Post Summer

As usual of this time of year... Despite what some of you may think I am still alive! Summer has come and gone. We are still having some weekend retreat groups but no longer the really late hours. Of course more dreaded than the late hours were those ridiculous early mornings.

Summer was good. We had three girl staffers which caused a huge amount of concern for me at first. Girls and the drama are not something I care to deal with at all! Turns out it was pretty drama free this summer believe it or not. They didn't all turn into immediate best friends but they managed to serve together while they were here.

My new house served as a central spot for most everyone around here. The doors stay unlocked so I never knew what I was going to walk into. It was a great blessing to have something available though for everyone. And not gonna lie it was great to have somewhere so wonderful to lay my head down each evening!

We had the normal retreat groups as well as mission teams this year. Between those two different groups we definitely noticed a greatly level of intentionalness across the boards. Most groups were not just taking a trip with people to southeast Tennessee. They were coming with distinct things to teach their group (children, youth and/or adults) about the Lord. Not only that but during their course of being intentional many of the groups took notice of how intentional we run the camp and ministry. One step further than that was how many, many of the groups would thank us on the last day and begin to share how they truly "got it" during their stay. Perhaps they had been saved before but never knew what in the world to do now. But upon departing our gates they had a better understand of what their salvation was about and their roll in continuing to seek the Lord and honor Him with their life. It was those moments that make all other ridiculous moments completely worth it.

Before my school gets started I have been catching up on a little reading. Just finished crazy love by Francis Chan and am in the midst of Forgotten God by him as well. Next on the list is Radical by David Platt. Hoping to have all this read by September 7th when my classes begin again. I don't care who you are but YOU should read crazy love! It was great!

Hopefully, the video I am trying to upload will soon load. This was a hike that the staffers and I went on during their last week here. It was beautiful and the water felt great!

New favorite sound

I wish I could post the sound but that would take more time and effort than I am willing to give at this moment. However, I would like to take a moment to express what this sound is.

It would be the sound of a keyboard being typed on. Then the phone ringing, someone answering it and taking care of the entire phone call. Then of course it is the sound of these words. "I can help clean if you need me to."

Never have I heard such beautiful words!

Okay, maybe I have but right now in life these words and sounds are amazing. The typing is of our new administrative assistant. She is typing at our main computer while I get to do my work on my computer. The one answering the phone would be the admin assistant again while I get to straighten up my office that's been crazy for awhile. Once again the one offering to help clean is the admin assistant. She works from 1-5 Monday - Friday. She is totally willing and already has come in a few mornings just to volunteer to help clean!

AMAZING! That's the best word I have now to describe the current situation.

This Weekend

http://caorm.blogspot.com/2010/02/ga-event.html

No need to write the same blog twice.

Check out our camp blog above for my weekend happenings.

The House!

Below are the promised pics of the house you can obviously tell I am living in now. Just look for the stuff everywhere! The house is great! Double click on the video for it to take you to youtube so you can see the whole picture. For some reason it is cutting off the picture in the blog.

Nothing major

No pictures. At this very moment I think my camera is at my office. Or atleast that's where it was last time I used it last week.

Tonight you will find me sitting in my near completed house! Really, a real house! Walls, toilet, shower, bed (on a bed frame) the whole nine yards. I would say ten yards if I had a stove to cook on. That's a work in progress. Perhaps I will have a functioning stove by tomorrow. That would be great considering I have a pampered chef party tomorrow evening!

A friend is starting to sell it so another friend of mine and I are co-hosting a party. Should be fun.

Currently in the house I have my major furniture. Including a great new TV and electric fireplace I got for Christmas! With that tv I have it hooked up to rabbit ears and can actually get FIVE channels! It's pretty amazing for someone who hasn't had any channels in a few years.

I got the internet hooked up last week at the house as well since I started my online seminary classes today. Pretty sure I don't need more than five channels to distract from what I need to be doing.

Not going to lie but I probably won't have pictures on here until Saturday but I do hope to have them by the weekend. My house really does look great!

If you're ever in the area swing by and check it out.

Hmmm... That's not good.

