A Letter

Dear Kanakuk Institute Class of 2012:

Your world is about to be rocked. Rocked to a point that it is broken apart and you don’t know how it will be put together again. In that moment when you feel that all you knew was crashing down, all you have is you sweet Savior to run to. You will be ‘torn to pieces, but he will heal you. He has injured you. But he will bind up your wounds…that you may live in His presence (Hosea 6:1-3).

These 8 months are hard. They are painful. You are in a constant state of sanctification. You are being molded, put through the fire, refined and challenged. There is beauty in this. The beauty is the Lord restores you. He redeems you. He is made strong as you are discovering how weak you are. He is sovereign. He reveals your pride shows you that without Him you are nothing. And then you realize that the only thing that matters is knowing your Lord, you grow in ways you never felt possible.

In the midst of this year, you will be blessed beyond belief. You will meet some of the most incredible people. You will meet men and women who will change your life. The Lord uses your classmates and the staff to challenge, encourage and point you to the cross. Your life will ever be the same.

Cherish this year. It goes by fast and once the summer hits, your friends are spread across the country. You will never experience community like this again and you will long for it for the rest of your life. There is no experience like this year. What you learn this year will change the course of your life and you will be left wanting more of God's Word.

Study the Word. Make time for friends. Pay attention. Ask questions. Take things seriously. Stay accountable. Challenge yourself. Challenge others. Pray. Serve others. Be intentional. Know God.

Sincerely,

Institute Graduate, class of 2011

The Biebs.

I hate how much I love the movie 'Never Say Never'

Seriously. The weekend it came out on DVD I watched it three times in one weekend*

Any way, at the end of the movie the Biebs is quoted to say

"There's gonna be times in your life when people say you can't do something. And there's gonna be times in your life when people say that you can't live your dreams...this is what I tell them 'Never Say Never'!"

Ok. So he gets a lot of flack and whatever. I love him because he reminds me of the long boy-band phase I went through (*NSYNC and Backstreet Boys)...Can you imagine a boy-band made up of Biebers? I also love him because he was told it was impossible and is living proof that you can live your dreams. I don't love how obsessed The heart of a 13-year old is perfectly depicted in girls who have the Bieber fever (but I probably knew the exact same facts about my boys in *NSYNC.) If you don't believe me, watch the movie. It's sickening. Bt we all have been there at one point or another.

And I am ashamed that I just blogged about the Biebs.

I'll make up for it in a thought-provoking blog about something great like the Old Covenant vs. the New Covenant.

*In my defense I watched it with 14 year old girls at a slumber party, the second time I watched it with the host fam** and the third time...well I watched it with girls my age.

**My host fam's boys look like the biebs when they were little. No lie.

My Next Semester

-2 grad school classes (6 credit hours)

-Average of 4 assignments/readings a week

-work 20 hours at Gap

- work 20 hours at the Institute

-5 weddings

-1 half marathon

-Leading 1 small group a week

-Attending 1 small group a week

-attending 1 Bible study a week

-Fundraising for Ethiopia and Uganda

-1 trip to Chicago

-Few trips to KC

-4 textbooks to read

BRING.IT.ON.

KC Vacation

I rarely have time in Kansas City. Towards the end of kamp I realized how drained I was from 5 years of college/kamp/athletics/kamp/college/athletics/work/kamp/Institute/kamp/internship/masters.. So for three weeks I am on vacation. I am hanGing out on the futon at the parents house treating my time off as actual vacation.

I have slept in, visited some unique cuisine in KC and hung out with friends I have known for 18 years.

Tonight I went to my dear friend Julie's house for a little KCC mom/daughter catch up time. There are about 4-5 girls that I make sure that I keep up with and make a point to see each time I am back in this wonderful town. As I was sitting at the table tonight I was struck with the thought that three girls I was with, I have known for 18 years. That is a huge chunk of time, especially considering I am only 23. We have known each other FOREVER.

The beauty of these friendships is I know, without a doubt, they are not going anywhere. We have changed over the years* but somehow we are still mesh.

I have just realized how blessed I am in my friendships. I mean, I know I have incredible friends. I have girls from KCC that I still keep up with and challenge me. I have girls from kamp and the Insty that do the same. I have close friends from the church I grew up with and girls from random places such as Sheridans and Nekamo.

