Pennsylvania:

Dressed up for the end of the year dinner

Outside Independence Hall

Greeting Students on closing day

Trying authentic Philly Cheesesteaks at the original location in downtown Philadelphia

Why not try pistachio gelato with your friend? :)

And yes, we visited the Liberty Bell

Phillies game with happy people

Gluten free banana bread that a former staffer made especially for me when she learned about my allergies. She also made me an entire tray of gluten free brownies.

More memories at the baseball game

Ladies T-time at a local ice cream shop

And there it went, such a beautiful summer flooded with examples of my sovereign Lord working in epic ways. If I could use a quote to describe what I experienced this summer, it would be from A.W. Tozer when he said, "How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none." In my various roles this summer, whether as a small group leader or as a program coordinator, I often found myself absolutely deficient. Immediately my reaction was to blame myself for "failure". But then God would expose my pride and reveal to me that I never had it all together in the first place. God knew before he ever had me staff all of my layers of emptiness, but as he broke me, he taught me to praise him and boast in his strength and all sufficiency. As

Jerermiah 9:23-24 beautifully puts it, "This is what the Lord says, 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom or the strong man boast in his strength or the rich man boast in his riches...but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight,' declares the Lord."

Here are my bullet points of blessings from the week:

• Getting to visit downtown DC and look at the monuments at night 
• Pistachio gelato
• Philly Cheesesteaks gluten free style (a.k.a. meat and unions)
• Pennsylvania downpour
• Seeing 5th and Chestnut street (National Treasure moment :D)
• Watching the Phillies play the Mets
• Italian sausage with grilled peppers on it at the ball park 
• Rooming with Grace again. We were roommates at staff training so it was neat to room together again week 8 and see how much each of us have grown this summer
• Giggles with my girls about grapefruit
• The imaginations of 14 year old girls :) 
• The cafeteria having an allergy free food fridge 
• God being a very present God
• Bumping the volleyball with students
• Creating a unique breakfast option complete with a gluten free peta topped with scrambled eggs, cheese, dried basil, and salsa for breakfast each morning
• Dunkin Donuts coffee run in the middle of the week when I was really tired
• Talking about what we think heaven will be like with my girls. One of my sweet girls said, "Rachel when you get to heaven, Jesus is going to hug you so well that your hug meter will explode afterwards." ;)
• Talking until 12:30 a.m. with a fellow staffer
• Breathing cool air with little humidity. It made me feel like I was back in Idaho :)
• Getting a flip flop tan 
• Having mini dance parties with my girls
• My 7 wonderful 14-15 year old girls
• Shade under happy trees
• Cloud cover during the frisbee game
• Mint ice cream
• Gazebo on campus by the pond
• Having all the staff come on stage and rap happy birthday to a student at camp
• Staff ladies' Bible Study
• Drinking refreshing tea
• End of the year dinner at the Cheesecake Factory
• Watching funny videos from the summer
• Memories
• Sitting in a circle as staff and discussing how God showed up in big ways this summer
• Growth
• Encouragement from my camp director
• Honest prayer time with God

In closing, I am reminded of the quote, "Don't cry because it is over. Praise the Lord that it happened." As I board a plane bound for Idaho tomorrow, I have heart that is filled with joy for this experience. Leaving my team is definitely bitter sweet...but my God is good, his timing is perfect, and I am grateful. 

Thank you Lord for exceeding my expectations this summer. 

~Rachel

Virginia:

Me and my co leader Lauren

Gorgeous fountain on campus

Katie, my staffing buddy and I

Greeting students on Sunday during opening

Female staff outing 

All in uniform and ready for students :)

This weekend I was talking with my mom on the phone. I told her that the two attributes of God that have really stood out to me this summer would be God's Transcendence complimented by his Immanence. The God I serve is very clearly the King of the Universe. He displays it in creation as well as in so may facets of life. Yet there is this beautiful paradox at play in that God cares about the details of life and enters into the adventure with us even though he is holy. One example of this happened when one of my fellow staffers misplaced his backpack that had some important materials in it. It was missing for almost the whole week of camp and we thought it had been stolen. But then, only hours before we were going to leave Virginia, God allowed for us to find it. It felt silly praying for a backpack to be found, but God reminded me that he care about the details and blessed us by allowing it to be found. Little miracles like that happen every day during camp and are tangible examples of how God engages in both the large and small of life. That is a huge comfort to me as well as a reminder to always be looking for how God is working in and around me. 



