Summer Camp Round Two

That feeling you get when you return to a place you fell in love with is unforgettable and difficult to put into words.  I simply loved summer camp in the summer of 2012 I decided it was an opportunity for round two! SB2W summer of 2013 would be my second and last time I was a camper.  The picture to the left depicts the cabin I was in, I was still a Legend in Cabin 12 but our group was a little different this time.  My best friend didn't have the opportunity to come, but I found my old friends and new ones.

We had a lot of pride in our cabin and my counselors where the coolest of them all.  I still have the opportunity to email back and for with one of them as I go through my college years.  To the right is both of my counselors for my cabin  the one on the left eventually was added to the roman team "the enemy" and the one to the right was a Galatian so she was on the right team. 

I still struggled with wrist issues on this trip and had to keep myself in line with some of the activities.  During the faith pole i luckily was able to get on top of the telephone pole and jump with a little help from some of my friends.  Heights remained to not be enjoyable and when the high ropes corse adventure came around I found myself cheering from the ground...safe!  I returned to the white water rafting adventure and survived for a second time.  The weather seemed to be against us as it poured most of the afternoon and night meaning we got a little wet while camping.

I kept many of my friends from this adventure but I knew all to well that I would not return to the wonderful Que, so I said my goodbyes and prayed that maybe there was a chance I could return.  The outdoors has always brought me a sense of piece and when the two weeks came I didn't want to leave.  My brothers came with on this adventure though I rarely saw them.  Unfortunately for them the weather most of that summer was rainy and kept us inside for some of the day.  They found this boring and I got the chance to grow closer with my cabin mates and counselors.  This term also turned out to be a blue summer and the cool blue Galatians went home with another victory over the red hot Romans.

Life Lesson #22: Sometimes the weather can ruin your adventure, but you must improvise and turn it into becoming something much better and never let the weather ruin your fun.

Track Team Over Night

When they say that you run your fastest while in a hotel hallway, many people don't realize how truthful that is.  Overnight school trips are amazing and are a great opportunity, but sports overnight trips are even better.  During Track season the biggest meet for us during the regular season was ACSI in Bangor, PA.  This was May of 2013 and the first time we stayed overnight.  previous years we enjoyed torturing ourselves and decided it would be way more fun to meet at school at 4 am and drive to the meet.  This messed up our sleep schedules and hurdlers went first and I was barely awake.


Between athletes there is such a saying as "I run faster in the hotel hallways then I do anywhere else"  is probably the most realistic and truthful statement about athletes I know.  We went around the town and just admired the smallness of it all.  It was the cutest center to a town I had seen in awhile.

The food that we had for dinner was your usually carb load up, the classics like pasta.  We were a small team at this point with no that many girls and we were able to place 3rd over all.  I wasn't able to achieve my goal of getting first place for my number 1 event and all time favorite the 100m hurdles.  I knew I was coming back the next year to face the same girls and I wasn't going to lose to them again.  We placed 2nd for the 4 by 100m relay and it was the best time for the year and we were happy about that.

The trip was an adventure and the track meet took all day and my whole team waited till I finish javelin and then we headed to the nearest sonic for our classic post meet dinner.  That day each of us accomplished somethings that we never though where possible.  But that day we might have run faster on the track then through the hotel hallways no matter how creepy they were.

Life Lesson #21: There might be people out there that are faster and stronger, but as long as you push yourself to do your best then you can't walk away with your head low.

Mexico Round Two

After this first year of crushing disappointment, it only seems fit that we were again to return to Mexico in and unfortunate turn on circumstances.  Originally the plan was to go to Panama in August 2012.  A month or two prior to the trip our youth pastor got a job on the other side of the country in California.  And he was scheduled to start work before our trip.  By now I had learned to live on my toes and expect the unexpected when it comes to ministry.


None of the other pastors on staff had the availability to go with us to Panama and the youth pastor taking over had no experience down there.  So in drastic measures we quickly switch the trip to Mexico for a second year in a row.


The route was the same as the summer prior, we flew into California and drove down into Mexico.  This trip though was much more child oriented.  We did help with some construction projects but nothing as demanding as the year prior. But this trip was still a blessing.

Since my youth pastor was already moved into his house we went to visit him at the college he still works at.  This campus is in Marietta, California and has natural hot springs.  The smell wasn't particularly that appealing but the warmth quickly changed our minds. We got to experience college life and eat some great food that only the west coast offers us.


I learned that making balloon animals is way harder than it looks and takes a skill of some sort to make them awesome.  We sang some of our spanish worship songs that I learned in my spanish class.  The kids couldn't get enough of them.  At the orphanage that we spent decent amount of time at one of the workers daughters was fluent in english.  She served as our translator with many of the little children.

One day we spent with some local people from a village I spent the day with a brother and sister who never said a word to anyone.  When their mother came to get then she smiled at me and took her kids.  She pointed at a piece of paper that said thank you written on it with the children's ages; 4 and 5.  I never figured out their names or their mothers for that matter.  Maybe they all couldn't talk or they were silenced.

We spent some time at the beach doing devotions and just getting to know each other through the missions trip.  At first I was really upset about the fact that I didn't have the opportunity to go to Panama, but as the bible says when the Lord closes a door he opens a window.  This was one of the first times I started to open up about my spiritual journey.  I made a few friends cry while I told my story but in the end it was all worth it.

Life Lesson #20: Sharing my testimony the first time was hard, but it only got easier with experience.