Corey

This is Corey, the sweet son of one of our janitors at church. Denise was able to convince Jackie (Corey's dad) to sign him up to go to VIP Camp with us this year. I don't think I've ever seen a child get so excited about everything during a camp! Corey completely soaked every part of it up! It was so much fun watching him sing, play games, and learn about the Lord. He was one of the favorite acts in the talent show because he did a really awesome dance to a Christian rap song. He was even asked to do it again for the closing ceremonies! This picture was taken on Thursday night after the evening devo. Corey came up to some of the adults and asked if he could kneel at the cross and pray for his dad, and of course they said yes. Josh saw what was going on, so he snapped this amazing picture. Corey has an amazing heart and is so eager to learn more about God. His family was affected by Hurricane Katrina, and they fled to Austin after the storm. His family is not in the best situation right now because his mom is back in New Orleans right now with his sister and refuses to come back. It is just a sad story about a mom who is being selfish and seems to not care very much about how much Corey needs her. Jackie is doing the best that he can, but he is very lonely and ends up drunk most nights. God is doing some mighty things through Corey, and He is tugging at his little heart. If you have a second, please pray for Jackie, Tracy, Corey, and LaTonya. Pray that God would reunite this family and that His love for them would be evident!

VIP Camp

We got back last Saturday night from VIP Camp, which is a 4-day retreat for 2nd-5th graders. I was the head counselor for the precious 2nd grade girls, so we got to experience VIP Camp for the first time together! The retreat was held at Camp Hensel, which is a typical outdoorsy retreat center in the beautiful hill country. It was SO hot, but we still had lots of fun!

This is an overhead view of Camp Hensel, taken from the top of the little mountain that we climbed on Wednesday night. There were three crosses at the top of the mountain, so we had a little devo there and got camp off to a great start.

We (the interns, children's ministers, and youth ministers) got there early Wednesday afternoon in order to finish setting things up and claim the beds across from the air conditioners. :) The campers finally started to arrive around 4:00 and kept dribbling in until Thursday morning because some did not finish school until then. On Wednesday night after dinner and singing, we all hiked up a little mountain to the three crosses I mentioned before. We had a little devo up there and the kids learned that they would be carrying their own crosses all week. Each cabin had an 8-foot tall wooden cross that each team of counselors had decorated that day. (Each cabin had a head counselor and anywhere from 3-5 junior counselors.) Each child had to have a hand on their cross and use teamwork to carry it everywhere they went. My girls did a good job of complaining the first day, but we took care of that at our nightly cabin devo with a talk on encouragement and how we are all one body, one team that cannot function if one team member is lost. After that they did a much better job, especially being little 7 and 8 year olds! After we got back from our hike, we took showers and went to bed. I slept terribly because I just knew I would wake up and have a little girl standing by my bed crying for mommy or about to throw up. Thank goodness neither happened, and half of my girls were so excited in the morning that they were ready and dressed by 7:15! Silly, silly girls.

Thursday morning started by having a lovely pancake breakfast and singing fun songs like "Hip Hip Hip Hippopotomous" and "Cast Your Burdens." After that, the junior counselors took them to their first Bible class while the head counselors stayed for a meeting with Denise, the youth ministers (Christian and Josh), and the camp nurse, Cindy (also my Austin mom!). This time was spent going over how our cabins were doing, mentioning any homesick kids we had and who to watch for, who was ill, and what we had planned for the day. By the end of the week, these meetings just turned into us being stupid and laughing deliriously at anything and everything. Great memories. After our "meetings," we just hung out, held the teacher's babies, and waited for our kids to come back from class. After they came back, the head counselors took them to their second Bible class while the junior counselors had a meeting and break time. At the end of the second Bible class, the kids were to make up a short skit about what they had learned. These turned out to be pretty cute because they made them up themselves. Lunch was after that, and then the girls did crafts while the boys swam. No mixed bathing! The crafts were a big hit, and they made things like pinch pots, autograph books, melty bead creations, woodburning crosses, and bookmarks. Then, it was our turn to swim! We rode in the beds of trucks down to Cow Creek. No joke, and it lived up to its name. We didn't care how gross it was because it was cold and refreshing and wonderful. They had a rope swing that the kids enjoyed, but the big hit at the river was being thrown in by the adults on the dock. Needless to say, swim time was a very anticipated event everyday! After we got done swimming, we hopped back in the trucks and went back to our cabins to shower and get ready for dinner. After dinner came some more singing...and then the real fun began. Every year, the kids take part in the ever popular Wacky Records. Wacky Records are fun games like jello slurping, basketball hoop, softball hit, hula hooping, jump roping, banana eating, and grape tossing. Every event is judged and awards are given at the end of the week for best times, most grapes caught, longest hula hooper, etc. Definitely a highlight of the week!

Banana eating contest-Each child was given two bananas and they had to eat them as fast as they could. The winner was a fifth grade boy who downed his bananas in 1 minute and 15 seconds.

This is one of my 2nd graders, Beth! She finished fourth, and as she was walking back to me, she yelled, "THAT WATH AWETHOME!!!!!" with her cute little lisp. She was hilarious all week long!

