Waypoint

Hey y'all,
I thought I would add a little Texas slang when addressing you all. For most of you this is old news but I thought I would share what has happened in last couple of months.

This last year I felt like God was telling me or setting my heart on pursuing Camp Ministry for more than a summer. I feel like my mission field is Camp. So starting in January I started to actively search and apply for different Camp Ministry positions. I applied for many and didn't actually hear back from any for awhile, and at the time it was discouraging but I still felt that tug on my heart. So I kept applying. In April I actually flew to Texas for an interview but in the end that camp wasn't the right fit and I wasn't exactly what they were looking for. So in June I ended the school year at Three Rivers Christian school and let them know that I wasn't going to be back in the fall. I didn't have a job lined up, but I knew that God wanted me to keep pursuing Camp. I spent the summer doing odd jobs and applying for jobs at camps.

The end of August... I had two camps I was interviewing for, and I received an invitation to become a Waypoint Leadership Intern at Camp Cho-Yeh in Livingston Texas. I didn't say yes straight away, because I was also really interested in another position too and I wasn't sure which one I should choose... but God, knowing me picked the job for me. I said yes on a Saturday and flew out on a Tuesday. That is how quickly my life changed.

I have learned so much in the last month and a half... I have done things I never had dreamed of. I have been stretched, and I have grown. I know that God does amazing things, and I am so glad that He has brought me here to Texas.

I came here not knowing anyone, but I have gained so many family members in the last month in a half. I not only have my Waypoint family which I consider my new brothers and sisters, but even the full time staff are part of my Texas family. I love that God brings us together in a way that is like being home, even if I am far from my biological family, God gives me family wherever he takes me.

So this year I will be challenged, stretched, molded, and made new. I am so excited to see what God does this year at Camp Cho-Yeh. I am extremely blessed and so happy to be a Waypoint Intern.

Keep us in your prayers as we face new challenges and opportunities, pray that we have clear minds and that we have rest. Pray that we strive to be beacons to the people we serve and serve alongside. Pray that we seek God's wisdom in every situation.

Thank you!!

Disturb us

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost the thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of
The new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas where storms will show mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
       
            -Sir Francis Drake

I haven't written in a really long time... but I hope to write more later. But this prayer by Sir Francis Drake seems fitting at this time.

My Adventure

I have spent the last 83 days at Yellowstone Alliance Adventures. I have experienced so much! When I first got here I had to adjust to the climate since I am coming from somewhere with pretty much 0 elevation to 6000 ft elevation (or almost) also everything is uphill or downhill all the time. So I have lost about 25-30lbs this summer just from climbing up and down the hills several times a day. I also accomplished my goal of climbing up to Mountain top on July 2nd. (picture below) I also managed to get in a canoe and row out into Hyalite Lake without tipping it... granted we spent a lot of time rowing in circles. God has blessed me with 30 some brothers and sisters who have truly become my family. I have been encouraged, loved, and pushed to grow by these beautiful people. I spent the summer doing laundry and cleaning bathrooms and I LOVED it. I loved being able to help wherever and however I could. God has taught me a lot about being patient, being humble, and most of all learning how to be still and just listen. Words cannot describe how blessed I am. How God has shown me how much he truly loves me. It has become a real and living power in my life to know that my God is love... and he loves all of us despite our ridiculous sin... he loves us so deeply.  This summer has been a transformation summer. And I want to keep pursuing and learning from God. I find out in this next week if God is opening the door for me to stay on here throughout the year. I don't know if it will be a yes or no, I do know though that wherever he leads me it will be good. Because he is there. I am so thankful for what God has done within me...

 (top pic) The camp from a regular view
 (botton) view from up at Mt. Top...

Elaine and I at Hyalite

The Joshua Staff (College Aged)

We went on an adventure to Butte

Hyalite

Went to a Rodeo

Where I spent most my days

We helped out at a 5k race called the Stache Dash

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Excited... and Uncertain

I'm at a crossing
Not sure where to go
No clear path laid before me
I'm not afraid of the direction
No fear has entered my heart
Nothing has been decided
I'm just confused


In 40 days I will be going to serve at Yellowstone Alliance Adventure Camp. I am excited and thrilled for this opportunity to serve alongside former supervisor Dave Beedy and his wife Lisa! God opened this door for me and I'm ready to walk through. Originally I was going to try to get on as an intern for the next year to learn and serve at the camp, but they aren't able to offer me a position at this time. So now I'm working just from May-July... and that is still really awesome!! But now I'm not sure what this next year will hold for me. I have several directions that I could take... but nothing is clear. I know that God has a plan and future for me. I know that He will lead me where He wants me. But the uncertainty of it all still aches.

