Live as if God's given you a purpose for tomorrow

I wrote this post on Sunday but I just hadn't posted it... I'll give more of an update in a day or two:

Yesterday afternoon we had a staff member go missing in the lake when his life jacket slipped off him. He didn't know how to swim. The search started to look for Anthony and what was a search turned into a sweep of the lake in the later afternoon. It's been a tough 24+ hours for the staff here at CAMP-of-the-WOODS. Although I don't remember ever officially meeting Anthony and shaking hands with him, I know he was close to a lot of people here and we all feel the weight of losing our brother.

It's hard to know what to think, or how to proceed from here. How do we carry on when it feels like the world has come to a stop? How do we keep ourselves from asking all the questions burning in our hearts, that we are dying to cry out. God, where are you in all of this? I believe you're in control, and that's why I don't understand how you could let something like this happen to someone so young, why, God?

I don't claim to know the answer to all or any of these questions. But what I do know is this:

God is good. And it's OK to ask 'why?' as long as we remember that God is good, and move onto the question, 'God, what's Your purpose in all of this?'

I've also been thinking about the mindset, 'live like we are dying.' Actually, more than anything I've been questioning this mindset. I think I understand the general concept behind it, but I really want to challenge the thought process. I'm not arguing against making the most of every second we have here on earth, but I want to suggest possibly a more hopeful view. Maybe something like, 'live as if God's given you a purpose for tomorrow.' I truly believe we can get so wrapped up in living in the here and now, we can forget to dream big dreams for tomorrow. If we live as though we are going to die today, we sometimes forget to think long term and have hopes and dreams for the future. Dream big. Dream as if there will be a tomorrow. And if there turns out to be a tomorrow, He may change your plans for the day anyway, but at least you dreamt. At least you can say you lived yesterday as though you had a purpose today. God's given you today as a blessing; a chance to make dreams become a reality. And every 'tomorrow' has the possibility to become a 'today.' Make it count.

God is in control. If we are living as though He's given us a purpose tomorrow, if it's our time to be with Him today, don't you think He already has that all figured out? Having dreams about tomorrow isn't going to mean you miss out on living today. There's no reason to be overly concerned about what day we are going to be brought back to be with Him.

It's important to remember that we as Christians need to handle and approach these situations differently because of the truth of God's Word and His promises. We proceed with hope because He has given it to us. We are a people of hope.

We are meant to mourn. But we aren't meant to get stuck in that stage. We should spend more time celebrating life, than mourning death. Today in morning chapel, the speaker said something that is so true. 'Death is dead.'

Amen.

We know Anthony is back home. And from the stories I've heard about Anthony, He was truly living with a purpose. Seeking God everyday, and growing in faith.

Tomorrow is July....?

Time flies when you're having fun, as they say. Or in my case when the days are filled with a lot of work, lots of laughing, awesome worship music, Bible studies, and fellowship with a bunch of awesome people. Only a couple more days and I will have already been here for a full two weeks. So hard to believe how fast this summer is going by. I hope it doesn't go by too quickly... I want to enjoy it for all it's worth.

These last few days have honestly actually been very trying. One of the people on my team had to leave and it's made the few of us left on the team to work even harder to pick up the slack and keep on top of all the cleaning that needs to be accomplished in such a short amount of time. It's kind of hard to explain the details of how not having one person can really slow you down... but basically having an odd number on the team makes for a lot of work. If you think to keep our team in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated. I'm trusting God is going to provide exactly what we need in His perfect timing... but being the leader of the team makes the responsibility fall pretty heavily on my shoulders some days. I have two guys on the team I'm leading. One is from Serbia, and the other Connecticut.

