What I Learned At Camp

Last night I slept in a bed. A real bed. My own bed. With real sheets. In a room all by myself. When I woke up this morning (around noon) it was just me. It was weird.
Late last Friday night I arrived at Shiloh and snuck into my cabin where all of the little girls (in the picture above) were already sleeping. I met Jill, one of the counselors I
would be sharing a cabin with , and then went to sleep on my mattress on the floor where I would be sleeping for the following five nights. It has been a while since I shared a room and bathroom with ten other girls.

First of all I have to say that the counselors there are amazing and I told them I don't know how they do it. One week wore me out and they are there for about six! Despite the crowdedness of our cabin and the grossness of our bathroom and the fact that we couldn't flush the toilet paper, I had a wonderful experience at camp. I know that I was meant to be on that trip.

My purpose for being at that camp was to spend time with the kids and to help them see God's love. However, while I was there God also showed me things about himself. Being with those children showed me how very blessed I am. I knew that I was blessed, but it wasn't until being there that I understood what kind of life I have. I live without fear of someone hurting me in my neighborhood, I live with a family who loves me, I have a promising future and parents that will always take care of me, and I have everything that I could ever want. I've got it made and half the time I don't even realize it. It is so foolish of me to ever complain.

Being on the trip made me think a lot about love. Not romantic love, but God's love for us and the love that we are supposed to have for others. When I was going to sleep one night I noticed a Bible verse that was written on the wall above me. It said, "Live in such a way that you shine like stars in the universe." It was taken from Philippians 2:15. It got my attention so I opened my Bible and read Philippians 2. This passage stuck out to me.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" ~Philippians 2: 4-8

Then I thought about myself sleeping on the floor, sharing a room and bathroom with ten girls and spending my days focusing all of my attention on them. That was difficult for me because I am used to my clean, comfortable home and bed and privacy and doing whatever I want. Then, in a very very small way I was able to understand a little better just what Jesus did for me. He left Heaven. He left the greatest place in existence to come to this nasty, sinfull, disease filled world to be hated and laughed at and killed. He was God but he was considered to be nothing. He came here for years and focused his attention on us and did everything for us. He died for us. He loved us that much.

Shiloh Pics!

Shiloh Bingo Night! Or, tacky night would also be an appropriate name for it. Everyone had to dress up as tacky and mismatched as possible. We didn't know to bring outfits for it so we just put on a little bit of everything. This is all of the girls who went on the trip.

This is in the rec hall where all of the worship, games, and meals took place. This is all of the counselors and campers singing during "Celebration" or worship time.
This is the rec hall from the outside when the campers were just finishing a meal.

The merry go round is where all the girl campers met each morning to talk and pray before breakfast. It was a popular spot to play. A few of those girls were in my cabin.

And here we have the water balloon toss. It was one of several competitions we had the weekend our group arrived. All of the cabins were put in teams and competed for different things to have a party at the end of the weekend. My team was the Porsches.

Me and two of the guy counselors tried to help the porsches win the tug of war. However, we lost all but one match. You'd think with me on their team we'd be sure to win.......


One of my campers and me during Shiloh Bingo. We had the best time laughing and dancing and trying to win bingo. We had dance parties randomly throughout the night that were hilarious.

