I figure that since my mom said about how I was at work camp, I might as well as fill you in on what happened. So, my friend and I went to the Juniata County Work Camp. We went with Teens In Missionary Service. (T.I.M.S.) We were stationed at the Christian Retreat Center(CRC) in East Waterford, PA. Since my friend and I went individually, without our youth group, we were placed with other youth groups that came. I was placed with Antrim BIC and my friend, Tim, with Carlisle BIC. I don't know what all Tim's group did. My group went to the Juniata County Friendship Club in Mexico, PA. We were told that we had two jobs. To build a wheelchair ramp, and install and handicaped bathroom. Simple right? Well, we didn't have enough to do, so we 4 girls were sent downstairs to see if we could do anything down there. Well, they were cleaning, painting, and organizing the kitchen. Dirt doesn't usually make me squirm. Ask anyone. They'll tell ya. I usually do the dirty jobs. This kitchen was so dirty that I got queasy. It was disgusting. I opted for visiting with the people who come and stay there for the day. So that's what I did. I got done doing that and then they had me take the ceiling down in the men's bathroom so that they could run pipes up for the handicaped bathroom upstairs. So Rachel and I did that. As you can see, me and my shortness had a hard time with that. I ended up standing on a chair. Let me tell you, that light bulb was bright, and hot as all git' out. As soon as we finished that it was time for lunch. Everyone gathered in a circle, held hands, and then they started in on prayer. I ended up painting after lunch. The guys really made a lot of progress on the ramp. I was tired of being down stairs doing little tiny projects that only took 2 minutes so the next day I went upstairs to see if I could help anywhere. They didn't need me yet so I went back down stairs to help there again. I ended up putting some shelves together. They were PVC pipe and plastic so they assembled fine, but I didn't notice that they had knobs on one side, so I assembled two of them only half way right and had to take them apart and redo them. On Wedensday I was scraping paint off a cement wall untill noon when we went to a state park called Cowens Gap. They had a lake and picnic areas. It was so nice. We played a card game called James Bond. Everyone was teasing me because the night before I called it John Wayne because I couldn't remember what to say. I found out a couple weeks later that someone else called it John Brown. So I'm not the only one that makes dumb mistakes like that. Ha ha. On Thursday we were joined by the other group from Antrim BIC because they had the plumber. This plumber however, also knew enough about electricity to be dangerous. We had to put in a new fuse box, install 6 outlets, and rewire a light, all without getting killed. Well, Myron, (the plumber) was poking his plyers around in the fuse box. Owen and I were doing the electric, and we were both real jumpy since it was our first time doing anything with electricity other than plugging an appliance in. Well, Myron touches two old wires together that weren't insulated right, and there was sparks and an explosion. It scared Owen and I so bad that we jumped out of the 2x4 bathroom and started laughing hystarically. I laughed so hard that I had to sit down. Well, everyone came running and I couldn't stop laughing so they laughed too. After the initial shock wore off it was even funnier. Myron just put his pliers back in because he couldn't see anything and then he asked if he had any eyebrows left. Then we went for ice cream at a local ice cream shop. It was actually about half way between the camp and our work site. It was rather interesting because I walked up to the window to order and the guy looked at me and said, "Weren't you here last week?" I said, "No, I don't think so. I was in Millersburg last week." He said, "You just look so familiar." I thought to myself, I said, "Self, I'll bet Katie Group was here last week." Katie is a friend of ours that constantly gets mistaken for my sister. My mom says that if she got contacts we could be twins. I see a little bit of resemblance, but not that much. Then we went back to have a big supper. None of us were very hungry, but we ate anyway. Then we went and played more sports. I played a lot of the guys sports like, Street Basketball, Street Football two-hand-touch, and Street Football Tackle. I had so much fun. Friday night we played tackle and Owen tackled me once, and Brent tackled me once. I almost had Trent, but he was always one step ahead. When Owen tackled me he took me out with a dive, caught my shoulders, and I found myself scooting backwards. When Brent took me out, I knew what was coming. He grabbed me by the shoulders and just kinda picked me up and swung me around a little bit and then put me down nice and easy like. But what I found hilarious was that when he started to come after me all the other guys started shouting, "Easy Brent, take it easy, NO, relax, don't hurt her." He grabs my shoulders and just kinda yell, "Shooooooooooootttttt!" I don't know who won that game. You can tell by the third picture why it was so easy for him to do the type of tackle he did. His twin brother Brandt is in the grey shirt holding a board. They are built exactly the same. On Thursday night we had a funky hat competition. I got 2nd place. The hat that won was a plunger that they wrapped in duct tape and put beanie babies on. I call mine, "Pippie Longstocking Gone Wild in the Kitchen" Hence the clown nose, hospital mask, orange cans spray painted, and such. It was a very good hat. We used an envelope, flipflops, 2 cans, poncho, safety goggles, clown nose, hospital mask, and spray paint. It was so much fun. I felt like Goofy though. haha. We had a camp fire on Friday night as a final thing to kinda say this is what we did, this is what I learned, and such. It was a wonderful time. Our speaker was Brian Ford from Interm Youth Ministries. He is a wonderful speaker. I was really able to enjoy listening to him. The first night he talked about giants and used David and Goliath for the example. He said about how things that get inbetween us and God are giants and that we need to surrender them to God so he can get them out of our way so we can become closer to him. He really hit home with everything he said. I asked him to clarify some things for me after the message. He had a sheet of paper to write our giants on and then we would burn them at the end of the week, well, I was able to put down a giant. It felt so good. At Roxbury the following week I was able to fully surrender the hurt to God and I feel so free. I haven't felt this good in a year. That's how long it's been. A long year of hurt, and just a horrible feeling of not being accepted in my youth group because of how someone treated me and now, it's gone. I feel as though I can get my feet in the door of that person's life and show that person the true me... the me that doesn't want to hurt. It was a real eye opener. I don't remember what his other messages are about, in order to know I would have to find my notes, but I do remember about facing your giants and charging through obstacles. I had a wonderful time and it was a great growing experience. I praise God for the opportunity to go and learn and be open to him.
