I just got back from camp today, and I have to tell you I had a great time! I loved all the fun things I did (I'm planning to write a seperate note about those), and I loved chapel time.

Jeremy, and Paul both did a great job at presenting their messages. I was impacted in such a way that I've never been before.
Worship was one of my all time favorite parts of chapel though. Most of the songs they sang I knew, but they played one that I had never heard before: Psalms 145. I loved it! It's so deep, and it really stirs me when I hear it.

Wednesday night was our first night at camp, and chapel was a little slow. Everyone was just getting settled.
Thursday morning Jeremy talked about setting yourself on a throne. It's satanism, and we lined all our chairs up in one row in the front of the chapel, then we prayed and knelt before the chairs. After we repented for anything that we've set before God, we threw our chairs away. This was really the start of something.
Thursday Night we got into small groups and discussed what we most feared about doing what God wants us to do. I was in Kody Marshall's group, with Jonathan, Sarah, Timothy, and two other guys. We all were really honest. Kody gave us some really good advice about everything.
Friday morning Jeremy had us get into groups of 2 and 3 with people we didn't know very well. I was paired up with Jasmine, and he had us ask each other three questions. What we want to be when we grow up, what our biggest fear about serving God is, and what we're struggling with.
Friday night was one of the best nights ever! They pretty much only played one song, the WHOLE time. It just happened to be one of my favorite songs too: How He Loves Us, by John Mark McMillan. It was a big breakthrough point in camp. Lots of people started praying, and prophesying over each other. There were a lot of tears, and hugs.
Saturday morning Jeremy told us that the average person needs at least 12 hugs a day. Sometimes they need more, sometimes they need less. So we all had to go around chapel and hug at least 12 people, and tell them that God loved them, and that we did too. I did more then that, but it didn't matter.
Saturday night was really good. The best night of chapel in my eyes. We did worship, but then Paul started talking, and he prayed over people, and even though he had been giving prophetic words all week, this was the best night. He prayed over the artistic people, the athletes, the politicians, the dancers, the teachers and people that want to work with kids, the plant lovers, and I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of.

Camp was a great! The theme of the week was working together as teams, and we all made good bonds with people we didn't even know before camp.

This note about camp is a little more...random, and it's mostly about free time and team competitions.

The first day everyone sort of stuck to their own groups. No one really ventured forward to hang out with anyone they didn't know. So we all kind of hung around the swings...and started swinging on the swings. Emily and I were going high on the swings, so Cody decided to run underneath us when we were up in the air. It was freaky but awesome!
During our team competition time all of us in Hannah's cabin worked on our supplies for the relay race. We thought of possible designs of the boat, we decided who would do what part of the relay.

Rachel and Jessi on the walking boards
Me on Spam eating contest (haha didn't go so well)
Hannah B. on the swimming part
Ashley on the puzzle
Hannah R. and Holly on the peices that had to be smaller then David's torso
and Sarah on the puzzle maze

