Well dear readers, my summer at camp has officially come to a close. Today the Summer Staff of 2013 said many tearful goodbyes and packed up our belongings to make the long journeys home. This has been the most incredible summer of my life. It was a summer where I was made truly vulnerable before my God and before others, but it was also the summer that God chose to drop the promise of many possibilities for my future in my lap. I will try my best to recount my experience of working at camp this summer and how it changed me, but truly unless you were here this summer there is just something about it that only my wonderful team will understand.
When I arrived at Wolf Mountain I was holding back bitterness towards people in my life who had hurt me. I was confused as to why God had "forced" me to come to camp for the summer and make mere pennies an hour when He knew that I had bills to pay and books to buy for school. I was frustrated with my life and it seemed as if much of it was crumbling, once again, right in front of me. My first day at camp I stood in the middle of a catch pen surrounded by 17 horses that I would get to work with over the summer and God and I had a talk. I told God I wanted Him to be real to me and I just wanted everything to go back to normal.
As the summer went on the Lord took my life, emotional, spiritual, and even physical and took it to a whole new level. I learned what it means to love unconditionally. The walls of anti-emotion that I had allowed to build up around my heart were torn down and for the first time in a long time I felt happy and free. It was truly amazing to see how God allowed me to grow this summer. He taught me more about myself than I had ever known before. I've overcome obstacles that faced me when I got here this summer. I overcame the limits that had been placed on my health when I arrived at camp, and I did things that I was told I may never be able to successfully do again with a struggle.
Basically, what it all comes down to is that God gave me an incredible opportunity this summer. When I got here I never imagined that I would come as far as I have. For me the summer was about learning to be vulnerable before my God, because it was at the point when I laid everything aside and let God have his way totally in my life that I was changed. I will never be the same after this summer, and I couldn't be happier about that. Now I know that my choice to be vulnerable before my God has lead me to a dozen possibilities for the future. So as I wait to see what God has in store for me I will live day by day with a new excitement and enthusiasm. But for right now I will Keep Calm and Write On.
