Jr. High Camp

I've got a cabin of five jr. high girls, and I could use your prayers! This week so far has been a challenge. Our cabin is very divided, and very negative. It seems that I am trying to break up a fight for the majority of time. These girls are tough, from hard lives. Pray that I can reach them, and more importantly, that God softens their heart and they respond to His Spirit.

Pray for strength, patience, endurance, and the ability to communicate love clearly, especially while disciplining.

Thank you for reading and praying.

Teepee

Sunday ten wonderful girls from Hope Gardens (see below) arrived in my cabin for the week. On Monday, my supervisor had to move me to a different cabin because another group brought more kids than expected and the counselor to camper ratio was off. At first, this was difficult for me to have a good attitude about, but God was gracious enough to work in my heart and change it. I have since been having a blast with 11 girls from Bakersfield/Lancaster area.

This past Tuesday night we hiked up the hill and camped out in a teepee. We all laid in a circle with our heads in the middle. As I looked at those 11 beautiful little faces, I was reminded how incredible the image of God in His creation is. Before Liz (my co-counselor this week) sang us all to sleep, we had a sweet time of prayer together. It was encouraging to see some of the girls who hadn't opened up yet share during prayer requests time, but it was also difficult to hear the girls share such weighty requests. Here a few that were mentioned as we went around the circle:

• Pray for my dad - he is an alcoholic.
• Please pray that my mom will stay in Teen Challenge so she can get better and take care of us again.
• Pray for my mom and dad because my dad has a girlfriend.
• Pray for my parents because they have been fighting and I want them to stay together.
• Pray for my step-dad because eh works in the oil fields and it's really dangerous - he already lost a couple of fingers.
• Pray for my dad - he works in the oil fields 12 hours a day and I worry about him everyday he goes to work because it is dangerous.
• Pray for me because my older sister killed herself in March five days before her 17th birthday and my auntie died five days later.
• My dad is an alcoholic.
• Pray for my dad - he's a firefighter in Lancaster and last year two of his co-workers died. I worry about him.
• Please pray for my dad in prison.
• Pray for my brother in jail. I want him to get out because he has a baby.

Will you join me in praying for these requests this week? Thank you so much for even taking the time to read this. I feel your prayers and support - thank you!

I work with wonderful people.

The faces we make on a Friday night after a long week of camp has come to a close.

Lunch at Rosey Dining Hall

This is what we look like on Sunday afternoons - check in time!

My Roommates (L to R): Bionca, Vaneetha, and Lois.

The longer I am here, the more impressed I am with quality people I work with. They are so gifted in so many areas, and all of them have chosen to use them this summer to show God's love to kids. I love hearing stories of their journeys, many of them growing in the same tough neighborhoods our campers are coming from.

Night Hike & Hope Gardens Girls

Above you will see me with one of my campers from 1st-3rd grade, Miriam. On the last day of camp, she wrote me a note that read "Thank you for helping me Haley. I will miss you so much."

My last couple days with my girls this past week were great. Our last night together, after the night pool party, our cabin hiked up the trail to tents to camp out (each cabin camps out once a week). We have the kids hand us any flashlights we have and do the hike totally in the dark. It's cool to see how the kids respond to the idea of God creating the night, and giving our eyes the ability to adjust to the dark, as it was all new to them. When we got to the top, we had everyone stop and be completely silent as we looked up at the stars. We then asked everyone who saw something they had never seen before to raise the hands, and almost everyone's hand went up.

During our debrief from the week yesterday afternoon I was given the list of girls that will be in my cabin this next week. I will be working with another counselor here named Jen to lead a cabin of ten girls. All of these girls are coming from Hope Gardens, and transitional living facility for women and children coming off of the streets. Pray for me, as I connect and minister to ten little girls that have only recently had somewhere to call home.

Pray that God would continue to give me strength and His heart.

Thank you for taking the time to check out what's going on with me here.

Ant Free!

Quick update: Last night we got to move to new cabins - yay! We had to split up the cabin because the cabins we moved into are smaller, and it was cool to see all the girls be really sad that we couldn't be all together. That warms the heart of this counselor.

Tonight is camping night - we will hike up the hill tonight and stay in a teepee. We'll see how this goes.... :)

4th-6th Grade Camp A

I have ten 5th graders this week! Whew! They are all of the following in different extremes at different times: FUN, dramatic, whiney, hysterical, quiet, distracted, and very kind hearted.

To the left you will see our at Bible Class this morning.

For me personally, this week so far has been much harder than last week. I struggle with the balance between making things happen (like getting us different places around camp on time) and actually having time to talk to each girl one on one about what is going on in their life.

I have had quite a few rough nights in a row, with homesick girls up in the night and loud sleepers. Last night I got to bed around 11pm and woke up at 1am with ants crawling over my entire body, including on my head in my hair and in my mouth. I jumped out of bed trying to brush them off only to realize they were also covering the floor, so as long as I was standing in the cabin I was getting more and more ants on me. I spent a few hours trying to get ants off of myself and the sleeping girls, changing bedding, and trying to go back to sleep but being too traumatized to be able to relax enough to sleep. Pray for me to be able to put things in an eternal perspective and not sweat the unimportant stuff that the enemy would want to use to distract and discourage me.

Something I'm thankful for is how much fun our cabin has been having this week. Monday we spent all afternoon at the lake tubbing and swimming. We finished off the day with a nail polish party before lights out. Yesterday, after morning classes and lunch we spent our free time eating ice cream, making tie-dye t-shirts and swimming in the pool. It's amazing how incredible being in the water feels when it's 105 degrees outside.

I would appreciate your prayers specifically for my camper Keyla this week. On Monday night, as soon as we started a time of worship at Fire Circle, she started sobbing and asked if we could talk outside. When I asked her what was going on, she explained that she is very worried about her mom who moved to Virginia a year ago. She misses her, and doesn't understand why she left Keyla and her siblings. She doesn't know if she is okay. The Holy Spirit is so faithful to do His job of breaking down walls of hearts.

Please also pray that I can continue to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as God continues to work in the hearts of these young women. I don't want to miss any conversation or any opportunity to share the gospel or an encouraging word.

1st - 3rd Grade

Hi Friends! God is doing incredible things here at THE OAKS.

Last week I had a wonderful time with five beautiful spanish speaking girls who just finished the first grade. We had a blast, as well as our share of drama, bumps and bruises, laughs, dance parties, good talks, and discussion/prayer times. It was so interesting to hear the stories from the city staff that came with the girls last week - dads in prision, siblings in gangs, and so many other hard things.

Last week I just about mastered the art of braiding five little heads of really long, thick brown hair in 30 minutes tops. Here are a few of my other favorite moments from last week:

• We were doing "Highs/Lows" before bed time, telling our favorite and least favorite part of the day. One of the girls said her low of the day was finding a hair in her food at the dining hall. One of the other girls immediately replied "Sorry!"
• One of the girls, Victoria, gave me a compliment I had never received before. She said I looked like Elmo. When I asked her why, she told me it was mostly because of my hair. What???
• On the last day of camp we have a carnival for the campers with lots of games, cotton candy, snow cones, train rides, and all the normal carnival games. I had multiple girls say to me "This has been the best week of my life. I never want to leave". The crazy thing is, it's true for some of these kids.

I am continually overwhelmed at what a privilege it is to be a part of this experience for these kids. I thank God for THE OAKS.

My continually prayer: Break my heart for what breaks yours. Everything I have for your Kingdom's cause.