Updates

-I took my EMT National Registry back on the 11th. The day before, Jon had asked me to check out the requirements for camp nurses because he was having a hard time finding people willing to put so much energy into a week of camp. The next day, I was working in Adam's old office, while Jeff was working in Erin's old office (the are both in the chapel, on opposite sides of the stage). Every five minutes or so, I refreshed the EMT National Registry page to see if there were any results on my or Eli's registry. After refreshing for the zillionth time, I was surprised to find that my name was there! I ran across the stage over to the other office, started dancing around and announced to Jeff that my name was on the registry. (I was a little excited, and he was glad that one more of his students passed the test.) Later, he called me back to the office while he was talking to Jon so that I could tell Jon that I passed. Jon jokingly said that I could be the camp nurse and I jokingly agreed. Then, after a good laugh, his face brightened up and he asked if I would even be interested in being the healthcare professional. I thought about it for a second, and said sure. So now I'm going to put my EMT training to use and be the camp nurse for the whole summer!

-We've got a sort of summer leadership team started. This makes Tuesdays a whole lot of fun, because we have our intern meeting taking up most of the morning, summer leadership meeting after lunch, and staff meeting later in the afternoon. Our summer theme is "The REAL Adventure", and the camp usually has a different sub-theme every day that they use to base a game off of. I came up with the sub-themes and relevant activities. My thought behind it was new day, new continent, new kind of adventure. (It gave me a false sense of fulfillment to my wanderlust!) I came up with seven themes so that we can change up the themes a little from week to week. Here they are: Australian Outback Adventure will involve a relay full of traditional aborigine games, including some that involve playing basketball with a ball made of kangaroo. African Safari will have a bunch of jungle and animal themed games. Tour de Europe will have events such as Running with the Bulls, Castle Construction, and a French Cafe. Sledding Through Antarctica will utilize our sledding hill even in the heat of summer... by sledding on ice blocks! The North American Road Trip will have campers visiting all the destinations of Route 66 with a treasure hunt. Latin American Missions will give a taste of international mission work along with a few fun twists on traditional games. There will also be an Asian day (I haven't come up with a good adventure title for it yet, and I'm open to suggestions!), and I'm trying to figure out logistics to see if we can teach campers how to make paper lanterns and then floating them in the field at night.

-Our largest non-summer group was this weekend, with 180 3rd-5th graders. It was insane. But even better was a day group that came Saturday morning. We were told we were running the zip line for a birthday party, so we expected a group of kids. Instead, it was a group of all adults, and it was a birthday party for a 65-year-old man! It was crazy how he had so much fun on the zip line! Towards the end of their hour, Mike jokingly told the birthday boy that if he ran back, he could go on the zip line two more times. Not only did he actually run back to go two times, but after that he raced one of his younger friends up the steepest hill at camp, and won! A lot of those participants want to come back and try our other activities; they took a look at the climbing wall and big swing before they left! I hope my friends surprise me with a zip line birthday party in 44 years!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was tons of fun. We got Good Friday off, which I spent at camp. It was spent mostly reading, taking a nap, and doing a little bit of work on the construction project I'm working on  in my free time. That evening, Eli left for the weekend, but a few hours later, Kristjun showed up. He was planning on proposing to Sydney on Saturday, and wanted to borrow our speaker. (His idea was to dance to "their song" in a park right before proposing.) We ended up talking into late hours of the night. I told him changes the camp had encountered since he left, and he updated me on his crazy life. Eventually, I gave Kristjun a speaker and an umbrella (in case it rained), and I had the camp to myself. In all honesty, I hate being alone at camp, because there are a bunch of noises at night that I can't justify. So, because of a combination of hanging out with Kristjun and being terrified of every little noise, I didn't get much sleep that night. 

I got a text Saturday morning that said Mike would be picking me up by 10am. When we got to his house, I helped the kids fill hundreds of Easter eggs. They were having a party for their homeschool co-op that day, which started with an Easter egg hunt. The high schoolers and I hid all of the eggs at a nearby park so that the younger kids could find them. I really enjoyed meeting the teens. Of course I already knew the Solmen boys, but I also met their friends Shon and Angel. There were some other teens too, but they didn't spend as much of the day with us. 

After the Easter egg hunt, we went back to the house for brunch (even though it was already after noon!), followed by lots of games of cornhole, sitting around talking, and making one of those desserts that are supposed to represent Jesus' burial and resurrection. A few hours later, everyone that was still at the party loaded up and headed to camp. We did the zip line and big swing, but we all probably had the most fun playing Nine Square. After we got the game, it sat in boxes for about a week, so I finally set it up on Tuesday. (The instructions said it took three people to set up, but I set it up all by myself, which I'm sure means I'm pretty awesome.) This was the first time we had enough people at camp to play the game, and we played for hours. I think we only stopped for two reasons: 1) It got dark, and 2) It gets dark at 8:30 and only then did we realize we only ate one meal that whole day and we were hungry! I was really glad when Shawna invited me to sleep on their couch; it meant one less night alone at camp! 

