the blessing called Camp Klema

Blessing is the word I have come up with to describe my experience at church camp this past week. We arrived home Friday afternoon, but we had family here this weekend and my mother and I are preparing to leave the state again tomorrow, so I have unfortunately been too busy to sit down and type out a proper retelling of my week. It included a lot of sitting in hard chairs, sweating in Texas summer heat, and making sure not to step in ant piles. It also included sharing a cabin with girls that I love, hearing some great teaching, and singing and experiencing some of the best worship I have ever felt. The food was decent; not amazing, but definitely not bad for camp food. I liked having a few hours of free time each day, rather than scheduled "activities" or "recreation." We swam, walked through the woods, canoed, watched kids get blobbed, and watched a lot of random funny games that teenage boys make up when they're bored, including one that I believe was called Ninja Destruction.

Some people--a lot of people--go to church camp and have this time away and so Father shows them something amazing. He teaches them something they need to know, reveals something they've wanted to know, convicts them--always for their benefit. But this camp, for me, I think was simply a gift from Him. I left my cell phone and my iPod at home; I didn't have to keep in contact with anyone. I had a week away from the chaos and drama and worries and junk that go on in daily life to just soak in His presence. And one of the main reasons I went to camp was to really make these kids my church family, because I'd been lacking that since freshman year, and I know that I need it, no matter how good my home life is, how Christian my parents are, I need more than them.

I was sad not to go to Arts Camp with my dance friends; especially after hearing their stories, but I don't regret making the decision to go to church camp instead. Father could easily have spoken to me through either one, but Arts Camp would not have taken me away like church camp did. I made the right decision.

I even left my camera at home, so I don't have any pictures to share with you. Amusingly, the camp was somewhere I had actually been before. Quite a few years ago, our former youth pastor at GFBC, Tim, took us one Saturday to a ropes course--turns out that it was at this camp. :) Ah, familiarity, haha.