Plans, Plans, and Other Plans

Planning for summer camp is fun! Okay, there's nothing especially fun about it, but it's a unique change of pace.

Last weekend, we had the first-ever recorded wedding at Camp Rivercrest! (The camp has been around for 53 years, so it was a historic mark!) Eli and Bailey kind of wanted THEIR wedding to be the Rivercrest first, but from all the wedding ideas Eli was bouncing off of me after the wedding, it sounds like they will likely have the BEST wedding at Rivercrest ever. (Unless, of course, I decide to get married at Rivercrest. Then I will definitely have the best Rivercrest wedding! Muahaha.) I've only thought a little about my possible future wedding up until this point, but setting up for the wedding and working at the reception definitely inspired a few ideas. It was a lot of work that kept us going from early evening until almost midnight, but at least I thought it was fun to have all the staff decked out in their formal garb.

So after that experience, work has gotten a little more relaxed, even though summer camp is coming up fast. Here's just a shortened list of things I have to do:
-Set up the nurse's station.
-Learn how to use Camp Brain for medical documentation.
-Get and set up all supplies for games and make sure that the games can be done effectively.
-Decorate the chapel.
-Do some research for topics that will be discussed during staff training week.
-Clean out the Batcave and try to find a place for all that junk!
-Help with all the typical week-to-week things like mowing, landscaping, cleaning, and weekend groups.
And this all has to be done by the time staff training starts in three weeks!

Kirk has been working hard at painting the chapel the past couple of days, so today I joined him with my decorating. I came up with a lot of the designs for the chapel decorations, and we were able to begin making them a reality. Here's the "Before" pictures; I'll be sure to post "After" pictures when I finish!

Each bay of the chapel will be based on the different theme days. Here's part of the Latin American decorations

The rest of what I have so far for the Latin American decorations- pinatas and chili pepper lights!

We plan to plaster this wall with road maps, and then  use the Styrofoam circles to write John 10:10 in different languages.

Kirk is an awesome artist! But since he'll be on vacation until June,  he drew me some continent-specific animals  so that all I have to do is paint them, cut them out, and put them on the wall. Here's what I have so far for the Chinese dragon.

I can take absolutely no credit for this- it was Jon's idea to have a car crashing through the wall. Kirk painted it and Shawna and Kirk painted the summer logo.

I had decorated my room and the guest room with these paper lanterns I found in the Batcave a couple months ago. But with these lights, they make perfect decorations for Asia!

Summer camps raise money for a specific cause; this year for an orphanage in China that Jenn has visited. I came up with the idea that as we raise money, our plane can travel from Fremont, NE and closer to Beijing, China. (Okay, I actually copied that from a fundraiser I'm currently participating in. Which, by the way, if you'd like to contribute to Ellie's Run for Africa, please do so here! Shawna painted North America, and Kirk painted Asia

A little bit of patriotism is in the North American section!

Jenn thought it would be cool to have the world at the back of the chapel. We found this sheet so that Kirk could paint it, but there was still a bunch of white space. I suggested including our summer theme verse, John 10:10.

The most completed section yet- Antarctica! Kirk made the penguin, I made the snow and the South Pole, and I was happy to find all these snowflakes stored in the winter decorations- there were so many we couldn't use them all! All that's left to do in this section is put up a map of Antarctica in the blank section with a sled dog team running through it.

So I haven't even started on Africa, Australia, or Europe, and there's still a lot of work to be done with all the other sections. The sad thing is that all of the Solmens are going on vacation to Ohio tomorrow, so we'll be missing the extra hands!

Last week, I had an interview for a nanny position. It was a little early since the job probably wouldn't start until October, but it worked out well for both of our schedules. Since it's so early, I have no idea yet whether or not I'll be hired. The next day, Jon was asking me about what I was doing after summer camp and I told him about my interview. He was surprised and thrilled that I wanted to stay local. As I was cleaning up the decorating supplies in the chapel today, he came up to me and began complimenting my design work and saying there were a lot of skills I have that I don't mention. (Maybe I just didn't know that I had them!) He asked me again if I would be interested in working here longer. He said he could probably get me something here through the fall, but knew that there really wasn't anything to do here in the winter. After the board meeting on Saturday, he'll probably have more details on what's manageable for the camp. So I don't know exactly what I'll be doing after summer, but God has plans!

I've been thinking about plans lately, from the spiritual perspective on things. Plans change a lot. I can't even count how many times plans have changed during this internship! My personal plans sure have changed a lot; who thought I'd be interested in working at camp longer, or becoming a health professional, or getting my hands dirty with outdoor work? So I think I should end this entry with Jeremiah 29:11, with a reminder of the only One who never changes and really does have plans:
"'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'"