Summer 2019

Two weeks since I left the place that has taken a piece of my heart forever. Still processing a lot from this summer, but two weeks later and this is where I'm at. WinShape Camps has had such a big impact on my life over the past two summers and summer two was a wild, but amazing ride. I walked into the summer with my word as expectant because I was expectant to see how the Lord was going to use me for His kingdom. This summer is a summer that I truly won't forget. The Yankee Yoohoo that walked into precamp on May 12th was not the same Yankee Yoohoo that walked out of post camp on July 21st. 10 weeks of camp, 10 weeks of the Lord working in my life in ways that I didn't even know I was struggling with. To be brutally honesty, walking into this summer I was scared. Last summer was really hard for me and that made me scared for this summer but I learned that comparison is the thief of joy and I wasn't going to let that affect my summer. Why was I scared? Because I wasn't completely trusting Jesus and what He has planned for me. This summer's theme was Never-changing with the theme verse being Matthew 7:24. In a world that is constantly changing, we learned that God is never-changing, always good, always love, always personal, and always guiding.

I learned so much about each of those truths this summer with it really hitting me personally at staff training. A week and a half into my time at camp, precamp was finished and we had just finished our first full day of staff training ending the day with Silent Disco. Silent Disco was SO MUCH FUN, but didn't end how I thought it would. In a matter of seconds, my time at camp changed. During Silent Disco, I was jumping around to the music having so much fun and came down on my ankle in just the wrong way and I ended up having a severe ankle sprain. The week following spraining my ankle was hard, very hard for me. Being an enneagram 6, I worst case scenario a lot and this was one of those times. I thought of all of that could happen from that I was no longer good enough, that I was unable to be Logistics Assistant, that I'd have to leave camp, and more. It was hard, but luckily I had an amazing Operations Team and the rest of the Young Harris staff that had my back. Through that support of my team, prayer, and trusting Jesus I made it through staff training and was off the air cast and in a normal ankle brace by Spectacular Starting Sunday (SSS) Week 1 and campers arriving. Spraining my ankle when I did was honestly the best time that I could have hurt myself this summer because it was during staff training and I was in an ankle brace by the time campers came. Although it was hard, I really saw God in all it because God was like "Why are you not trusting me? I got you here, I'm not going to leave you" and that was the hard honest truth. 10 and a half weeks later, I'm still in that same ankle brace but I haven't let that stop me and honestly I have a pretty sweet tan line from it to go with my Chaco tan line🙈 You can see that below😂

That was just the beginning of how God worked in my life this summer. Throughout the summer, time and time again God blessed me with the sweetest of campers in my adopted sweet and in other camp friends sweets that I was able to love on and get to know better. As a Program Staff (PS), I do not have my own campers so I get "adopted" into a sweet in my club, Royalum Senior, for the week to get to know those girls. This summer my adopted sweets were Girlie Pop sweet 18 and Driftwood sweet 15. Some campers were harder to love than others, but those were some of my favorite campers.

Another today's truth was God is always love and that hit me hard. I'm the hardest on myself, harder than those around me are one me. This summer people gave me grace upon grace and second chances when I needed it which I'm forever grateful for, and that was something I had to learn to give myself as well. Throughout the summer I truly had to figure out that I am enough, just as I am, because God created me and I am His. When I mess up, when I don't do something correctly, when I feel lonely, when I doubt myself, when I am hardest on myself...I am His and He is mine, because of that I am enough.

Yet another today's truth is God is always guiding and boy do I need God's guidance daily. This summer I got the opportunity to lay the foundation of a new position to WinShape Camps for Girls at Young Harris which was Logistics Assistant, serving on the Operations Team and part of Program Staff. This position was so much fun for me because it included some of my favorite things: Signs & Flags, Vehicles, Maintenance, Fun Fuel, CL Bins, and other random things around camp. Throughout the summer, honestly no two days looked the same for me. As Logistics Assistant I was in charge of working with Young Harris College for maintenance things and whether I could fix them or if the college needed to fix them. I got to unplug allll the toilets and honestly have so many funny memories from that. Another area that I dealt with was vehicles which included 6 15 passenger vans, 5 SUVs, 2 pickup trucks, Queenie the tram, and 7 golf carts. 21 vehicles total in our fleet for just my location, wow that's crazy! Week two was the week of vehicles for me. Over the course of week two we had a total of 13 vehicle issues, that is a lot of vehicle things to happen in just a week, but wow through it all God humbled me so much. I was taught that week to really go with the flow because we were short vehicles in every area for some points of the week. Some of my favorite memories involving vehicles is one specific night, which just so happened to be Thursday of week 2. At this point we had about 10 vehicle issues already. Ultimate Rec! was complete and everyone on PS was heading back to set up for Chick-fil-A Friday Family Fun Day (CFA FFFD) and we got a call that Winner, one of our pick up trucks wouldn't start so Da Beat, a true wonder woman, went and dealt with that so I could start putting out signs for CFA FFFD and when she got to the field she prayed that it would start without having to jump and God answered and it did! WHAT?! That was only the start though....after we put out signs and prepped luggage shelves for CFA FFFD, Da Beat and I tackled yet another vehicle issue🙈 This time it was Queenie, which we really need to shuttle parents on SSS and CFA FFFD. This night her tires needed air in them so why not put air in the tires at 11:45 at night?! Thankfully I didn't have to tackle this alone, Da Beat graciously helped me. That night we were probably out there later than we should have been, but it is a part of my summer that I won't forget because of the conversation and laughter that was created because by Thursday night at camp, you are pretty tired from the week so there was definitely some laughter. Peep the pic below of us still painted and messy from Ultimate Rec! putting air in Queenie's tires at 11:45pm.

Thank you WinShape Camps for giving me another summer full of fun! This summer was a summer that was near and dear to my heart. It was hard at points, but that is normal because you cannot make it through camp without clinging to and running to Jesus daily and learning to continuously surrender to His plan. This summer I got to watch 2,120 campers walk through the doors of WinShape Camps for Girls at Young Harris, and wow what a blessing it was to be the bride of Christ with over 115 other staffers at Young Harris. Summer 2019, you were truly the summer of a lifetime. Thanks for so many lessons learned, fun, laughter, and so many amazing memories. Yankee Yoohoo signing off✌🏽