Media, Media, and More Media

As Camp Rivercrest's media coordinator, I am blessed to not have one standard thing to do, but rather I have the opportunity to work on all sorts of different projects. (I've decided that I should stick with the job title "media coordinator", and I don't think anyone will argue with me about that.) For example, here's what I did today:

-Tried to find a really old video camera that recorded on digital cassettes. We have a lot of videos in this format, so we'd like to be able to archive them.

-After not being able to find this camera (although I found a lot of other cool things), I transferred some camp pictures from my computer to an external hard drive. Someone found this HUGE hard drive yesterday while cleaning out the sound booth, so now I have a place to store the pictures and videos when I finally start scanning and uploading them.

-Joined three other people in the editing of a newsletter article.

-Met with Jon to tell him about the social media I created for camp yesterday. You can check it out for yourself!
             Twitter: https://twitter.com/CampRivercrest (There are no followers yet; you can be the first!)
             Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/camp-rivercrest-retreat-center-fremont-2 (I took a lot of the pictures that are included here. I also wrote the "History" myself!)
            Google+: https://plus.google.com/115989753506356260150/about?gl=us&hl=en (This one isn't complete yet as I don't actually have admin privileges to it yet.)
            During this meeting, we also came up with a camp e-mail address for me so that I can manage this social media and do other things. So now you can e-mail me at media@camprivercrest.org!

-Grabbed a camera that I found this morning while hunting for a video camera, and went outside so I could take a picture of Jon that would be included in the newsletter.

-Added the new picture, new article, and other modifications to the newsletter and sent it to Emily so that she could also review and edit it.

-Changed my e-mail address on our social media accounts so that it would be a work e-mail instead of my personal e-mail.

-Got the mail while Emily was using my computer.

The Fall Newsletter: What much of today's fuss was about

Of course, the day isn't over yet. Tonight, I'm also going to the first Awana meeting of the year. Jeff is the Awana commander at church, and there was a shortage of volunteers this year, so he managed to convince a couple of us at camp to help out.

And oftentimes I do things that aren't related to our media at all. (Or I end up blogging in the middle of the afternoon in an attempt to spark my work creativity! Hmm...) I wash dishes, run activities, and host when retreat groups are here, as well as attend staff meetings and do some cleaning on weekdays. It's a neat experience and, most of the time, I love my job!

Education

School has started in this area. Colleges started on Monday, and public schools started last week on Wednesday. Over the past couple of weeks, we've had a great turnout of visits at Rivercrest from all sorts of schools. I'm considering attending university next term, if I can get a least a little bit of money towards it and establish residency for long enough (I have no proof that I've been living in Nebraska for over a year now, but now that I have a car and will be changing my driver's license soon, that should change). But even though I can't attend school this term, I am by no means stopping education.

-My job is education. Although I'm not called an "intern" anymore, I feel as though I've been learning a lot more so far this year than I did last year. Although I probably have the most experience writing, publishing, and designing at camp, this job is a whole different scenario from what I've done in the past and I continue to learn from it constantly. For example, even though I've been using Microsoft Word for years, I'm still learning all sorts of formatting things to make papers look better. (There's really no need to get different programs for brochures, newsletters, or booklets; Word has the ability to do it all if you know how to use it.) Same thing goes for website design. And I'll soon have to learn about how to transfer old-fashioned photo slides and video tapes to digital material. (An interesting part of my job is that I am somehow the camp historian, since I'll be archiving over 50 years of media. I don't mind since I've enjoyed finding random facts about the camp for the past several months, but I kind of feel unqualified since Eli actually majored in history and doesn't do any history-related work! Then again, Emily majored in English, but I do all the editing. Hmm...) An interesting and unexpected form of on-the-job education is the challenge of support raising. It's a lot more difficult than I expected, but I enrolled in an informal online course from raising-support.com. Their articles are giving me advice on how to write support letters and what to do once I get sponsors. Coincidentally, the course is also helping me with writing and editing for the camp newsletter and elsewhere with my writing.

