I'm officially back in Dallas from K-1 Work Week...more formally known as Kanakuk Kamps Staff Training Week. It consisted of lots of weed pulling, tying knots, digging peat gravel trenches, craziness, fun, and LOTS of rain. :) For those of you who don't know, this was my first time back to kamp in 3 years, I skipped 2 summers. That's highly unusual for someone who's spent 13 summers of their life at a place. All I know, is the Lord is beyond good. Explanation: At the beginning of junior year of college, the Lord revealed that kamp and my sorority were idols in my life, and I was putting them before Him. I was ready to quit my sorority and God had me stick it out and taught me so much through the brokenness with that. However, kamp, I didn't want to give up. I just came to the conclusion that now that I knew better, that was good enough and I could keep going to this place I loved so much. Not so. On the very day, I was contemplating signing my contract for kamp the next summer, God totally shut me down and said no. That same day, I was sitting on a bench outside of the MSC and my dear friend Colby Ivey rides up and mentions this program about teaching English in China. Where God shuts one door, he opens another...I went to China that summer instead of kamp and it changed my life. Then last summer, once again God made it very clear that kamp was still not an option. I let go of the idea of going back ever again... Then this year came. While working at the bucks this semester, I realized I had a very free summer but still needed to make some cash. And for some reason, aka Jesus, kamp came to mind. But you see the crazy thing was that I hadn't thought realistically about going to kamp for over a year. I thought it was done. The reason kamp was no longer THE priority in my life? Jesus Christ had become once again THE priority. AND, I had a constant group of believers with me all the time, an incredible community who had my back and pushed me toward Jesus all the time, the church. THIS is how Jesus meant for it to be!!!!!!! I no longer have kamp highs because I have Jesus highs all the time! No, life isn't perfect at all, but I see how Christ means for the body to function, as imperfect as it is! Anyway, back to my story. I call my director, Diane, to see if they have any open spots and she says, "When do you want to work?" So all of the sudden, I'm going back to kamp. Crazy. As I headed up there 2 weeks ago today, I was crazy nervous, because I am a far cry from the person I was three years ago, thank the Lord! At first it was almost dream like, but i got to see how the Lord uses kamp as a haven from the world, a place so drastically different from the world inside of it, a place of reflection in life. And that's when it hit me. So many, not all, but many, believers who do kamp love it because it embodies what the church (the believers, they make up the church) is supposed to look like. In the middle of the hard stuff, we're supposed to love each other as Christ did, pushing each other toward Him. But, these believers don't have a local church body that does this. As I pulled out my camera and showed pictures of my HOPE group and talked about my Living Hope fam (I mean, really, how can I not? :), every single time I got a response of something like, "I wish I had a church like that." Oh church, that we would be that all the time! That we wouldn't have to go to Branson, Missouri, or Tyler, Texas, or somewhere else to meet with Jesus! That everywhere, believers would get to have real, authentic community with Jesus Christ and his people! This is a lot, but wow. More to come. This post is just already entirely too long!
