family, who are also adopted and speak Russian as well. Alena came to camp last summer and loved it. This year, she is bringing her brother along with her. What a picture of our vision. We're buiding bridges. We're creating a "safe place" for people to come and be loved. It's for this reason that I know I'm just where I'm supposed to be. And I'm so thankful that God has made that known to me.

Today we're having a cookout and inviting all of our camp families to join us. From what I've heard, most will be, even those with working parents (most people are off today...most). I'm excited to hear more stories and be able to share them here. Hopefully I'll get up some pics too.

The scene was just how I had pictured it in the shower. Campers, parents, staff, and friends hanging out, eating, playing, and chatting it up at Chick-Fil-A. I'm not sure exactly how many came or for that matter how much money we made, but I'm pretty sure we accomplished what we set out to do...facilitate building community. I had the opportunity to meet the rest of the families of some campers and talk more in depth with their moms about how they were liking camp. Everyone I talked to was super stoked about camp in general, and all said they were interested in coming back for a full day camp either later this summer or next. Sweet! That's why we did Taste of Camp week, to entice campers to want to come more.

It's safe to say that I'm starting out the morning on the right foot. Camp is going great, and I don't just use that word lightly. Of course, it hasn't been without it's surprises, kinks, and splinters, but for the most part, I have no complaints.

My deleted message still hasn't called back, so if you guys could continue praying for that. I'd greatly appreciate it. And there are a couple ladies either on our staff or in our "camp family" who are pregnant and in their third trimester. Please join us in praying for them to be able to carry a healthy baby to full term. Of course we're excited about expanding said family, but we'd like them to hold out until they're fully cooked.

So funny story, and I'll have to post the picture in the next couple of days, but my oldest is so stinking shy. I've just never seen it before. He's always so comfortable around me and most everyone else in his life, but I'm telling you, that boy is like a turtle. Yesterday was the first day he started to come out of his shell at camp, and yesterday was not picture day. So on Tuesday's we take group pictures. In his picture, he's sitting on his counselor's lap (probably unwillingly) turning his body as much as he can away from the camera. All the other camper's in the pic are smiling, having a great time, and here's Owen fleeing from the spotlight. What a wake up call. Hillary, your seemingly outgoing, fun loving son is an introvert (just like his dad). It's not a bad thing by any means, I just didn't see that coming. Maybe Blake will get my personality. I need at least one more extrovert in this house.

Also, I'm pretty sure we're going to start a camp blog. That way we can send everybody to it, and our other director's can add to it as well. Most likely, I'll continue to write about camp here and then transfer it there. Seriously, what else am I going to write about. I pretty much eat, sleep & breathe camp.

Also, on a side note from camp, could you all pray for my BFF Jo and her family? Just pray that their Jehovah Jireh will provide for their every need, abundantly according to His glorious riches. Thanks!

Today, I hope to out more amongst the campers and not stuck inside either in meetings or doing much needed paperwork. But I'd love to be able to tell more specific stories about camp in general. And don't stop praying for our scholarship fund. We still need about $2000!

Even in the Stupidity

You know when you do something, and the second you do it, you realize you shouldn't have? Yep, I had a moment like that yesterday. I was listening to a voicemail from a mom who wanted to sign 3 (count them 3) middle schoolers up for our SIT camp. While I'm listening to this message, I'm also conveying to Michelle what I'm hearing. When I got to the "3 friends" part, I put up my three fingers to Michelle and we both started freaking out, because 3 more SIT campers will bring us to a total of 20 for week 1 (which fill us up). In all the excitement, and in one wish I could replay moment, I took the phone away from my ear, pushed the number 7, and hung up.

It wasn't even a second later that I'd realized what I had done...deleted the message. In desperation, I got back into my voicemail hoping there was some sort of holding box for deleted messages...yeah, not so much. Caller ID isn't an option because the call was forwarded to my phone from the church. So it's gone. All we can do is hope the mom calls back. Please pray with us that she calls back. This is definitely not an example of good customer service. But somehow I know that even in my stupidity, God will be glorified. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, I was in the shower the other day thinking about Chick-Fil-A, and I had an idea. Of course all shower ideas are good ideas, right? Anyways, I ran said idea by the leadership team, got a go ahead, and made the call. The end result? We're inviting everyone to join us as Chick-Fil-A on John Hopkins road every Wednesday night from now until August 5th. The folks there have been so gracious as to allow us to do a fundraiser along side their kid's night. So here's the deal (and there is a deal). For every combo meal you buy, you'll get a FREE kid's meal (assuming you have a kid) and 20% of the proceeds will go to our scholarship fund. All of us that have kids were planning on being there anyways, but this way, we can continue to build relationships with camp families and the community. So come on out tonight or any Wednesday through August 5th. We'll also have camp bumper magnets (though magnets don't normally stick to bumpers) & water bottles available to purchase (and hopefully hats soon). The proceeds of all of our merchandise goes directly to our scholarship fund.

Until tomorrow!