-I do continuing education for EMS. EMT licenses last for about two years. In order to renew them, you have to show that you have a certain amount of continuing education hours. Jon, Mike, Eli, Jeff and I got some of our continuing education hours yesterday when Dr. J offered us a class right here at camp! (One other person attended the class, and both he and Dr. J liked seeing the camp, so we might have more events like this in the future!) Our class was "Taking Safety to the Streets", which was a lot of practical information that we didn't cover too in-depth in our EMT class. I'll have to take several more classes over the next year and a half in order to renew my license.

-In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn. That last sentence is a cheesy quote from a cheesy song in the movie Tarzan, but it's true. After taking yesterday's class, I have the option to apply to become an instructor for that class. I'm still considering it, since there is an application fee above the cost of the class to do it and I'm not sure who I would be able to teach the information to. But there are other ways to teach. A couple days ago, I found out about a group home for children in crisis situations, right here in Fremont. I've been looking for a place like this in the area for a long time, and now that I have a car, I have the ability to volunteer there! I haven't heard back from the volunteer coordinator, but I really hope I can move forward with helping at the group home with tutoring and mentoring. (And possibly even organizing a day trip to Camp Rivercrest. Aw yeah, networking!) I took Emily to the Solmens last night for dinner (my first drive for recreation), and we ended up staying until after midnight to play games. One game we played was "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" I ended up being the cheat several times for other people, and I answered all my questions correctly without using any of my cheats. (I did, however, have a complete brain fart when asked the million dollar question; everyone else remembered, but, unfortunately, no cheats are allowed for the million dollar questions. FYI: External fertilization of fish is called spawning.) Emily was good at the game as well. (Intellectually, we're pretty similar. You know, those wordsmiths that did really well in high school.) We got to talking, and before we left that night, I think that family just gained two new homeschool teachers.

-I learn on my own. I couldn't stop learning no matter what; it's just too interesting! Whether it's random research, reading books, or attending seminars, I love taking advantage of these opportunities to learn new things. One subject I've been focusing on lately is orphan care. Jenn, who worked here this summer, knows about this and recently sent me lot of materials from a conference she attended with her new job. One thing I've noticed is that so many ministries are focused primarily on international orphan care, but these same needs in America and other first-world nations are ignored more often than not. It might be because society has made the problem invisible, making it politically incorrect to call a child an "orphan" or a home an "orphanage", thus lessening the sting of what's really going on. I've been feeling a little conflicted for the past couple of months, since I want to both continue doing camp work but also have dreams of starting an orphan ministry, but with this new information, I think it would be awesome to one day do camps for foster/crisis children (known as America's "orphans"), fatherless or single-parent children, kids who have experienced abuse, and/or adopted children.

I received my associate's degree before leaving Oregon, and obtained my EMT certification here. Maybe someday I'll get a bachelor's degree (I'm thinking in either Communications or Nonprofit Administration) so that I'll have a piece of paper to prove that I learned things. But until that time, I'll continue to learn more things, many of which couldn't be learned in a classroom.

One Year

It's finally been a full year here at Camp Rivercrest!

What better way to celebrate my anniversary than with lots of work?

On this Friday of last year, we had a group of schools come out (that was my first day of work). You can read about it here.This year, we had schools come out as well. I hosted the Lincoln Christian School. Since those were day groups, we have more groups coming today. I'm going to host a church group (which is the only reason I'm up and working right now).

Other than that, there isn't a whole lot new. I created the camp's fall newsletter, which apparently people are impressed with. I haven't taken my new car out yet since the titling/licensing offices are only open on Mondays and Tuesdays. On Wednesday, I'll be taking some sort of EMS class at camp (I'm not sure exactly what it is) and I'll get certified to train it! And it's only one month until I get to go to Tennessee! This will be my first non-work-related trip in the past year, with the exception of Christmas break, but everyone got that week off so it doesn't count. I'll be visiting a summer coworker, visiting a publishing company I work for, and seeing some sights that I have been wanting to see for years. The only real downside is that I'll be leaving the day before the Sysco Food Show. Oh well! I went there last year, so I'd much rather see Tennessee for the first time!