Here are the bullet points of blessings for the week:

• Our camp director taking the staff team out the Cheesecake Factory over the weekend
• Strong water pressure in the shower at the dorm
• Sitting on the counter and munching on an avocado (When you live life on the road for 2 months, vegetables are huge blessings :D. Plus avocados are just epic in general) 
• The 1/2 mile walk to the lecture hall every day. It allowed for me to ask purposeful questions with my girls each day as we went back and forth from the lecture hall and the dorm
• Co leading with Lauren
• Talking to Danielle on the phone while sitting at the beach in Virginia Beach, VA
• Having a seagull poop on my phone at the beach....(I am all about new experiences ;))
• Giggling with my team during staff meeting
• Having a dear friend from my team last year come and visit. 
• A blackberry latte
• The huge sunroof on the ceiling in the cafeteria that made it feel like we were eating a picnic outside because of all of the sunlight happily streaming into the room.
• Feeling the Atlantic ocean breeze
• Being able to talk honestly with two of my girls about struggles about body imagine and how we can view ourselves rightly as image bearers of God
• The small group time where we discussed God's redemption in our lives and why being a Christian matters to us
• Chocolate covered berries 
• God holding back the thunderstorms that were supposed to happen on Wednesday during evangelism. Instead of rain we had gorgeous sunshine the entire time at the boardwalk by the ocean. 
• Playing spoons with my girls and seeing how competitive they got about it. Instead of using spoons, we played with jolly ranchers. This made it really hard to grab one because they were so small. One of my girls dove full out under my legs in order to successfully grab one.  
• 3 Ships Coffee Shop
• Potato Salad
• Taking a shower and then having my hair dry in less than 10 minutes because of the humidity outside being so high
• Tall green trees on campus
• Having one of my girls tell me that if she ever got sick and had to go the hospital, she would want me as her nurse. :)
• Walking with a fellow staffer and sharing as many blessings as we could think of from that day
• Bacon at breakfast
• Having a cookout with the students and faculty during Thursday night dinner 
• Receiving lots of wedding updates from friends back home as two of my friends got married. I was so sweetly included in all of the festivities even though I was over 2,000 miles away from Idaho
• Seeing how the staff guys on my team so purposefully protect us girls both at camp and on the weekends

In closing, I wanted to share this quote that reminded me to take joy in the little things  and marvel at the handiwork of God. G.K. Chesterton wisely said.....
"It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them."

May I continue to rejoice in the beauty all around me as I finish out this summer. 

~Rachel

North Carolina:

Me with Jayne and Truett, two of the faculty kids

The Chapel on campus at Wake Forest University

Laura, Johnathon, Ashley and I after we received a care package from one of our fellow staffers from last summer.

My sweet intern Summer

The staff ladies during our staff ladies t-time

If I could use one word to describe this past week in North Carolina, the word I would use would be Sanctifying. It was a week filled with moments of my utter brokenness and God's all sufficient mercy, my weakness and his abundant strength, my self pity and his conviction, my inconsistency and his immovability. One of the main catalysts for this would be that my body was fighting a intense cold that zapped me of my physical strength and made it difficult for me to do camp.  Yet in the midst of sickness, God walked personally with me in the details of each day, giving me strength for the moments. He not only sustained me, but also richly blessed me. Here are my bullet points of blessing for the week.