Both guys have been such a blessing and God has been teaching me a lot. I definitely think one of the things God is trying to teach me this summer is to be able to know what my limits are and know when I need to slow down and even stop to take a break in order to not become burned out. That's one of the things I've always struggled with. It's like the opposite of being lazy. Both are equally bad and equally unhealthy. I'm always going, and always feeling like I need to be working. There's nothing wrong with working, in fact in most cases it helps me to stay focused on the important tasks and manage my free time. But there is a truth to overworking and becoming burned out and over-exhausted... and basically useless. Specifically the guy on my team from Serbia has become like an older brother to me and after running around the camp trying to sort everything out he will look at me, take me by the shoulders and say, 'you need to sit, you're going to get burned out. we'll do the work for two minutes. take a break, cora.' what a blessing it is to have someone like that in my life that is looking out for my well-being when I forget that I need to be. So, I'm taking some pointers and learning some lessons, and hopefully I'll be able to be able to more effectively self-regulate my exhaustion level.

I think I'm going to go sailing tonight, and we finally have some beautiful weather so I'm hoping to see an amazing sunset tonight. I worked a 10 hour day on Tuesday and was on call for about 5 hours of that... and we had a huge thunder and lightening storm... it was gorgeous... but not that much fun to get soaked in while riding a golf-cart haha

God Bless! I'll write again soon!

I don't want to start every post with telling you how exhausted I am. And the true job hasn't even really started yet! But all of that aside, I am having an amazing time. There's a lot I wanted and still want to accomplish this summer but I truly feel as if I'm in the exact place God wants me to be this summer.

Yesterday I cleaned my first room... all by myself! It was a little on the scary side, but it's also been a lot of fun to learn how to properly make a bed as they do in the hotels, clean a bathroom from top to bottom (removing every speck, including whatever mold you may find... such as in the first cleaning job we did together.... a trailer in the woods.), properly handle different chemicals, finding 'monsters under the beds,' take bed bunks off and properly make them and slide them back on, fold towels, and kill NY size spiders (apparently they 'grow' them bigger here).

I also found who is going to be on my team today and what section of the camp we will be cleaning. We are cleaning what is called 'lakeside' and I'm really excited about it. I think we'll start the earlier part of the morning up in the woods and then work our way down toward the water a little before lunch so we are on the water when it's sunny and beautiful out. There's one room on lakeside that's bigger than all the others, and the most magnificent part has to be the huge window that looks out to the lake... the best part is that the room actually hangs a bit over the water so it actually feels like you're on top of the water... mostly because you actually are. And I get to clean it and look out that window everyday!! =-)

I haven't gotten my official schedule yet, but I'm going to be working 5 hours in the morning doing 'maid service' on lakeside with my team and then we will break for lunch. After that we will have a number of other duties (either working in the buildings doing odd jobs, folding linens in 'WashingTONS' hehe and then bringing them over to 'BeddingTONS'... they got really creative with the building names... washing dishes, and other duties) My boss who has been training us the last few days has really helped me to start to grasp why we are about to do all the housekeepers do. One thing he's said over and over again, is that when people walk into their room they have a first impression helping to determine how of the rest of their stay turns out to be. When they see someone has taken the time to make it spotless and pay attention to detail, in some cases they think to themselves something such as, 'someone cares.' Also, he's given me a knew perspective on cleaning toilets. I know, really shocking. I used to think it was a gross job to clean someone else toilet. I believe, 'ewwwwwww' was the thought that came to mind. Gosh, I hardly enjoy cleaning my own toilet/bathroom... why on earth would I want to clean someone else's?!

But then he made an extremely good point. It's the most humbling experience to look at a dirty bathroom (tub, toilet and all) and then get down on your hands an knees and start scrubbing completely disregarding the 'grossness' of the whole situation. After all, all you have to do is go home and take a shower and all the dirtiness is pretty much forgotten. I'm not going to compare it Jesus washing his disciple's feet. But it's a similar concept.

I'm really looking forward to guests coming, and starting to practice what Jesus has called us to do. I know this is going to be a tough summer, and I'm tempted to say it will be draining.. but so far, behind all the work and tiredness I've actually been left more full of joy and peace than being drained.