Well, I just started talking with my group's leader and it sounds like we'll be having a fun and busy weekend. Talk to you later!

Cars, Crashes, and Culture

For the past year, I've always believed that Nebraska had little to no culture. Obviously, the Hispanic and Asian populations here are a lot fewer than in Southern Oregon where I grew up. (However, I will note that there is a significantly higher African American population.) I found it to be kind of crazy when the rest of the summer staff was saying we had a very diverse staff. Out of over forty staff members, there were only two Filipinos, one Chinese, one Mexican, and one half-black. (By the way, all of our few "diverse" staff members were very proud of their races/ethnicities and even made jokes about themselves, so this is by no means meant to insult them or the cultures they represent.) Well, this past weekend made up for all of the culture I had been lacking in for the past year.

Last year, the week before I came to camp, there was a Slavic camp, the biggest camp of all year. It was so big, that even the staff cabins, with current conditions that make them too bad to normally rent out, were completely filled so that there were over 200 overnight guests, but many others came just during the day. For the past year, I've only heard stories of this group, so it was great to finally experience it for myself. The Slavic group isn't one particular church; it's organized by people in Nebraska and they invite Eastern Europeans from all over the country. Walking through the parking lot, I found plates from Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, and many more. This year, there were even several tents set up so that more people could stay overnight. I loved this weekend. I spent most of it in the kitchen, and it was just so interesting to have a different kind of group here, and they were all fun to talk to. During their chapel meetings, I would sometimes sit in my office (the chapel itself was way too full as it was!) and listen to the sermons. I couldn't understand them since it was all in Russian, but you could tell that they were very passionate and enthusiastic. Even though their chapels went late into the night (which usually bugs me since I can hear everything in the chapel while I'm in bed), it was actually very soothing to fall asleep to multilingual worship music.

After that exciting weekend, we all took a much-needed day off. Sunday evening, Emily and I went to Omaha to meet up with Jeremiah and Ryan at Old Chicago, where we had this great Thai pizza. I think Emily and I bugged the boys a little too much by speaking in Eastern European accents. We had heard that accent so much over the weekend that it was almost as natural as our American accent! After eating, we went to Jeremiah's house to watch a couple of the Bourne movies. Emily and I ended up not getting home until 4am, so the next morning was spent in bed.

I almost didn't go out Sunday night because I had found a car on Craigslist. I've been looking for a car for a few weeks now. So far, I only test-drove one and that didn't work out because it was a Saturday and the banks weren't open. (Looking back, I'm glad I didn't buy it because there were several problems, and the deal seemed kind of sketchy, but that may have just been from it being in a part of Omaha that looked like a Mexican market.) However, I ended up going because I couldn't contact the Solmens to take me there. However, they finally got all my text messages and missed calls, so we made plans to see it Monday evening.

Monday afternoon, when we finally were mostly awake, I asked Emily to take me into Fremont so I could get some cash. On the way back to camp, I switched cars and rode with Jeff and Mikayla back into Fremont. I had volunteered to be a patient for his summer class' final EMT exam. I spent that evening suffering from a Black Friday induced heart attack and falling off of a balcony from having my fans drop me while crowd surfing at one of my concerts. Towards the end of the class, we called Mike to come so that we could have a three-victim car crash scenario. In this scenario, I was unconscious and bleeding in several places. This was a really interesting experience for me. I kept my eyes closed most of the time to keep in character, so I was never really sure what was going on. I was bandaged up, placed on a backboard, loaded on the stretcher, put in the back of the ambulance, and then moved to the bench seat. After getting on the ambulance, I opened my eyes, but I still couldn't figure out what was going on since my spine was stabilized. In fact, at one point in time, I had to ask one of the students to take off one of my bandages because it was too tight and making my foot fall asleep! After this, the other two patients were put on the ambulance and we went for a ride. (It was really weird having NO idea where we were going since I could only see the ceiling!) Then, Mike and I left for Omaha so that I could get this:

It's my first car! After a year of living in the middle of nowhere without one, it will be nice to finally have the freedom to get around. It was truly a blessing; very few flaws and at half the price of the other Explorers I was looking at on Craigslist! The owner was very nice and I could tell that she was being honest about the vehicle. I'm really excited to be able to use it, and I hope it will help me get more involved with ministry. I'll be able to volunteer at places, possibly attend Christian conferences and events, meet up with friends, and drive people around. (I even gave a driving lesson at camp today! Haha... I mostly just wanted to see what it was like from the passenger's point of view, but I think he enjoyed getting the opportunity to drive.)

