Staff Banquet

Bobbi & I (Red Momma)

Stacey & I

Liz, Rach, Shannon, Jenn, Me, & Anita Mo & Helaine w/me

Abigail, Patrick and Alana & Me w/my awesome roommate, Nichole!




Helaine & David (her brother counselor) & me & Jake
My favorite part of the night: After the social events of the evening, Helaine and I bundled up, and hiked down to Reflection where we slept in a canoe ALL NIGHT! It was by far one of the coolest things I've ever done! A slumber party in the water under the stars!

Teen Camp 5

Teen 5 was really different because so many of the counselors were in specialty camps and sports camps. The teams only had 8 counselors each, so it was hard to keep the hype in team meetings. It was kind of sad to spend the last teen week all split up like that, but it was nice to be in prayer meeting every night before the service and hear how things were going for everyone. It was the most difficult week for me because it was not only the most girls I had had all summer, but I also had the most difficult camper I had had all summer. Her name was Katie. She's the camper in the first picture with me that doesn't look too happy. I don't think she liked me, but surprisingly enough the Lord had placed a love for her in my heart by the end of the week that I definitely could not have produced on my own. She definitely tried my patience, but as I spoke with her on many occasions, I just felt so burdened over her obviously lost soul and her refusal to accept Christ as her Savior and her all in all. She felt she could be sufficient in and of herself. She told me that was what she didn't like about salvation was that we can't earn it - it's all God. She wanted to be able to give credit to herself. I tried explaining it to her numerous times, but there also came a point that I had to give it over to God. It wasn't going to be anything I could say - the power is in God's Word - in the gospel itself and the work of the Holy Spirit. She left that week completely unchanged, but I continue to pray for her and rest in the promise that God's Word will continue to do a work in her heart.

Kendra was one of my campers who had such a sweet spirit. She got very involved in games, cheering, and cabin unity. She and her friend always had a cheerful spirit and liked to include everyone. Without them in my cabin, I think it would have taken twice as long to form friendships among the girls in the cabin. There were so many different personalities. At the end of the week - the night before she left actually - Kendra shared a huge load on her heart. She has a very difficult home life and a lot of things that she's struggling with and just wanted help. I shared some scripture with her, but it was also awesome to know who she was going home with. Shad and Elizabeth Vork were her sponsers, so we both talked with them at breakfast and they are going to be there for her at home. It was a fun surprise that week to see the Vorks. Shad used to go to our church, and is a really good friend of our family. And I got to meet their son, Justin. He's such a little cutie!

I also enjoyed seeing Ellen McKeown around that week. She is Emily's sister - Emily is one of my good friends from when I was a camper and also from attending school at Northland. Ellen always had a pretty smile on that encouraged me.
Bethany was another one of my campers who had a very sweet spirit. She got assurance of her salvation that week.

Another neat surprise that week was to see my pastor from 7 years ago, Pastor Goodwill and his daughter, Hannah! I was thankful that it worked out for us to spend over an hour in the Grind one afternoon to catch up. That was also a huge encouragement to me that week.

I also have some pictures with some of my girlfriends. Brianne was a counselor on my team and Kelly was a counselor on the blue team. Both are sweethearts!



And then, of course, my dear Helaine. We were pretty much inseperable. She was always a prayer warrior for my campers. We always made a point to get to know each other's campers. And finally I have a picture of all my campers from the week. Though it seemed to be the most difficult week for all the counselors, it was also one of the most amazing weeks, because as we came to the end of ourselves we were able to witness the work of God alone in the hearts of not only the campers, but also ourselves.

Story Time at Reflection

One of our favorite spots this summer was Reflection Lake. We went down there at least once every weekend. After the counselor party some of us went down and told stories and just had fun hanging out together. It's always so beautiful down there!

Counselor Activity

The weekend after Teen 4 we had our counselor activity which had been planned by our team leaders. What we did was divide into teams and then go on a picture/video scavenger hunt. It was so much fun!


My group was Leila, Michelle, Stephen, and Tim. We didn't get a whole lot of them done, but we had a lot of fun anyway. We wasted a lot of our time at the police station getting pictures with cops, in the cars, and of Stephen "getting arrested." I think the policemen got a kick out of it. :)


After the activity we had a long string of vehicles headed back to Northland. We were driving behind this truck, so David entertained us. Haha! I have no idea how he fit that far out that little window! It would have been so funny if he had gotten stuck! When we got back on campus we had a pizza party in the Rec Hall and then went to the chapel to watch the opposite teams' skits. The blue skits were funny, but red definitely dominated. ;)

Teen Camp 4

Every Monday we waited in front of the JEC to get our campers. This was Bryce and my last week as brother/sister counselors because he was going to counsel for soccer camp the last week. Mondays were always the hottest days of the week so carrying luggage halfway across campus was a treat! haha! But it was always an exciting day, so it didn't matter (too much). ;) Bryce's "little" brother, Clark - who's actually 6'7"!! came for Leadership camp, so it was fun to have him there. Stephanie Davis's younger sister, Kelsea was there, too. I really loved having her there - she was on the RED team and had awesome team spirit! She also was camper of the week! Rachel Swangim is in the picture with me and my lazy eyes. It was fun to meet her. I had gone to leadership camp with her sister 3 years ago. She is a sweetheart.

Cindy wasn't in my cabin that week, but it was fun to see her. She came to camp a few times this summer. She had been one of my snow campers back in February.

Jing Peng was also one of my snow campers and she requested to be in my cabin, so that was awesome! She said ALL her verses and was a very good participant in all the activities. But even more important than that was her tender heart. She made a lot of decisions at camp, and went home struggling with things, but called me the next week and told me how she had acted on her decisions and talked to people who could help her back home.

Nikki and Emily both came together and were probably the biggest blessing to me of all my campers this summer. They both had gone through a lot of the same things the Lord has chosen to bring me through. It was really neat on my one on one's with them because the common ground made immediate bonds. I was excited to be able to share how the Lord had and was helping me through. But at the same time I think they were more of an encouragement to me than I was to them. It was cool because I felt like we had developed more of a friendship than a counselor/camper relationship. It's neat how the Lord works.

A new activity at camp this year was the Old Tyme Photos. I only did it once with my cabin, but we had a good time. They make such cute pioneer girls ;)

Julie's Visit!

Since Julie came to visit we planned an outing with a bunch of friends to Green Bay. We went to Texas Roadhouse. We got there just in time for the line dancing and then enjoyed a scrumptous meal while dodging nuts coming from the other table. It was definitely good times. Once again we stopped at Krispe Kreme but we didn't really get any good pictures there. I just found out from my Jennifer that they've now closed that Krispe Kreme - too bad. Probably because we're not there to give them business anymore.

We had fun hanging out with Jennifer and Jordan on Sunday. We went to church with them at Norway and then went out for lunch at Pizza Hut for some stuffed crust pizza - a family tradition. We were there for 2 hours talking! It was so fun to all be together, though.