Bittersweet Goodbye

I was trying so hard not to cry. I kept telling myself not to but as I sat there watching the movie I couldn't help myself. The tears finally came and they just kept coming and coming! Tonight was Mike's (my youth minister from my home church) last night at our church before he and his family move to Austrailia indefinitely. (Going back in time about an hour). The youth and college classes were combined tonight because it was Mike's last class and Mike put me in charge of helping with the slides during the class. All I had to do was click the little arrow when it was time for the next verse of the song we were singing. This should be easy right? Well, I kind of had a hard time with it. I kept missing my cue and throwing off the praise team and the fifty other people in the room. Not only that, during one of the songs I started to close my eyes (b/c I do that sometimes when I sing) but realized just in time,"I can't do that, I have to see the slides because I have to change them." I am in Pharmacy school but I can't work a slide show.... good grief. Anyway, at the end of class Mike played The Video. It was a video of pictures from the youth group and him with some music playing in the background. It wasn't the pictures that got me because I'm not in the youth group anymore. It was the music. The lyrics of the first song played said something like, "I hope that you love Jesus more when we go our seperate ways." The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I did love Jesus more because of Mike and what a huge part he played in my spiritual growth. Not only has he helped me, but my brother and sister as well. He is the one who baptized Matt! (see picture above and the entry from July 05) Mike took an active role in helping me develop spiritually and I know I would not be the same person without his influence. The second song on the video was a song by Mark Schultz called "Remember Me" that I love and listen to often. That song started playing and I started crying. Then I kept crying. I tried to pull myself together before I had to go say goodbye to the rest of the family (Rebecca and the boys). This took me a good twenty minutes and then I made my way to the building where everyone was gathered to say their goodbyes. Through tears I said goodbye to Rebecca and managed to find the three boys and give them all a hug (I don't think they liked that very much.) Then I had to get out of there fast. As much as I hated to say goodbye to them, I know what awesome things God has planned for them to help Him out with in Austrailia, so it was bittersweet. Something I took away from tonight; I do hope that I help people love Jesus more. I have never thought of it that way, but I do hope that people are better off for having known me. Not because I am so great and wonderful, but because of what God does in me. That's all that matters in life isn't it? Isn't that our purpose? To show God to others so that they might know Him also? To help each other and encourage each other? I am thankful for Mike and for the other people in my life (many who read this blog) who have taken an initiative to help me in my spiritual walk. Without them I know that I would not be the same.

Shiloh

This is Camp Shiloh. On Friday morning I will be leaving Florence and heading to New York to the Catskills Mountains, to Shiloh. I am so excited but a little bit nervous at the same time. I have been so frantically trying to get my quizzes done for school that I haven't had much time to realize how close this trip is! Now that it is only two days away I better start getting ready for it. Not that I haven't done anything to prepare, I made out the itenerary for the trip and prepared the finance sheet for our time in the city. Of course, I have been praying as well, for our group and for the kids we will be in contact with. Shiloh is a camp for the inner city children from the Bronx. They are bussed into the camp and our job is to have fun with them and give them lots of attention. They eat it up too! They hang all over you and want to braid your hair and tell you all kinds of stories and then they cry when you have to leave. Of course, we cry too. Those children are precious and in the time they spend at this camp they experience so many wonderful things that they never get to otherwise. Not just fun activities and camping, they get to experience God and God's love. It is so awesome to me that we get to be the ones to show God's love to these kids. Of course, we get to show God's love every day but in this case they may not ever see it otherwise. When I went to Shiloh in 2001 the theme was "More Than Conquerors."
It came from the verse in Romans that says "In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." -8:37 It's true you know, especially for those children. I look forward to updating about this when I get back next Sunday! Please keep us in your prayers!

Dance Baby Dance

Ross claims to be able to utilize both dance pads at one time. Ross says he can dance on the hardest level. Ross says he will beat me during our Dance Dance Revolution Dance Off we've been planning for about a year now. Ross talks a big game. The above picture is of Ross and his mom doing DDR. Notice Ross' cool anklet and their matching shirts. Yeah, he needs all the help he can get. So he and his mom have matching team shirts.... well I've got skillz. That's all I need.