• My precious small group
• Sweet tea
• Two unexpected major southern downpours
• Southern hospitality
• Having a former Worldview staffer open up her home to us on the weekend before camp started so we could have a BBQ and fellowship as a team
• Trying a melted marshmallow on a Reese's peanut butter cup
• Having Truett, my camp director's son, teach me how to write in hieroglyphics during one of the van rides
• My staff director letting me sleep during set up so that my body could start to heal from my cold
• Trying North Carolina's famous Cheerwine....which is basically a combination of Dr. Pepper and Coke
• Squishy flip flops
• Seeing huge bags of Idaho fries at a Five Guys all the way in North Carolina
• Having one of the faculty go out of his way to grab me medicine when I was feeling poorly
• Mosquito bites (I was so frustrated by them that I decided I needed to choose joy about them :))
• Snuggly sweatshirts 
• Giggles with my girls
• The gorgeous chapel on campus
• Accidentally slipping down a flight of stairs in front of my girls
• Talking to one of my student's who was interested in pursuing nursing as a career
• Swinging on a tree swing on campus
• Care package
• Coffee
• My kind and helpful intern Summer who richly blesseed me 
• A student coming up to me and saying, "I heard you played the harp. I have been prayig that God would send me someone who plays the harp so that I could ask about it because I want to play too. So you are the answer to my prayer."
• Deep and healing sleep
• Having a productive cough to help get the junk out of my trachea 
• Rice checks and soy milk for breakfast
• 2 people coming to know the Lord when the students did evangelism at a bus stop on Wednesday
• Eating fish when the cafeteria served it. 
• Soft t-shirts
• Hugs
• Competitive student vs. staff ultimate frisbee game on Thursday
• Being able to taste again after 2 days of not being able to smell 
• My huge bag of dirty laundry
• Talking to my mom and sister on the phone
• One of my students asking for advice on how to handle relationships well
• Having to sit on my suitcase to get it to close because it was so stuffed :D
• The clean feeling after a shower
• Wise advice from my leadership team when I was feeling vulnerable and lonely 

My God is so good to me and he proved that goodness time and again last week. 

~Rachel

Georgia:

The courtyard outside the dorm room in Georgia

Waterfall on campus

Oh the blessings of coffee!!

Got to have a one on one with one of my fellow staffers, Ashley

A friend of our team sent us bags of cookies that we got to enjoy during staff meeting

Psalm 121:5, 8 "The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore." I was feeling dry this afternoon and the Lord took me to these verse. What a sweet encouragement to remember that my God not only has my back but my front as well :) and will be my keeper and sustainer as I finish up the summer and as I transition back home in a couple of weeks.

A lesson I learned in Georgia was to treasure moments. Every single second, minute, hour, and day is handcrafted by the Lord. I dishonor him when I wish time away in order to get to the next adventure. Instead I should joyfully give thanks in all moments and treasure and learn from the beautiful and the hard in each day for my God is a good gift giver.

Here are my bullet points for the week at Toccoa Falls College in Georgia:

• Going to Bell's Burgers which was cheaper than McDonald's but tasted like epic home cooking. It was this mom and pop little place that had been open for over 50 years in this tiny town in Georgia. I am very found of it now :)
• Free laundry service
• Good tasting water
• Wonderful and clean cafeteria
• Having our staff church service on Sunday by the waterfall
• Seeing woods and mountains again which reminded me of home
• Fun conversations with my girls about funny embarrassing moments
• Seeing one of my girl's eyes light up every time she learned something new and wanted to share it with me
• Continuing to get to be "camp nurse" and help a student with a hornet sting, another student who had a bad sunburn, and then a student who had twisted his ankle. I felt so special :)
• Gluten free granola
• Killing my first cockroach. Those things are nasty little buggers who deserve to die ;)
• Sweet one on one time with fellow staff members
• Cool air after a Georgia rain shower
• Fireflies
• Sunlight illuminating very green trees on the Georgian hillside
• Coffee
• The adorable sound of giggling
• The gorgeous waterfall
• Honesty
• The stillness that happened as I got to gaze at the stars that sparkled across the night sky
• The fun energy of the 93 students at camp
• 
  

Onward to North Carolina and the God given moments that will happen there.........

~Rachel