I know I'm so behind! ha But I thought I would fill you in on what happened while our group was at Wildwood, a camp at Hume Lake by Fresno, California.
Wildwood is a discipleship/leadership camp- up in the woods! So there were no buildings (except the bathrooms) but large tents- just like the old war days :) When we first got there they took away our watches and all sense of time (which actually I loved!) and called our attention to conch shells- it felt like we were in hawaii! haha So every morning we would wake up to a conch shell being blown- eat breakfast (where the guys were required to stand up at the table whenever a girl got up or sat down- I loved it! Why did we stop doing that?), do solo time (time alone with God) and then break out to our team time. Each day we did something different that would cause us to rely on the Lord and each other- for instance, the ropes course (terrifying!), learning how to study the Word with commentaries and encylopedias, and doing group initiatives (like getting 6 tires on a tall pole to all line up according to a mysterious pattern while we all were silent and had to be connected to one another!). Then in the afternoon we would have free time to lay by the pool, hike, bike, play horse shoes...go down to main camp for ice coffee!!! Oh wait, the last one was just us leaders :) And at night we would do worship, study, and hang out-
Oh man, three highlights stand out to me:
1. one night the counselors took our group away after everyone had gone to bed, and we drove down to main camp. We canoed under the stars and moonlight on the lake as the fog came off the water. Paul, one of the counselors, used his star pointer to show us all the special stars! How cool is that!? I didn't even know there was such a thing as a star pointer!
2. Solo time- they really emphasized how important it is to spend time with Jesus each day- and since we had no sense of time, we could just focus and not think about what was next. Solo time is such a thing I hold so closely to my heart- it's my favorite part of every day! So the fact that they really emphasized this at camp was so exciting to me! And the kids really got it- they were hungry to spend time with the Lord- they just wanted to be with Him and they would always talk about what God had showed them throughout the day- they realized it's just meeting with Jesus- a personal, alive God- it's not a homework assignment- but time to just sit and be with our Lord. AH! Loved it!
3. The last night the staff blared Disney music in the kitchen as everyone cleaned dishes- oh my goodness! SO FUN! We all danced around and sang our hearts out to Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Mermaid- I want to do that every night in my kitchen! haha
Overall it was an awesome week- I was so encouarged to just know Jesus- to love Him with all of my heart and really to quiet myself and be with Him. The theme was "talmidim" which was a disciple in the Old Testament times- they would follow their rabbis so closely that they were covered by their dust- I want to be covered by the dust of Jesus because I follow Him so closely!