I miss a lot of people, but all the work keeps my mind off things, and it helps that all the people are really awesome here. It felt like home pretty quickly which always helps with the transition. And as a side note, from all this scrubbing, I've heard from numerous people it's like an 8 or 9 hour workout and my muscles will change within 3 weeks. Basically, who needs the gym when you have a housekeeping job for the summer and a beautiful lake to run around. =-)

We are the keepers of the house

Started job training today. It went really well, but I'm exhausted. Got up around 6... finished work around 5:15, went to dinner, had a mandatory meeting, and just got back from an 'ice (cream) breaker' on the lake. It was a really awesome opportunity to continue learning all the new names and get to know people. Didn't get a run in today, figure it's ok though because I'm not on much of a schedule yet, plus between all of the walking, lifting, scrubbing, and other cleaning duties we were trained in today I believe I got more than enough exercise... and I finished it off just about watching the sunset set on Lake Pleasant. God is so good, and I am incredibly blessed.

We were trained about our duties as housekeepers today, and as a 'housekeeping team leader' I was told about the added responsibilities of the job, and being responsible for a certain section of the camp. I'll be leading approximately 3 other people Monday-Friday and then on Saturday I will be responsible for helping completely changeover the camp in a matter of 5 hours so the next group of guests can arrive, check-in, and find clean rooms. For this changeover process I will be leading about 12 people and from what I've heard it's a crazy and completely intense 5 hours leaving in it's wake a pile (more like MOUNTAIN) of laundry that take at least 5 days to completely wash and get folded... just about in time for the next changeover to take place. That's a lot of laundry. The camp is much bigger and has so much more going on than I imagined before I got here. For instance: there's an entire music staff (around 30 people) making up the camp orchestra that plays music on sunday mornings, and they practice 5 days a week and most have gone to incredible music schools and done a graduate program. I walked by the auditorium today and it sounded fantastic!

I'm really enjoying learning about all the work that goes on behind the scenes when you go to stay somewhere. The head of my department basically says, 'We take care of the 'ick' factor so that our guests don't have to.' I love the job atmosphere and the references to scripture throughout the day that you don't get in a lot of places. It's going to be a hard and somewhat grueling job, but I'm really looking forward to being encouraged to truly merge what we sometimes compartmentalize as two different lives. Your 'work' life (basically school, career, home, etc.) and your 'church' life. One thing I really want to get better at this summer is learning how to remember who I'm truly working for in everything I do. It's so easy to approach different situations in life with a different attitude. It's not healthy. I work for the King and Creator of the universe, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, everything needs to reflect the awesome power, grace, and majesty of the amazing God I worship.

Until next time (which apparently will be sooner and more frequent than I originally thought)

God Bless

Home and hand soap. The two are most certainly related.

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? And I took this picture on my phone, so you can only imagine how much more beautiful it is in person.

I've been here a little over 24 hours now, and I've always been pretty good at adjusting to new places but from some reason this adjustment hasn't just felt like any other adjustment. I can see myself returning to this place, a place that's starting to feel like home, in the future. Oh, and what helped the whole process? I went in to town (this was the second trip to town today) and went to a store called, 'charlie john's' and bought some hand soap to use at the sink in our room. I'm officially settled in. What can I say, hand soap apparently makes all the difference. =-)

This morning I went for my second run since I've been here... it's just so invigorating to be in such a quaint place and to get to go and explore by myself. I found a laundromat, car wash, salon, post office, speculator's "department store" (notice the use of quotes... needless to say, it's more like a house looking thing that sells clothes that say 'adirondack mountains'), diner, playground, ice cream places, volunteer ambulance and police services (population of speculator, ny from what I hear is somewhere around 7 *hehe* and I guess they don't see the need to pay people... besides, if you think about it... a majority of the people living here probably volunteer... personally I think it's a pretty nifty system, for a small community anyway. not sure how well a volunteer system would work in a place say, like.... ny city haha). And on that note, a number of jokes about the town and its size have already been made (for instance that whole 'population 7' is a joke I picked up during church service this morning). But I think that's one of the reasons I love it so much and have already made the 'hike' into town 3 times since I've been here. I've always had this dream of at some point living in a small town. You know the kind. Everyone knows everyone, there's a gazebo in the center, and a diner that the locals frequent, and people water each other's gardens when they're away... oh, and the kind where the volunteer staff that services the town.