Then we went to David's part of the team competition games, and tried and do that. I guess you could say it was set up like a bunch of mayan traps. We had to swing on a rope across the pit (solid ground), jump from board to board, hop onto a big board, then get across lava with two little boards to another board. To get the rope out of the middle, they lifted me up and held me out. Then I would grab the rope and they'd pull me back in. Sarah would go across first and land on the board, then she would help each other person land. Holly jumped across the lava pit, then helped each person walk across a board to get to the other side...all this took us 24 minutes. Yeah, we had the worst score out of everyone but we also had some great teamwork.
We also played a lot of Mal, and spoons. Everyone called Hannah the evil mal master...but I think Jonathan was worse.
After team competitions was over, it was free time. But we had an awesome thunder storm. And after the thunder storm...came the mud. Yes that's right. There was a little stream rushing through the grass, and it made a mud stream. So we ran and slid through it.
I also understood Sean trying to confuse Emily.
Friday we played even more mal.
In team competitions we went to Paul first. He was doing a spider web thing, and you couldn't touch the ropes when you were going through the holes. It took us 40 minutes, we only had one person left.
At Kody's station, it took us probably 2-3 minutes to do the balance beam. It took us probably around 5 seconds to do the A frame.
Saturday was the start of a great battle. Our choice of weapons: salt, water, banana pudding, pepper, and coffee creamer.
It started out in the breakfast line. I saw some salt in a basket, and had this urgent feeling to pour some in someone's hair. Hannah was right behind me...so I tore it open and poured it in her hair. Hannah was like what on earth are you doing?! And while she was asking me that Jonathan grabbed a packet of salt and started pouring it in Hannah's hair. Then when Hannah turned around and saw him pouring salt in her hair, he threw it in my hair! So when we sat down to lunch, We started pouring more salt in each other's food, hair, and drinks. The Jonathan slapped a plate of banana pudding in Richard's face. Josh dared Holly to launch a spoonful of banana pudding in his face...and she did. Then Jonathan and Chris slapped a plate of banana pudding in Paul's face. After that the banana pudding throwing stopped.
But the salt battle continued.
at lunch i sat down beside david and was watching him put together the camp video. jonathan came behind me, and i thought he was watching david make the video, because he was talking to him about it. jana kept trying to tell me something, but i ignored her. when i finally looked at her, she was telling me that jonathan had been pouring salt in my hair. i jumped up and turned around. then i chased him with water, i wet some of his hair, but mostly i got mr. gene, and sean. oh well.
During dinner, I didn't eat because of something that had happened which made not feel so good (I'll explain later), so Jonathan kept staring at his food, and sniffing, and tasting it to make sure I didn't pour salt in anything. So while he was going to get something, I poured two packets of salt in his sweet tea, but didn't stir it around. Jonathan came back and claimed that there was salt on his food. There wasn't. But then he took a drink of his sweet tea, but nothing happened. He didn't notice a difference because it had all settled to the bottom. so he went to get some strawberry shortcake for hannah, because he stole hers. while he was gone i poured two more packets of salt in his sweet tea and this time stirred it around really good with a knife he had used to cut his spaghetti. he came back and claimed that he saw salt all over his strawberry shortcake. well i didn't put salt on his cake. so he inspected everything except his drink. then he saw his drink and pushed it away, saying he didn't trust me. so i took a big drink of it, saying that it was perfectly fine. he took a little sip then said it tasted salty and went and got a new drink.
after dinner hannah was talking to me, because she thought that i was being mean pouring salt in jonathan's drink. so i told her i was sorry but it was just a prank. then when jonathan saw us talking together, i guess he thought that we were plotting something. so he jumped over a little railing and charged towards us. and naturally when i see someone charging towards me...i turn and run. so hannah and i both ran towards the girls cabin, which we knew he couldn't go near. i thought hannah was right behind me, but when i turned around i saw that jonathan had her pinned against a car and was pouring seven packets of salt in her hair, trying to get her to tell what i was talking about. so i rushed in and saved the day and told him it was all jana. so then he went looking for jana. after he found jana and poured a few packets of salt in her hair, we saw rachel and both went after her with coffee creamer.
jonathan proposed a peace treaty and we did a traditional peace treaty ceremony. we all counted to three and threw our salt packets, and creamer in the trash.
Saturday's team competition was the final relay race. we were all excited and nervous (in my cabin anyway).
it all started out good. rachel and jessi were doing good with the boards and when they handed the baton to me, i ran as fast as i could to my spam eating station. i couldn't get it open and ended breaking all the little pull tabs. when someone finally helped me open it, i slammed all the spam on the ground, and smushed it up. gravel ended up mixing with the spam. i started shoving it down my throat. when i felt myself gagging i tried to stop and swallow it down, but it didn't help. i threw up in my hand, and then being determined to win i was about to put it back in my mouth whenever the staff that was monitering my station stopped me and told me i only had to eat my last bite. i ate it, then he checked my mouth and i handed to baton to hannah. i went into the bathroom and threw up again. i wasn't the only one though. courtney threw up too.
our team came in second to last, but i didn't care. we all tried our best. at least we didn't come in dead last! tweety gave me a new nickname after the games: Spasm. LOL i love it!

I had alot of fun at camp, and must say this was my best year ever! i loved every single part. i even got a cool nickname out of puking.