Too Quickly

This summer is passing entirely too quickly! Just three more weeks (one that will be spent in New York) and it's back to school for Katie. I'm trying to cram as much in as possible and still get some work done on those quizzes. (My pharmacy friends will appreciate this: So I've been studying Staph and Strep and last night I had a dream that the doctor told me I had "beta block complement" because I have been sleeping too much. Then he put me on Meclizine. 175 tablets. Four tablets 3 times a day. Ridiculous. I'm not ready for ID 1!!) Anyway, the above picture is of me and two of my adorable cousins on the Fourth of July. One thing I was hoping to do this summer is spend more time with them and I hope that I'll get to do that before I go back to Auburn. Also, I never really got around to learning Spanish. I mean, I tried. I looked into it and realized I couldn't afford the cd set I want so that's gonna have to be a Christmas present. Goal postponed. I'm getting a little stressed thinking about everything I need to do in the next three weeks, people I want to spend time with, things I want to help my mom out with, things I want to get ready for school.....
It's just so easy to get carried away with life and all the things that there are to accomplish and enjoy. I think you just have to pick the things that are most important to you and go from there. I have to submit my regions for where I want to do my rotations next year. It is crazy to me that for the first time in my life I have no idea where I will be in a year!! No idea!!! But I love that it is in God's hands. Who better to plan it?

My Song

This was written about me and I wanted to share it.

She's the sun set shadows
She's like Rembrandt's light
She's the history that's played at night
She's my lost compantion
She's my dreaming tree
Together in this brief eternity
Summer days, winter snows
She's all things to behold

She's my kind of rain
Like love from a drunken sky
Confetti falling down all night
She's my kind of rain


Oh, wait... ok. Um, so maybe that's a song by Tim McGraw. But you could imagine what it would be like if it was written about me.

Haley's Engaged!!!!

Last night was a time of celebration and friendship. The picture above is of me and four of my very best friends. We had all gotten together to celebrate Haley's (center) engagement to her boyfriend Chad. That picture shows friendships that have been in existence for as long as 18 years (for me and Haley), some more, some less. We all graduated from Mars Hill together and have remained close friends all throughout our college years. Whenever we all get together it's like we were never apart.



Here's Haley showing off her beautiful ring and making her best Moanna face. Chad did a great job picking it out! The friends all approved.
















After the initial excitement of seeing each other, Haley, Chad, and the ring, we all sat down to an awesome dinner at P.F. Changs (which thrilled me to no end since it is my favorite restaurant) where Chad told all us girls his side of the proposal (it's great) and we drilled Haley on the wedding plans. Below is a picture of Haley and Chad and the other is of us girls holding the cards Haley gave us asking us to be her bridesmaids.

















I have had several friends get married but no one as close to me as Haley. We have been friends since we were five years old and had so many hilarious memories together. It is crazy now to know who she will be spending the rest of her life with and it makes me happy to know that she has found the right man for her. Haley and Chad love the Lord and I know that He will bless them in their future together. This is exactly what I want for Haley and for all of my friends. The wedding is in March so let the showers begin!

Chit Chat

So, here I am in Mobile just hanging out waiting on Allison to get off work so we can hang out.
I'm not just hanging out really, I am reading up on Staph so I can take that goofy quiz and get it out of the way. Anyway, two things have occurred to me as I sit in this coffee shop in Mobile...

Conversation is great. There are a few people sitting to my right that are just chatting and exchanging stories, laughing about their experiences. I love that! Each person is so unique and has so much that they can share. A lot can be gained from just hanging out on a porch or in a coffee shop or restaurant talking with friends or strangers. In fact, some of my best memories come from times my friends and I have been sitting around talking with each other. Another thing, and I may have mentioned this before, I've decided that when I meet new people that I know I will never see again in my lifetime, I will see what all knowledge can be attained by meeting them. I am bound to learn something (or maybe share something valuable with them) and then I (or they) will have something to take away from the encounter instead of it being a complete waste of meeting a person.

This brings me to my next point. I HATE it and I mean HATE it when coffee is called joe. I hate it! Why? Why, why why????? I try not to think about this when I go to Joe Mugs. I think of Joe Mug as a person, not coffee. Coffee called joe reminds me of mud water in a tin cup. Completely unappetizing.