Speaking of today, we had yet another group come in. This one was Grace University Student Leadership. I got to facilitate a group at our challenge and initiatives course (which is one of my favorite things to do) in the morning, and then work at high ropes after lunch. It's kind of nice to have so many groups come in, even though it means fewer days off. And we'll have several more groups come out this weekend! Fun!

Summer's Over; A New Season Has Begun

As you can see, I did not post anything over the summer. As you can figure from my lack of posting, summer was a non-stop whirlwind of busyness! I created games, trained staff, but, most of all, enjoyed a completely different style of work as the health professional. Lots of headaches (drink water), bloody noses (drink water), and other minor injuries (most of which would have either been prevented or cured by drinking water), and, fortunately, very few major issues. (Especially notable, since the temperatures were high and everyone was outside, but no major heat exhaustion issues or ambulance calls! Not every camp around here can say that!)But even better than our health record was our spiritual record:

 -Over 1000 people got to experience both the exciting fun and spiritual training at Camp Rivercrest's summer camps

 -Over 200 first-time salvations

-Over 250 recommitments to Christ

 -Five official baptisms (over 1000 unofficial "baptisms"!)

 I would show you pictures, but I personally didn't have much time to go out and take that many, and it's kind of illegal to take pictures of what went on in the health center, so I'd like to instead refer you to the Camp Rivercrest Facebook page, which is filled with photos of much of what took place this summer: https://www.facebook.com/camprivercrest I guess I should start referring you to the camp Facebook page more often. It's kind of my job now. I was always wondering what I'd be doing in September. The internship's over, my summer job is over, so now I'm...


 (insert awkward silence)


I was hoping to tell you my fancy job title, but we're still working on it. But I CAN tell you what I'll be doing. I am the camp's new media person. (I suggested the title Media Coordinator, since I'm not necessarily creating all the media, but I'm organizing it.) They already had me editing all outgoing publications since I seem to be able to catch errors that others miss, so this just seemed like a natural fit. So now, in addition to reading pre-published packets and brochures, I'll be giving the website a total makeover (I started editing the content several months ago, but it's time for a website upgrade), marketing through writing articles for magazines that will get the Rivercrest name out, making newsletters for our supporters, and more.

 I'm excited to share the news of my new job, but I do have a request for you. This is the first time camp has ever hired someone to work with their media year-round. I believe it will be incredibly beneficial to camp, but since there is no evidence of this yet and my job was put in place in a rather quick manner, there isn't exactly a budget to pay my salary. I never really thought I'd be asking for support, but here I am, asking for support! You read the stats above about how this summer alone at Rivercrest made a HUGE impact to the campers and to the kingdom of God. Think of how much more we could do if we were able to better spread the word! I'm not asking for money. I'm asking for prayer. Pray for me, for Rivercrest, and the people we impact. And if the Lord happens to tell you to support me financially, I would very much appreciate it. Gifts are tax-deductible, and you can e-mail me or leave a comment if you'd like information on how to do this. And whether or not the Lord is calling you to support my ministry work at Camp Rivercrest, you can still spread the word about what we're doing to your friends or church family. I believe that God will provide for me (He already provides 1/3 of the Rivercrest annual budget though donations!), but I also believe that He is calling several people somewhere out there to help support me financially.

 I know several of you missed my updates over the past two months, so I hope this got you caught up on what's been going on. I'd love to answer any questions about this amazing summer in the comments!

It has begun...