After eating some leftovers and watching a bunch of episodes of Psych, everyone got real tired. I also realized that I was mildly sunburned on my face and lips, which I'm actually surprised it wasn't worse since I spent the whole day outside without sunscreen.

The next day, we went to church at Fremont Alliance. It's been awhile since I wasn't working on a Sunday and had the availability to go to church, and I really don't know what church I would go to even if I could. I've been going to Relevant all year, but since so many people quit working here, no one goes there anymore. Most people who work at camp go to Fremont Alliance, but everyone at camp under the age of 30 (i.e. Eli and me, although we also have part-timers who feel the same) doesn't really like to go there for several valid reasons. But, needless to say, I went to the church for Easter, had some breakfast, went to a decent service, visited a few people, and that was about it. 

After lunner, Mike and his kids went with me back to camp. This time, we did the high ropes first. (I finally tried the pamper pole and no longer have any high-adventure tasks left to try at camp. Well, at least not any camp-sanctioned high-adventure tasks to try!) Then we went to the climbing wall. Owen and Lyvvie decided that climbing wasn't the fun part, just rappelling. After that, they went home, and I started studying. I've got my EMT National Registry exam on Wednesday, and I am super nervous. Everyone in our class who took it has passed as far as I know, but that doesn't make me any less worried! I just really want to pass on Wednesday and not have to worry about it ever again (or at least not for the next two years!). 

Hmm... Coincidence?

As some of you may know, my original intentions were not to be in Nebraska this year. In fact, my plan was to not even be in the United States at all. I was supposed to be seeing the world by living with a rich family in Spain in exchange for taking care of their two kids. As you can see, my plan didn't work out. I believe it didn't work out because it was just that: my plan, not God's.

Working with kids has been a passion of mine, which was why the deal with Spain sounded so good until the monetary and legal roadblocks came up. I came to Nebraska not expecting to be involved in kids' lives all that much until summer camp. And although I ended up working with kids more than I expected, my assumptions were correct. I've been toying with different ideas of ways I can work with youth in a ministry setting after this. I had ideas, I was just waiting for an opportunity.

This past year has introduced many new passions into my life, as well as rekindling some old. I'm still terrified of heights, but I just love the adrenaline rush of being suspended thirty feet in the air on a telephone pole. (Doing the safety checks on our activities would have been a horrible and nauseous experience otherwise.) When I was in preschool, I wanted to be a builder, but then I got older and decided I was too smart/female/cool to be a builder. But after a few construction projects I've helped out with this year, today I decided to start my own secret project for the camp. I learned to love planning things, and this love of planning hasn't changed even through recent frustrations of things not happening due to lack of communication and poor planning on other's behalves as well as just the general topsy-turvy craziness that has happened this year. I also learned that I have a passion for hating spiders as they have begun to appear in places like the serving line, the living room, and even in Eli's truck while we were helping a friend move. But anyway, I've gained passions like these while other passions diminished, but my passion for working with kids stayed strong, and even seemed to grow.

So today, I got an e-mail from a lady I don't even know who lives in Wahoo (which is a short drive from Fremont). She has four kids with a fifth one on the way, and her current nanny is planning on going to college in the fall. She asked me if I was interested in becoming her nanny in October. I e-mailed her back telling her about myself, and she responded with more information. She sounded really excited hearing about me and my willingness to work with kids. Although Nebraska definitely is not Europe, doing this next year is almost exactly what I had originally wanted to do this year (although more kids equals more fun!).

But here's the dilemma: As soon as I accepted this job in Nebraska, I realized that God's plans are always better than my own. So with this upcoming opportunity, I want to know whether or not it is God's plan before I make it my own. Some things that make me think that it may not be is the fact that I've been spending this year learning about ministry to end up with a job the next year that was not in ministry. (Although I suppose it could serve as a great opportunity to minister to this one individual family, and my weekends would be open so I could still work at Rivercrest.) Plus, after things didn't work out with Spain this year, passions that I had for a long time (like living internationally) quickly diminished, and I'm not sure whether or not being a nanny would be one of those lost passions. I guess what I'm saying is, I could really use some prayer for this decision, and if I'm not meant to work in this capacity, I pray that God opens up the door I'm supposed to go through and leads me through it.