Wal-Mart is for Lovers

I fully believe with all my heart that there is someone out there for everyone. If you don't believe me then just go to your local Super Wal-Mart, you will see. The following is a true story that occurred in my county several years ago.

My mom is over special education so she has to hold meetings with parents to discuss their child's test scores, academic goals, and etc. This particular meeting my mom had to tell a couple that their daughter's test scores showed that she was mentally retarded. The father came into the meeting wearing a denim vest and a black leather hat, and he had lice in his beard. He wouldn't sit down for the whole meeting because he was mad at my mom for saying that his child was mentally retarded. The mother, upon hearing the news, slammed her hands on the table and said, "She aint those words you say she is! She aint mentally retarded! She plays out in the yard like all the other kids." At the end of the meeting the parents slam the door closed and then the mother pokes her head back in the room and says, "It's all his fault you know. If I knew he couldn't read when I met him at Wal-Mart I never would've married him!"

So, the moral of this story is, if you are looking for someone to marry then you can probably find them in Wal-Mart. Be sure after you meet your future spouse in Wal-Mart that they can actually read. If you are not looking to meet your spouse in Wal-Mart, you should go there just to see who has actually probably met in Wal-Mart and then gotten married.

People and Stuff

Busy, busy, busy. Today I was in Target killing time in Birmingham before heading to my free wifi spot to get a little studying done. While I was shopping around for shampoo and whatnot I couldn't help but notice how much STUFF there was for sale. STUFF. I mean, what's it all for anyway? Traveling has made me realize that I can survive so much more simply without all of the stuff. I think back to my house and how much stuff I own that I don't use or need and probably don't even know I have. It's so pointless. Granted, some of the stuff I love and I need or maybe just enjoy, but really? Is it all necessary? I don't think so.
This brings me to another point, busy-ness. In our country we are so blessed and we have everything in large quantities. Our culture as a whole revolves around work. We work and work and work so we can afford all of our stuff. Stuff we don't need. We work and we get tired and we are stressed out trying to earn more and more. When I was in Italy I thought it was neat how their culture took a different perspective on things. They really took time to enjoy life. Most people went to work around 9:00, they shut down their businesses at around 2:00 for a couple of hours to eat and take a nap, and then reopened till evening. Then, half of the businesses totally shut down for like a month at the time for vacationing. Yeah, they just shut down their store completely and put up a sign that said "will re-open at the end of July" or whatever. Shocking, I know. I wish our culture was a little more like theirs in that way. You know, taking time to enjoy life instead of just going, going, going all of the time! I think we, our culture as a whole, would be a lot healthier and happier if our lives were just simplified.

Some Favorite Songs

This summer is passing entirely too quickly. So far I have had a blast just traveling here and there and functioning as a person who just flies by the seat of their pants. That's not how I'm used to being because I'm a serious planner, but it is impossible to have a routine day when you have no job and no school. So, I've learned to adapt to this new and excited way of life that involves doing whatever I want when I feel like doing it.

So, in closing I'm going to list several of my favorite songs that I never get tired of.
Here they are in random order:

1. Sweet Baby James by James Taylor
2. Don't Stop Believin by Journey
3. Black Balloon by Googoo Dolls
4. Yellow by Cold Play
5. When You Say Nothing At All by Allison Krauss
6. Best I Ever Had by Verticle Horizon
7. Caried Away by George Strait
8. Better Together by Jack Johnson
9. Offering by Third Day
10. Boom I Got Your Boyfriend (the clean version)
11. It's Your Love by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw
12. Fishing in the Dark by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
13. I Am by Nicole Nordeman
14. If You Don't by Jimmy Eat World
15. Remember Me by Mark Shultz
16. How to Save a Life by The Fray
17. Up! by Shania
18. A Lifetime by Better Than Ezra
19. Love is On a Roll by Don Williams
20. When You Love Someone by Brian Adams
21. Songs by Casting Crowns (can't pick a favorite)