What I do know is that I have 40 days to do my best where I am now, serving at Three Rivers Christian School. To do my best helping lead my life group. And then May-July I have to do my best learning and doing my best work at the Yellowstone Alliance Adventure Camp. This is what God has set before me for the time being.

PLEASE!! PRAY!! I still feel like God has called to serve in Camp Ministry. I'm not sure where and in what capacity. I just know that it is mission field that I really feel called to. Please keep me in your prayers!

5 Reasons I LOVE Camp Ministries

1. In Camp Ministries you get to teach people about God while you are surrounded by nature that just shows you how much God loves each and everyone of us. In every hike, or ride that you take there are so many opportunities to be blessed and share the blessing of God's creation. Every moment is a teachable moment.

2. You get the opportunity to serve and fellowship with so many awesome people from all over the world. They each come with their unique testimony and other stories. And each of them are there to serve too. You make the most incredible friends!! I have the pleasure of having friends from Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Georgia, Mexico, Romania, Pennsylvania... the list goes on.. and it is through Camp Ministries that I have had the chance to make such awesome friends.

3. The guests. Whether they are a group of elderly, or a bunch of kids, they are a blessing. There would be no reason for the job without them. They soon become a part of your life as a counselor, or cook, or housekeeper. What they need you strive to provide them with. And you get pleasure of sharing Christ with them.

4. You grow so much. When I started in 2010, I wasn't an avid Bible reader. I was just a kid who came from a Christian home. A kid who loved God, but was lazy and not motivated to serve. Well that quickly got shot out of my system when I started to work housekeeping and had to make sure things were clean and orderly. And had to serve a long side people I saw everyday (which after awhile can become a nuisance) But God started to work on my heart. Teaching me to serve with a cheerful attitude. To work with others and to be a help not a hindrance. It was an eye opening experience. And then I went on to work in Ohio as a camp Counselor... wow... if you want to test someones patience and gentleness put them with eight 7 year olds for a whole week. I was so tired every week, but also so happy to be able to share Christ with these beautiful kids. I prayed over them before and while and after they were there. And I feel like they blessed me so much more than I could ever bless them. They taught me to be thankful for the little things, to trust so completely in Christ. I have grown so much spiritually through Camp Ministries.

5. It's a mission field. No we might not look like a mission field. Some camps are located in woods, some in the city, and some in the country. We all do things differently. But we all have one purpose. To share the Gospel. To lead others to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We pour our hearts into serving. We cry over the hurting children we come across. We go days sometimes without having the chance to shower. We do all this because we are called. We are called to the mission field of Camp Ministries.

Montana

I have been called to work in Camp Ministries... I honestly feel like this is my mission field. I have learned so much through them and I have seen God work amazingly through them. I am privileged to serve with amazing people and fellowship with them! I have worked at the beach, in the country, and now I'm heading to the mountains... In 88 days (May 16th) I'm leaving home again to go serve at Yellowstone Alliance Adventure Camp in the Mountains of Bozeman Montana. God opened the door to this camp through one of my past supervisors from Cannon Beach. Dave Beedy contacted me back in November about a possibly job at the camp that he and his wife Lisa work at now. And by the first week of February I was officially hired. I am so excited for this opportunity and I can't wait to get started!!

Shine a little light.

Today I had the opportunity to talk with a homeless man. I came up to this man on this blustery evening standing on the corner near a supermarket asking for money. I gave him a bag that our college group is using as an outreach. The bag has toiletries and snack food and other stuff that might be useful. Well I gave it to him and said God bless, and as I started to turn he started to talk about God. He said that he needs God. He told me that he had a relationship with God before but had gotten addicted to drugs and alchohol and just turned away. He even told me that he had tried to OD on heroin and it had failed. But he fully believed that God has a plan for him.
He then asked me what church I went to, and I shared with him. And he told me that he had several times been by the corner where our church is on a Sunday sitting and reading his Bible and no one had ever talked to him or invited him in. So he felt like our church was not a good one. And that he thought we needed to focus on the homeless more because that is where the problems are.
When he shared and told me what he felt about my church, I felt ashamed. Because it's not everyone in our church that shies away from the homeless, but there are plenty. And that isn't just my church body that does that, it is the whole church body. It's not that we don't see them, we pretend that they aren't there. That the person on the corner is less than us. Less human. We are blinded by out self righteousness that we don't take the chance to just have a conversation with them. These people are in need of love, understanding, and most of all a chance. Someone to look at them, to actually see them. Not just give them something and walk away. But to actually care about them. We as the church should be the first ones to go and show these people love, and kindness. Sure they might have burnt all the bridges of help in this town. But if we judge them by that, then we should be cast out. We burn the bridges between us and God all the time, but he helps us rebuild time and time again.
I am guilty of doing this, ignoring the beggar on the corner. But even if you don't have money to give, give them a little of your time and say prayer for them.

Shine a little light.