Hey y'all! I hope everyone had a GREAT day and felt TERRIFIC! This summer has gone by way too fast and I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm headed to college in 2 weeks, that's so crazy. Since summer 2013 is coming to an end and since another year of my life is coming to a close tonight (today is my 18th birthday WOOHOO) I've been thinking back on some of the things I've done.  Tonight I want to share a little bit about a piece of heaven on earth called Camp Barnabas.  This summer I was extremely blessed to be able to serve as a counselor at this amazing camp in Purdy/Branson, Missouri.  Now Barnabas is a little different than most camps because all of the campers have some kind of special need, such as autism or down syndrome, and let me just tell you it was one of the hardest and most beautiful weeks of my life.  It challenged me in so many amazing ways and actually even lead me to what I want to do with my life, special education.  Isn't it crazy how the LORD works in our lives, even in ways we don't see it.  So basically, you arrive at camp a day early and get your cabin assignment and once you've grouped together you're given a handful of cards with campers names and their disability on them, and that's it.  So you pray over them and after a while you pick which camper you feel led to serve for the week.  I was blessed to get to serve an amazing young man with dubowitz syndrome, and he is simply the light of my life.  So in the next morning all CIAs (christians in action) go through staff training, and this is all leading up to the afternoon when the campers arrive and it is quite a festival.  The campers pull up in their cars and run through a tunnel of screaming people to their counselor with sheer joy (or terror, hehe) on their faces. I'm not gonna lie to you, when everyone first gets their camper, they are absolutely terrified because they are basically the parents of a child for an entire week and we don't know what to expect.  But the real parents are extremely grateful.  Serving my camper for only one week makes me so appreciative of the people who care for him 24/7 for an entire year, what incredible angels they are! The first thing I quickly learned from my camper is that I get too easily wrapped up in what others think of me, and this petty fear was rapidly ripped away from me.  I had to constantly make funny noises and do funny things to keep him entertained and I had to give up a lot of my pride by asking for help when I needed it.  The first day, it was hard.  But after spending a whole lot of time with the LORD and really searching my heart for what I needed to do to serve my camper this week, EVERYTHING changed.  For once in my life, for 5 straight days, not a single thought about me and my desires crossed my mind.  I'm not saying this to seem perfect, all the glory is to the LORD and I am so thankful that he took that sin from my life and showed me how beautiful life can be when I'm abiding in Him and serving as he serves me. As a 17 year old girl I can tell you that it is so easy to lack confidence when society tells us we should look and feel a certain way, but for this one short week the LORD took my hand and blatantly showed me that the confidence I so badly want comes from living for Him and only Him in me will make me who I want to be.  Now my camper was the chill master... he loved to lie down (he would put his hands behind his head and cross his legs, it was adorable and we called it his "signature move") and play with rocks.  This was frustrating at first because I wanted him to be involved in activities and do what the more able campers were doing. When I stopped and prayed for patience and wisdom in the situation, the LORD opened my eyes to a completely new way to look at life. My camper was always joyful, and it wasn't because he was always doing something fun or because he had something extravagant, it was simply because he had a ground to sit on and grass to feel.  How quickly do we tend to look over the small things and only look at the biggest and best thing possible.  It's so easy to just let little things slide without being thankful for them and after spending time with my camper, he showed me that I should be praising the LORD continually for having the ability to walk and talk and even breathe.  Joy isn't found in material and fleeting things if this world, it's found solely in Him! I'm sorry this post is so long, I could just go on and on about how this one amazing kid changed my entire outlook on my life here in this temporary home, but I'm wrapping it up, I promise! The real reason that I found my passion in serving special needs children is because of the fact that they live and love with no influence from other people and all the pressures and standards of this broken world.  It would be absolutely amazing to live just one day where we weren't altered or in any way influenced by what this world has come to.  Bottom line: I could never really understand what's true in this life until I saw it through these campers eyes.  The truly showed me the beauty of the LORD's unending love and grace.  Thinking about that week in June humbles me incredibly because I saw just how beautiful I was when I was "broken" according to earthly terms but whole in His sight!

... all the glory to Him

- His beloved