All of the people who live in speculator know us as 'the people who come and go every summer'. The town doesn't see a lot of action during the off season. But for those dedicated few who have permanent residency here, it's clearly the place they call home. But the people are so friendly. I introduced myself and talked to a few people in town and everyone is very welcoming.

Tomorrow marks the start of early mornings, long work days, regular small group meetings and chapel, as well as probably less sleep. But the hours of sleep are going to be pretty good after such long days I would imagine. Did I mention how excited I am for tomorrow?

I'm ready to grow in ways I can't even imagine, and continue to build relationships that will hopefully last a lifetime. It's nice getting comfortable with where everything is and starting to learn names (can be difficult to remember some of them... but give me time. after all, there are about 300 of us on staff. that's a lot of names.) I'm also looking to spend a considerable amount of quiet time by myself. Getting away from all the noise and commotion of my everyday life back home is a rare occasion once classes start, and I fully plan on taking hold of this awesome opportunity. Above all else, I'm hoping to grow in my relationship with God, humbling myself everyday at how amazing he is through both the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Until next time.

God Bless

'I long, as does every human being , to be at home wherever I find myself'

Wow, I'm thinking it's been a little too long since I wrote last... wonder if anyone still keeps up with a blog that sees little blogging? haha, oh well, I shall write on regardless....

I drove 5 hours today to NY and am currently settling into my new home. It's gorgeous here, and it's good to get away from my typical day-to-day schedule. We have some activities and a meeting tomorrow and then on Monday I think we start the official 'let's get down to business' training. As far as I know I'll be working about 52 hours per week and my free time is going to be spent running, training and getting ready for field hockey in the fall (I thought I'd start that summer mindset off right today so I went for nice run to explore the town not too far away from camp), hiking, devotionals, reading, hanging out with friends, and writing.

My run today took me along the lake I will be living on, and I found my way to a public beach (where by the way, I was the only person on aforementioned beach... talk about quaint and peaceful). I then walked down to the boat dock, sat on the end, took a deep breath, and I believe the words, 'God you are so good' came flooding into my mind to the beat of the waves lapping the side of the dock. Closing my eyes wasn't even an option, in fact, I was trying to convince my eyes they didn't even need to blink because I didn't want to miss a second of the incredible beauty in front of me. I find that there are few moments in life where you can truly say you feel in a state of peace.

Needless to say, I'm excited to be back on the water, where I find I feel most at home.

And even more than that, I'm looking forward to all that this summer holds.

Missing the Philippines

I realize I haven't written in a while, but I'm not going to let that stop me from sharing what's been on my heart today.

Got a message from my family in the Philippines, made cassava cake, saw pork rinds in the grocery store (yum? can't say I actually miss those) but it gave me instant flashbacks to all my friends in basak, talked to teammates, desperately wish I could have been there for eric's graduation, but God is certainly good! Would give anything to be there right now and have little Lee in my arms..... and I can't wait for the day I get to hold and meet my precious god-daughter Heather Rose...

And after all of this I also came very close to buying flowers at the grocery store today. but it just wouldn't have been the same as having my brother in Christ walk up to me in the middle of a street market in the Philippines holding a flower for each of the girls on the team. simple acts of kindness and respect go a long way.... and that's definitely one that will stick with me for a long time.

boy, it's certainly been one of those days.

I miss the Philippines.