Today I am recovering from spending 20+ hours in the car, and a little over 24 hours in Glen Spey, NY. I'm pretty sure that anybody reading this knows me, and knows that I am a Young Life leader for Capernaum, which is a ministry with kids with disabilities. Most of you know that this weekend I went to Young Life's Lake Champion property for a training weeked with my wonderful leader team.
Thursday night, after waking up early to do homework adn pack, 12 hours of schooling, and then bible study, I went to Kristan and Eric's. The plan was to wake up and leave around 6 a.m.. At about midnight, Eric and Drif decided it would be a good idea to leave then, stop in New York City, and get to the camp a few hours early. And so we left at 1 o'clock in the morning.
The rest of the weekend was filled with awesomeness, and way too many things to go into detail on, but here were some of the highlights:
- The car ride, while completely uncomfortable and not at all conducive to sleep, was a lot of fun. I laughed and laughed, especially at about 3 in the morning, when Kristan decided it would be funny to poke a sleeping Tyler in the armpit with a red vine.
- The city wasn't as great as we anticipated. Probably because none of us knew at all where we were going. We ended up walking down Time Square then eating some legit NY pizza. I'm glad I can now say I've experienced it, but I don't think I would go again, unless I had lots of money to spend, more than 3 hours, and a genuine New Yorker to be my tour guide.
- Actually being there was awesome. It was equal parts encouraging and challenging to hear about other people's ministries. I didn't realize how big of a club we had. This is awesome, but it's also scary. 30 kids showing up is great, but if we're not ready to actually give them our lives and our time, it will just be spreading ourselves too thin. I had also never really thought about how wonderful it is to have so many boys around. I already knew I loved getting to know a different side of them, but I had never realized that it was unusual. In most areas, it was one or two girls starting it by themselves. We're 4:2 boys to girls. Now I realize that's pretty awesome, not something to complain about.
- We met some really cool people. Grizzly, for example, who wouldn't tell me his real name. My favourite was Violet, from New Jersey. She was 5, and when I met her, I asked her how she was involved with Capernaum. Her response was that she liked the swing. The next day, we were supposed to ask one other person a little about their ministry, and then we prayed together. Violet asked if she could join with Kristan and Tyler, then she prayed first. Precious. The last night, I was talking to her dad, and she came over to my chair and asked me if I wanted to play a game with her. Of course! At the end of the night, she came over and gave me a hug before she went to bed.
- This is kind of a continuation of the bullet two above, but Nick Palermo, who started Capernaum, was the speaker this weekend. He was awesome. I've never met someone so able to pull a room into one conversation, together, and intentionally include everyone. I can't wait for our banquet, because he's going to speak, and that means he will be visiting Northern Kentucky.
- The property was beautiful. I loved being there. I promised my dad that I would take pictures (he's a nauture freak) so, although I had to do it really quickly--I thought we were leaving in the morning instead of at midnight--I managed to take a few.
- On the drive home, we started to plan out weekend camp. I cannot wait to spend the weekend getting to know students better!
Cameras in general, especially with my limited photographic capability, can't capture how pretty it was, but this is a glimpse. Also, I sat on this giant boulder wrapped in my blanket for my quiet time Saturday morning. "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand" :)
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