From left to right: Me, Chris, Judy, Shawn, Ryan, Seth, and Jeremiah. Judy is a counselor,  Jeremiah and I are on leadership staff, and everyone else is on activity staff. I've been in Nebraska for almost a year, and this was my first time eating Runza. 

Staff training finally started/is about to start! Leadership staff training started on Thursday (which just meant that Jeremiah, Emily and Katrina came in since everyone else on leadership staff already works here). That was mostly just a fun time of get-to-know-you stuff and getting the camp ready. Finally, my basement is all cleared out and is presentable as the health center. Of course, I got a lot of help, but good help is hard to find these days. I mean, just check out this video of Eli and Jeremiah trying to move a desk a few feet:

The program/activity staff came on Friday afternoon. They were here early just to learn the ropes of our different activities, like climbing wall, mini bikes, zip line, paintball, etc. I was busy trying to make the staff manual as edited and readable as possible in a short period of time. (I have already said that if I end up staying here longer than expected, the staff manual will have to be completely re-written!) But between that, the frustrations of the internet not working, and prepping the health center, I took plenty of time to enjoy some of the activities. I went on the zip line, swung on the big swing, tested the flying squirrel (after I nearly destroyed it), rode on the mini bikes (and experienced my first real minibike crash, although it wasn't because I simply lost control; the seat fell off with me on it!), and just observed the climbing wall and high ropes.

Last night, I went to town with the activity staff to experience Runza and go to Wal-Mart. Then we went back to camp to play Gaga ball, knockout, and Kajabi Can-Can, followed by a late-night movie in the lodge. This morning, Eli and I took everyone to church. In addition to the activity and leadership staff, we have two female counselors here (the ones that had to fly in), and everyone else should be showing up around two. And now I should go, because I have so much to do in the couple hours before they get here!


Oh,  but before I go, I just wanted to share something that I got in the mail the other day!

I am licensed to practice in the state of Nebraska!

Memorial Day Weekend: Friendships, Fremont Lakes & Fireflies

It was another one of "those" weekends, a weekend spent alone. And not only a weekend spent alone, but an extended weekend. It seemed like people were so excited about their plans this weekend, that no one even said good-bye to me when they left on Friday. Jon, being the last one to leave, was the only one to stop and check in with me before leaving, saying that I was welcome to drive this weekend.

Friday night and much of Saturday was spent trying to decide what to do with my weekend. I had asked about five people to hang out with me, but all of them were busy this weekend. I didn't really want to go to Omaha because of the extra gas and that driving in the city still is kind of nerve-wracking to me, but I was willing to go there if I could find something cool enough to do there. But as I was looking up things to do, I realized that there would be a bunch of people coming here next week and staying for two months, and that many of these things would be more fun to do with other people. Museum? More fun with other people. Zoo? More fun with other people. Skydiving? OH MY GOODNESS THAT WOULD BE AWESOME TO DO WITH OTHER PEOPLE! I got on the summer staff's Facebook group and asked if anyone would be interested in skydiving. I expected Jeremiah and Shawn to go for it, being that they're such adventurists. Not only did they commit, but it was nice to find that a couple other people want to go as well. So right now, we have five people committed to going, and I'm hoping we can find a sixth person so that we can get a group discount!

One of the people that wants to go skydiving is Chris Dady, whom I've never met before. But after I posted about skydiving, he and I ended up instant messaging each other for a couple of hours. It turns out that he wants to go to the zoo too, so we're making plans to go there one weekend. Most of our conversation was about the craziness of the summer staff, what camp is like, and things along those lines. I think this we'll  have a great summer staff; I'm really looking forward to them!