If there is one particular phrase I have heard over and over since the construction on my new house began six months ago it would be this. Hmm... That's not good. Or Hmm... That ain't right. Hmm... is the bad news indicator! It's a dead give away to the fact that something has been messed up. Yesterday afternoon Mike went to turn on the bathtub which he thought was working. Only to find NO water coming out. What did I hear? Hmm... I cut him off before he can finish and asked what now? He replies there's no water coming out. But he'll fix it tomorrow. Sure enough this was one of those he could and did fix today. No pictures but I do have a toilet that flushes. When the water is turned on. It's getting close. Yet, it's still a ways away from moving in. Wall colors. I picked out what I thought were great colors with the help of more artistic people. We had been working long hours on the house for a couple of weeks. On top of my normal job and school work at night. I was exhausted. We had been sanding sheet rock for two days now it's time to paint. Ceiling paint goes up first. Mike begins to spray. Stops and what do I hear? Yep, Hmm... This time it was followed by "you might want to come look at this." Celing looked similar to post it note yellow. Not the lovely shade of cream I had picked out. No tears, yet. A little investigation shows that they mixed the wrong paint for us. Mike assures me it's no big deal we can go the next morning to get the right color. We went ahead and finisehd spraying out the whole ceiling in the wrong color so it had an even coat on it. Then it's wall time. Mike begins to spray and I hear his machine turn off. This time the Hmm... is skipped all together. I simply hear, "Lindsey (followed by silence)." I walk back to my room where he started and literally. Not joking. It looks like someone has melted Hershey chocolate bars and has smeared them on my walls. (Don't forget we have exhaustion, post it note yellow ceilings and now chocolate candy bar walls.) The eyes begin to water up at this point. I said that's not the color I picked out. Optimistic Mike says maybe it will dry lighter. He finishes spraying the whole house and go behind him and roll it. He assures me we can buy new paint if I hate it. Mike leaves for the day. I cry. Lots. Call my mom to explain the awful situation. She too assures me to just go buy new paint. Got off the phone with her and went home for the evening. While we were getting dinner plates my friends ask me about the paint. Tears almost came rushing out again. All I could say was the ceiling color is wrong and I hate the walls. The next day was Thanksgiving and I didn't go back until that night. They weren't that awful anymore. Note to self... Never panic over paint until 24 hours later. They were still a little dark but not too bad. Needed a second coat so I decided to go ONE shade. Barely even notice a difference lighter. Mike begins to spray. Machine turns off. All I can think is YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME WHAT NOW? This looks like an off white! Mike said what do you want me to do? I said spray the house it's going to be my new favorite color! Ended up not being too bad. I think I liked the darker better but they still look fine. That's the latest on the house situation. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

True Story

I'm sure to someone somewhere in this world a raccoon is just so cute and cuddly. They look similar to a cat with the hair and long tail. However, when I think of raccoon I picture more of what is found in the next picture!

Let me share a brief story why...

No really, it has to be brief because I have school to be working.

Friday afternoon we had a group check into camp. We fixed them dinner but most of their group showed up around 8pm and not 5:30 as they had planned. Supper was a little late. I got back to the office about 9 and worked on a few things. About 10-11 I worked on school work. Then at 11 one of my summer missionaries from last year called. We chatted close to an hour.

So, it's 12 o'clock. I'm a little tired since I've been at work since 9am. I go out to my car. Something seems to be moving in my back seat perhaps a gust of wind has blown through (not sure how b/c the windows were up). As I am opening the door I look back into the back seat to see a shadow movie. Then the shadow is JUMPING TOWARDS ME! I am almost certain it looked just like the picture above! (Okay maybe that's a little dramatic). I jump out of the way as what appears to be a raccoon comes jumping out of my own car at me! Paralyzed I just stood there. Too shocked to scream or cry. My heart was going 90 to nothing. I had almost been mauled by a coon.

Moral of the story...

Always close the sunroof on your car...

May-October 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sorry for the delayed life happenings. It's been a busy 5 months to say the least.

- A friend's little girl experienced a moment of faith through baptism.

- Summer staff came to work with us for 10 weeks and we had a great time of orientation!

- The garden grew some serious beans!!

- Ran away to Boston to see best friend from big VA and her husband. Arrived Friday around lunch and departed Sunday around 11am. Quick but great trip! Saw Fenway Park, REAL whales, Cheers Pub, and lots of Boston history! Road the subway EVERYWHERE.

- Got kicked out of my basement apartment. :(

- Getting a house built for me on campus complete with cool wrap around front porch! :)

I think that hits most of the highlights over the past few months. The summer came and went. Lots of hours but saw the Lord do many things through many different people. The bug isn't working so hot right now but haven't had time to check into the problem. One problem is I ripped the drive side door off and now it won't shut. You have to hold it shut to drive down the road. So, the fact it doesn't want to start right now is not too big of a deal.

Still here

I am still alive! Our staff has arrived for the summer. I've tried to take lots of pictures only to come to my computer and find out that my USB ports are apparently worn out. Little inconvenient but not a complete catastrophe. I can still download them somewhere else and put them on my computer through a CD that hooks up through a firewire.

I'm sure that was far more information than anyone really cared about.

We have 7 staffers currently. Five will stay the entire summer and two of them will be leaving at the end of June. As with each year they are all different. We've had a good time of orientation with them and continue to work out some of the odds and ends of what we expect of them throughout this summer.

I had to go out and till the garden today and for the first time since I cut my hair I actually pulled it into two lower pigtails to get it off my neck. That's a big step for my hair!

I haven't completely figured out yet how to make time to blog through this fun time of year. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have something figured out!

Physically there is much going on around here.

Mentally it seems hard to make the mind slow down this time of year. There are so many things the Lord brings before us. Yes, we get staff in to help us do some of the ministries. Honestly though we believe one of the biggest task for our staff is to get to know Jesus more while they are here. We take that responsibility very seriously because if they walk away knowing Jesus better than when they showed up here there is nothing better in life we could have taught them. Nothing will help them go further in life more than knowing their King.

Spiritually it's a war zone around here. We want to see God move through this camp, this ministry and our lives. For every prayer and desire to see God move is an equal and opposite motive from satan to desire things around here to crumble. He's rather vicious in his attacks too. This song below is one of my favorites by Rich Mullins. I love the simplicity of the lyrics.

I'm the type of person who likes to understand why. When I go through times where my life doesn't make sense those are very frustrating times for me. It's in those moments I have to go back to the root of God. I have to find those things about Him that I do understand to help me understand my own life better. In the midst of that searching this song often becomes my prayer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.