Here is a picture of the Jello Slurping contest. Meredith, who is the daughter of one of my mom's friends from Colorado, won this event! Beat the boys and everything. I got to meet her the next day and talk to her for a little bit. She has such a compassionate heart and is a great leader for her grade. I'm glad I got to meet her!

After Wacky Records, we had a neat devo led by the 4th and 5th grade boys. Then, it was time to go back to the cabin and go to bed. This was the head counselors' night off, so after we got our kids down, we got to go up to the mess hall to hang out and laugh. It was a great time to get to know some people from the church better and just relax. We also shared stories about funny campers, and that was alot of fun too!

Friday was the exact same as Thursday up until after dinner. After we sang some, we all headed to a big field to play capture the flag! Then, it was time for the head counselors vs. junior counselors volleyball game. I was informed that the head counselors have won this event for like 7 years straight, so I had to pull out my amazing 8th grade 'B' team skills. We pretty much smoked them and won bragging rights for another year. After the game, we started getting our cabins ready for the talent show! One of my junior counselors, Catie, took on our cabin's talent show act and wrote a really cute skit! Our decorations in our cabin were all sailor-themed, so our girls had blue bandanas with anchors on them and we had cute shirts that had "Captain Sarah" or "Junior Captain Catie" on them that she had made before camp. So, our girls started their act by singing a cute song and then they all pretended like they were working on a ship. They each took turns saying something like "I really like being a sailor, but I really want to be a veterinarian, gymnast, teacher, etc." Then at the end, the last girl to talk said "Yanno, as long as we find our identity in Christ, we will be able to do anything we want to do." The girls were SO cute, and they got alot of compliments on their talent! That was our cabin act, but we also had another amazing performance given by three of my girls.

That's Beth, Laura Kate, and Mallory. They burped their ABC's!!! It was AWESOME. Everyone was laughing and amazed that such good burps could come out of such little girls. They got a standing ovation, and I was proud to say they were my 2nd graders. :)

After the talent show, we set off with our crosses to a secret event. The girls carried their crosses around to different sections of a field and gathered parts of a verse. They then put all of the parts together to find out what the verse was. We then had a devo under the stars and listened to Josh speak. Everything was going great and the kids were being quiet. Then, one child let out a huge fart. Like, it was long and really really loud. I immediately put my hand over my mouth, but it was over for me. I was standing in the back by the other head counselors, and we all lost it. We had to turn around and walk away to gather ourselves. We were still laughing during the prayer. It was so, so, so hilarious. Anyway...after that we had a big bonfire and sang some songs. My girls were begging me to take them back to the cabin to go to sleep by then. Poor girls, it was way past their bedtime! We all got back to the cabin, took showers, and fell into bed.

Saturday morning, we woke up and got ready for our last day of camp. Everything was the same as Thursday and Friday were, up until lunch. We had a giant waterballoon fight, and then it was time to swim and have a scavenger hunt. After those fun activities, we went back to the cabin to clean and pack. Dinner was after that, and then we had the awards ceremony with the parents. I hugged my girls goodbye, and they left...camp was over!

I loved every minute of camp, even though it was stinkin hot. I'm so glad this camp was towards the beginning of my stay in Austin, because I really think it helped me get to know most of the kids in the children's ministry. It was so much fun, and it got me really excited about what the rest of this summer holds. I am so blessed to have this opportunity, and I can't wait to see how God is going to reveal Himself to these sweet kids!

Here are a few more pictures from the week...

The end!

Welcome!

Hello, friends and family! I decided to create one of these so that I could let you all in on what is happening here in Austin! It has been such a blast so far, and it is so fun to see these kids learn about the Lord and grow spiritually. They eat everything up and are so eager to learn more...I wish I was more like them. Children's ministry really is one of the neatest jobs on the planet--what could be better than doing fun crafts with kids and teaching them about Jesus??? To give you a little background info, I am interning at Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin under Adam and Denise Black. They have been active members and volunteers at Westover for a long time, but have been paid ministers for about three years now. They are SO good at what they do and are the perfect compliments to one another. Adam is the creative one...his mind is constantly rolling and thinking of cool and exciting crafts, events, skits, puppet shows, t-shirt designs...the list goes on and on. Denise keeps Adam under control and handles all of the background work...getting volunteers, preparing Kids2Praise, furiously writing down all of Adam's crazy ideas, getting curriculum ready, making sure everything is getting done...anything administrative! They are both so talented and truly have gifts from God. Denise is also the only woman on staff, so she gets extra gold stars for having to deal with goofy men all day. They are the greatest bosses I could ask for, and they embody what it means to be a minister. Love them!

I am living with the Freeman family, and they have always been like a second family to me. Chris and Cindy and my parents have known eachother since we lived in Tyler, and we travel every other year to Colorado together and see one another several times a year. It is so much fun, and I get to benefit from Cindy's glorious cooking and the pool everyday. It's more like Freeman Country Club around here!

Alright, I think that's all the background info I have. Hope you enjoy reading! Miss and love you all!