Ninjas, Vampires, & Actors...Oh My!

Summer has always held fond memories for me.  When I was a kid it meant spending countless hours in the pool, eating Hawaiian Shaved Ice, sleeping late, & playing outside until it was so dark you couldn’t see and Mom & Dad made me come inside.  As a teenager I spent long days practicing baton so I would do well on the field Friday nights come football season, & there would always be a week that I would spend somewhere doing mission work.  My love of traveling & my love for serving others came together and I felt like I thrived the most during those hot summer weeks of inner city ministry in different parts of the U.S. (As a side-note….Ironically my first mission trip was to New Orleans – little did I know back at age 14 that I would someday live there for a while as a missionary) During college Summer meant a break from writing papers & cramming for exams, a time to relax and spend time with family, and the duration of those mission trips increased to several weeks. It was after my Freshman year of college that I realized God was clearly placing a call on my life to be a missionary.  Since then, Summer has also meant rekindling relationships either on the mission field in the places that I continued to return to time after time, spending time with my family (even if briefly), and yes – still going to the pool every now & then. J Last Summer I fell into a job at a 5 week camp for elementary school kids. Little did I know when I said “yes” to working there, the tremendous blessing that I would receive from it & how much of a "God thing" that it really was.

The past months have been a time of transition in my life (& even though I am still in a transition time, I am going in a slightly new direction … more on that later) God’s provision is amazing, and at just the right time & in HIS timing, He provided me with the opportunity to work at that same camp again this Summer.  It has kept me busy, often exhausted at the end of the day, yet has been more of a blessing that I could have asked Him to provide for me through that camp.  We just wrapped up our 5 week camp, & I was reminded of how God continues to bless me with amazing friends wherever He sends me - & enables me to maintain those friendships across distances.  It was great to get to work with (& be silly with) Sarah & Kim again, and to form new friendships as well.  We spent time with 80-ish kids everyday & though we were the teachers, we had just as much fun as the kids.  From Stone Mountain, to pool trips, to playing ninja, vampires, & using our *AMAZING* acting skills (HAHA) – we always seemed to be able to have fun no matter what we were doing.  I guess this blog is kinda a tribute to my co-workers from Summer Safari.   God used the laughter that we shared to in some way help me through a difficult time of transition from one place I love & captured my heart to another place that God is leading me to (even though I’m not completely clear on all those details yet…)   

Tomorrow I will leave to go back to a place that has also captured my heart….I fell in love with it many years ago, and that feeling has never left.  To be back in the desert, back to days of 110 degree heat, to big open skies, some of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen, and nights with a canopy of millions of stars…none of that even compares to love I have for the people that have such a grip on my heart.  I sit here with an excitement (not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight with the thought that I will actually be in Arizona tomorrow…), but also an anxiousness – I haven’t been there in a year & ½ - will my kids remember me? Will they remember the countless times I gave them piggyback rides, or the deep conversations I shared with some of them, or the basketball games, the hugs, the silly games we played, etc., the LOVE that I have for them? Willl they? ---You know, I have come to realize that it doesn’t really matter.  We are called to love.  Whether someone loves us back or not – whether or not someone even notices how much we love & care for them, we are called to love them with the love God has given to each of His children.  So I will strive each day to do that.  I am anxious in another way – because of the love I have, I am anxious to see how they have grown – what have they faced in the past year & ½? This I know – it will bring me to tears, maybe out of a brokenness for difficult things they have faced, or maybe out of a joy from how I’ve seen them grow – I will be brought to tears.  This is okay.  So, whatever tomorrow brings, I am approaching it with an expectation of God to be working (He is ALWAYS at work around us – we just have to open our eyes to see what He is doing) - & to see how He wants me to join Him in that work.