Blog Archives
Real Life – “Joy, Love and Service”
This Spring, we hosted a women’s group for a weekend. These were women who had never been to camp, women who had never experienced the mountains, women who served, women who loved, women who changed my life, women who experienced a weekend like no other. These women were angels sent from God! This is my story…
One weekend at El Camino Pines we had a group of 120 women from Real Life Church. In the past I have experienced their men’s group but never their women’s group. What I knew from this church was that they were servants and very friendly. I completely saw this in their actions and words. Throughout the weekend the ladies constantly smiled when they saw us, greeted us every meal with a, “Hello! How are you?” or “You are so wonderful. Thank you.”
Our staff was aware of the snow that was coming that weekend but we didn’t expect what was to come. Some of the ladies had concerns about the storm but we reassured them. On Saturday the snow started to fall down slowly but it looked thick. Once I saw that I knew that wasn’t the end of it. I woke up the next day, opened my blinds and saw the beginning of a blizzard that I will never forget. At breakfast I had made the announcement, “Good morning ladies. I want to let you know you are getting out today. You are our priority. We are here to serve you. You have no need to worry because we are here for you.” After I said that they all jumped up and cheered. It was beautiful to see! Immediately after breakfast the staff and I began the laborious task of shoveling and getting cars out. I was in charge of getting the ladies organized and assisting them with their luggage. The snow at this point was above my knees. It was outrageous! All of the ladies were asked to stay in the chapel as we were taking care of their cars. I am more of the hospitality type and less the shoveling type, so I stayed with the ladies and helped with luggage. At one point I was helping a group of ladies from Cabin 3 to the parking lot. They had several pieces of luggage and we used a luggage cart to carry all of it. As I was doing this I started to lose my strength and perseverance. I walked in the chapel and was greeted with love, smiles and words of encouragement from the ladies. They asked how they could help, if we needed anything or even if they could make me a sandwich. I was in awe of their willingness to serve. In my mind I was thinking, “No we are here to serve you.” But these ladies wanted to serve and help us. I continued to calm their fears and let them know we were doing our best to get them out. These ladies insisted that they could help. So I took a group of them out and we started to shovel and push cars out. It was beautiful to see them working together, laughing and encouraging one another. Their joyful hearts & spirits were exactly what I needed. I thank God for all of these ladies who inspired me to serve and never give up.
The women of Real Life Church were angels sent from God. Through this difficult time they helped us smile, feel loved and gave us the energy we needed. I thank each and every one of them for their servant hearts and joyful spirits. They changed my life and helped me never forget what it means to be a servant of God. I am blessed to have met them and thankful we got to experience that weekend together.
Have you ever had a time where you needed the help of others to get through a difficult time?
- Anthony
I am blessed
Every day I am given the opportunity to change a life and have someone change my life! That is rare but that is what camp does. I realize everyday why I do what I do. I do it for the kids. Obviously I don’t work at camp for the money. Ha! But I do it because the kids are Joy Givers!
There are days when camp is just exhausting and I have no idea how I am going to survive. I have days that are fully packed with teaching classes, doing office work, singing songs, doing a huge load of dishes, cleaning cabins, digging holes, trying to organize the Outdoor School room (which is impossible by the way.) and a child reminds me why I am here. With their smiles, laughter, their thank yous, their hugs, their servant hearts, and telling me that I am their best friend! It warms my heart so much. I thank God for using these kids to give me JOY when I need it. I have hard days but the kids can make it into the BEST DAY EVER!
I am truly convinced and believe with all of my heart that God has created kids to be Joy Givers! I am thankful that I get to experience the Joy of the Lord everyday at camp. So again I can say, I AM BLESSED! Working at camp has been the best decision of my life and I know that I am loved here.
- Anthony
Anthony has been on the LRCC Year Round Staff and this summer is the Day Camp Director for Summer Camp again.
A Schedule Puzzle?
What to do, what to do...
Have you ever worked on a puzzle? A puzzle you didn’t know how to start? The pieces won’t fit together and you’re sure you will never be able to finish it. Well, I experience that adventure at camp while developing our staff schedules and assigning the staff to our many different programs. It’s always a puzzle! You have to be extremely focused on all the little details. Believe me I always miss the little ones but I find a way to fix them. In this picture, I was working on a schedule for a week where we had a 4-day school and three 3-day schools. One of the schools was a secular school and the others were Christian schools. Talk about complicated. What gets difficult is figuring out who is greeting schools, keeping the school separated for music time, deciding what staff will teach what class, making sure no one feels overwhelmed and giving the schools what they want. Just typing this I am stressing out. Not really, but sometimes! What makes this process the best is when I go to Lauri (our Camp Director) to get it approved. We go back & forth with changing this, changing that, fixing that mistake and deciding what is working and not working. We laugh about it, we cry about it, but mainly we work together to make the puzzle fit. Even though it gets crazy I love being involved in the scheduling process.
So having this puzzle in my life I realize sometimes you just can’t do it alone. In our life we have puzzles. Sometimes we believe we can conquer them or sometimes we feel like there is just no way. Please know that you are not alone. God provides people in our lives to help us when we are lost and confused.
What is your puzzle? How are you going to solve it? Will you do it alone or will you ask for help?
- Anthony
