8th grade week at Camp Utmost 2009

In January, when Pastor Art called to request me for his nurse at Camp Utmost, I almost turned him down outright... Yes, without even taking the request to God. I had helped him with the 7th graders last year. It was the most difficult camp week in which I had ever worked. Now this same group of campers were the 8th graders. I didn't want to consider volunteering with these campers again. I delayed my answer & finally prayed about the week in June. It seemed I should say "yes", although my flesh fought that answer. I still felt reluctant as I arrived at camp this year. I should know that God would not place me in the same classroom again, if I had learned the lessons He wanted me to learn during that trying week a year ago. This year the week with those same campers became one of my favorites! We had 52 campers, but only 9 of those were boys. How that changed the complexion of the week! Sometimes the campers were all at one place together, like at the chapel, campfire or the waterslide. Other times, like at the teaching times, the campers were separated so certain topics could be discussed freely. One of the boy cabins had 3 counselors & 4 campers, (as pictured above); the other boy cabin had 3 counselors & 5 campers. Nearly all the boys had accepted Yeshua as Savior last year & had matured quite a bit. This year was perfect for discipling those campers.

I also had a preconception about one of the four girl cabins. Almost all the "girlie" campers, who spent an hour getting their hair & make-up just right in the mornings were all in this cabin. I thought that would probably be a problem cabin at least in attitudes. I couldn't have been more wrong. Nearly all 12 campers in that cabin accepted Christ on the second day of camp!! We never did have a problem cabin this year.

What we did have is counselors not feeling up to par. Yet, God sovereignly took care of those situations, as well. For example, one of the girl counselors was in her first trimester of pregnancy. She got married last November & miscarried her first fetus during the winter. We gave her crackers for her nausea & extra rest during the day. When I left on Thursday evening, Pastor Art's sister took over as camp RN. She is an OB nurse from Billings & was anxious about being the camp nurse for even two nights & about 1+ day of activities. Only God knew that her one main patient would be this counselor, who needed her expertise! Isn't that just like Him, to turn all my preconceptions around & bring the exact person needed to care for one of His children in need!