I'm baaaaack! Colorado Camp was ridiculously
AWESOME and I'm so happy to share everything that happened this past week. Thank you to everyone that prayed for us!! Here's a summary:
Saturday, July 1 : Met at church parking lot at 5:30 am... so happy to see the Detroit people... everyone loaded up into vans. I sat by Gloria, Rachel and Naomi. Eunice, Becky & Denise sat in back. I asked Gloria to tell me her testimony and she did... beautiful time. The girls made me laugh soooo much. Beginning of new friendships. They taught me how to play "war". I gave them my trademark lecture.
Sunday, July 2 : After 17 hours of driving, God brought us safely to camp. The mountains are SOOO beautiful and remind us of our Creator. We unpack in our cabins and meet in the main lodge for introductions. Then dinner. Then Chapel- Fr. Rusu talked about the lame man that Jesus heals in John 5... like the lame man, we sometimes come up with excuses that delay our healing. When do we ever just say, "Lord, I want you to heal me NOW!" ?? We shouldn't focus on the "if only's" in life. Then he talked about the three biggest fears in our lives - the fear of being rejected, the fear of criticism, and I forgot the third. We shouldn't let these fears get in the way... Jesus offers Himself as our main resource, our provider, our healer...
The praise and worship team is super awesome. Loved the selection of songs. Got emotional because I realized that too often, I approach God without the reverence that He deserves...
Monday : We do individual devotions at 9:15 everyday, and they are so sweet. The topic is "purity"... this is what Fr. Rusu was supposed to speak on but at the last minute he changed his mind. The whole week I pretty much made my own connections between the two. He talked about Joseph and how he understood the important- that he wasn't a servant of Potiphar's... he was a servant of the
Lord. He also understood that it was God that brought him there. This is what kept his integrity and self-control when he was seduced by Potiphar's wife.
We had a small group volleyball tournament. My team totally ROCKED but for some reason we only got third place. Hurt my knee diving for a ball
but it was worth it.
Chrissy and I led a small group and I LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT! because the girls were so open and weren't afraid to become vulnerable.... we prayed for one another and it was great.
Tuesday : Patricia and Luisa were in my cabin and they were such a blessing for me. They are some of the most consistently-strong Christians I have ever met in my life (we know them from our mission to Romania last year). Since they have only been in America for two weeks, Eunice and I felt it was our obligation to teach them some lingo from the hood, like "HOLLAR!" and "sugar daddy" or as Luisa likes to say, "sugar father".
Most of the group went on a hike in the mountains. I went with a smaller group to Denver so that we could watch the world cup semi-finals. Gloria, Eugene and I got distracted by a Starbucks nearby and went there... ended up having a very deep and productive conversation.
Wednesday : WHITEWATER RAFTING! such a blast! the river was fast and wild and it started pouring... too bad our guide kept shouting at us, saying that we were "horrible" and we didn't know "how to follow directions". LOL. He was kind of psycho.
Fr. Rusu talked about what it means to have a pure heart... it's probably one of the hardest things in the world to be the king of your own heart. But we can be driven by purity if we understand that (1) all my life plans belong to God, (2) God is the highest... and above my heart, and (3) All praise belongs to God and not to me. Yesterday he talked about marriage.. and if we don't wait for God's plan, or if we rush His promises, we could potentially turn a blessing into a curse.
Testimony night----> probably the most amazing night because so many people shared their story of salvation... or shared what God has been teaching them. I've never heard so many beautiful prayers before in my life.
Thursday: Small-group relay races. I feel so guilty that I made my small group lose by 1 point... because I lost the pie-eating contest.. TO MY LITTLE SISTER! argh!
Game show was hilarious... good times were had by all.
Friday: Soccer tournament. Didn't feel like playing so a few of us girls ran some errands with Sebi's wife.... DUUUUUUUUDE Sora Anca is like the most amazing woman ever!!!! She's so wise for a woman that's only in her early thirties. It's too bad she lives so far away.
From Fr. Sebi: Limitations have benefits because they are a way of protection. Sometimes obstacles and restrictions can be a blessing. The prodigal son, while he was away from home, became a slave to his own desires because he didn't have any restrictions. It's important to obey our parents because they know best. I asked him, "what happens if your parents impose a standard on you that isn't necessarily Biblical?" He didn't understand what I was asking, so I clarified over lunch... for example, what would I do if my parents told me that I couldn't marry someone simply because he wasn't Romanian? Hehe Fr. Sebi def had a lot to say about that...
Saturday: packing and ready to go... we played one last round of the Blinking Game. All the non-Chicago people took off around 1... it was so sad to say goodbye!.... but we (Chicagoans) were stuck waiting for our vans to arrive... we were so bored out of our minds that we wrapped Naomi in serran wrap.
once the vans arrived we decided to drive through the night... at a gas station in Nebraska we saw a herd of the most ginormous cockroaches ever... and I couldn't wait to get home.
Sunday : HOME!!! my parents made mici for us when we got home and it tasted AMAZING after a week of camp food.
Had a hard time falling asleep that night because I had so many praises on my lips....