Sunday morning I went to church, chatted with a couple of friends, and then treated myself to a Jimmy John's sandwich and a haircut. It was my first Jimmy John's in months, as well as my first professional haircut in months. After that, I decided to check out Fremont Lakes, which I heard was awesome but I hadn't even gone that direction before. After I bought a day pass and started driving around the park, I realized that a lot of other people thought the lakes were awesome too, especially for Memorial Day Weekend camping. I was still in my church attire: a knee-length dress and flip-flops. There were lots of people swimming, but I figured there were plenty of other things to do. I parked next to a little trail, and started walking. It was sandy, so I decided to walk barefoot. Then after a little bit of walking, I was getting burrs and other pokey plants stuck to my feet, so I put my sandals back on, but that didn't completely stop my feet from getting attacked. So after a little bit more walking, I decided to turn around. I knew I should go home and grab some swimwear, water shoes, and snacks. So that's what I did. While I was walking back to the van, I noticed this little guy on the ground:

And then as I kept on walking back, I realized that there was a ton of cacti! This isn't the desert!

After I went home and was driving back to the lakes, I realized that I had had my towel ready to go, but forgot to grab it on my way out. Oh well, it was too far to turn back now! And even though I had to air dry after getting wet, I had a lot of fun.

I swam... 

Enjoyed nature AND the fact that I didn't have to mow this lawn...

Watched the jet-skis, boats, wake-boards, and tubes out on the lake and kind of wished I could do those activities...

Walked around a good portion of the park...

Watched as the sun began to set...

Took some pictures...

And read on this peaceful little dock.

I spent several hours at the lake, and the only thing that encouraged me to go home was the combination of me getting hungry and the fact that there was a light sprinkling. I'm glad I left when I did, because it started to rain harder on my drive home, and right when I got back to camp, I heard the first thunder of the evening. However, on the way home, I had to stop and take a picture of this beautiful rainbow! (It's actually a double rainbow, but the second one is hard to see.)

I had predetermined that Monday would be a hardcore cleaning day. I had laundry to do, my room was still in transition mode, and there was a weird smell coming from an unknown place. Now my bedroom is nice and clean (although I can't say the same thing about the rest of the basement, but I'm going to need some help moving the furniture and everything around). After dinner, I set up my slackline. I haven't done it in weeks, so the best I could do tonight was four steps unassisted! (I used the crutches for balance a lot!)

As it started to get dark, I was still slacklining, and I heard owls hooting. That was pretty cool. And it was better than earlier, when all the birds were laughing at me for being so bad at slacklining!

Around dusk, I was still focused on the line, when out of the corner of my eye I could see a flickering light in the woods. When I looked up at it, it turned off. I knew I had seen this light, but I was supposedly the only person at camp! I stood frozen in fear for a moment, and then I saw the light flicker again, a few feet away from where I had originally seen it. After I saw the flicker once more, I wondered about the possibility of it being a firefly. I've only seen a firefly once before, when I was in Virginia. I had never seen them in Nebraska before, so I went inside and Googled "are fireflies native to Nebraska?" It appeared that they were (I don't know what I would have done if they weren't!), so I went back outside to continue slacklining, and as soon as I walked out the door there was another firefly by the porch! In fact, as it got darker, there were several fireflies, so I decided to quit slacklining and grab a jar and a camera to try to catch these things. 

Television always made catching fireflies seem so easy. Maybe there just weren't enough fireflies out tonight to catch them decently, but they were pretty good at escaping from me! I eventually came across one bug that seemed to have a broken lightbulb. Instead of turning on for a few seconds and then turning off, he acted more like a turn signal. There must have been something wrong with him, because he was the first and only firefly I could catch. I took him inside to get a good picture of him. Now I know what fireflies actually look like! 

I tried to catch more, but no such luck. It was  really beautiful evening, though. It wasn't stormy, it wasn't even really humid, and there was plenty to enjoy about the wildlife. Besides the glowing fireflies and hooting owls (a combination which caused me to sing Owl City's "Fireflies"), there were toads, birds, and some animal I saw come out of the woods. It was dark so I couldn't exactly see what is was, but it was about the size of maybe a fox or a cat or a skunk. I tried taking pictures of it, but it didn't show up in the picture and the flash didn't scare it away. However, when I turned around and walked in the opposite direction, THAT scared it enough for it to run back into the woods. 

So that was my weekend. What I thought would be a horrible, dreadful, boring weekend turned out to be one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. How was your weekend?