The Lord truly works in my life through the presence of these wonderful ladies.

*Not only our hairstyles (thank goodness...) but parts of our personalities and interests

Side note: My next paycheck is coming from KCC. Ironic. Spent 13 years of my life in that place.

The Rollercoaster Otherwise Known as MY JOB

Term Four:

Day 1- After dinner My kitchies inform me that the dishwasher (otherwise referred to as Hobie) is not working. I do what any good staff member does and call Donna. Donna is one of those people who does EVERYTHING, seriously. Kamp does not run without her. Seriously. She takes a look at it and calls Rice Equipment for me.

Day 2- 6:30am I arrive at the kitchen and see Mr. Rice Equipment taking a look at Hobie. He informs me at about 7:30 that Hobie is fixed. If I have any more problems I need to call him but he says if the float (?) is out and it will take a week to get the part in. Awesome. Good thing the Hobster is fixed. Or so I thought.

9:02am My kitchies inform that Hobie is not working. My mind starts to race and jump forward to the fact that this is the biggest term that Kauai has ever had. Not kidding. We have no empty beds in the entire kamp. I gather my girls up and let them eat second breakfast (we are truly Hobbits) and I formulate a game plan. We have to start hand-washing dishes. We currently have 315 people at kamp with 5-piece place settings not including serving utensils, prep dishes or cereal bowls. You do the math.

I call a neighboring kamp and borrow dishwashing soap (did I mention that we were out?) and Dee and I golf-cart it over and grab it and I devise a game plan. I assign girls to 3-step all the dishes (wash, rinse and bleach). I then decided to get all the cups, pitchers and silverware and truck it over to one of the Branson kamps. These dishes take up the ENTIRE bed of the truck. I head over to K-1 with 3 girls and we wash dishes for 2 hours. In the meantime, I have called Mr. Hobie himself and they are sending an emergency repair man. The rest of my crew is dominating the kitchen back at Kauai.

(loading the truck for K-1, annoyed but dealing with it)

(trucking the dishes over, sitting on cups and vats)

12:12pm Mr. Hobie arrives, tinkers with the Hobie. Which of course is working just fine at this point. My girls serve lunch and eat. I have them start cleaning up and hand-washing the dishes (thankfully we were allowed to use paper plates at lunch). I am secretly hating my job and selfishly wanting to curl up in my kamp-bed and hide under the covers. I drink a cup of coffee and try to brainstorm with Dee to decide what to do if Hobie does not get fixed before the next meal.

2:17pm Hobie is repaired. We clean as normal and girls are dismissed at 3:02. I decided to take a short nap because it had been a non-stop crazy morning. I was expecting a quick visit from KK and Michael and I was so thankful I would get to see them on this day.

4:16pm I meet Kristen and Michael in the office to officially sign them in. Which I never actually got accomplished…I hug on KK and side hug Michael (gotta keep it k-rated) I go behind the desk to get visitor stickers. KK tells me that she hopes I don’t pee my pants. I get confused, turn around and see A ROCK ON HER FINGER. Ladies and gentlemen. I scream, instant tears, drop to the ground, pounce on her, side hug Michael and keep repeating my shrieks of joy. The girl is ENGAGED.

(Just rocking out the Chiefs and the Wildcats, post-announcement)

The girl I have known since Mrs. Stetler’s kindergarten class, the girl I went to school with for 16 years, the girl who was my roommate for 2 years, who played Smash Brothers and Sporcle into the wee hours of the morning. The girl who kept me in check spiritually, emotionally and physically in college, the one who introduced me to Kanakuk, the girl who has been one of the pillars in my life is going to be a MRS!

This day started off as one of the worse days of kamp (kitchen wise) but I am so blessed by my girls who rocked out washing the dishes by hand and didn’t complain and then the Hobster was fixed. I got to take a nap, woke up 30 minutes later refreshed, ready to see my dear friends. Then I saw the ring and I have been so giddy since then. So excited to go wedding dress shopping with her in August.

In the words of Keith: ‘It’s all Good’.

(Michael, Kristen and myself after the shock of my day)

twentyfourhoursoff

Never underestimate the power of a 2-4.

For the past 4 summers, I start my first 2-4 of the summer the same way:
Turkey Bacon Bravo, Chicken Poppyseed salad and a Dr. Pepper (only because Panera carries Pepsi products, I won't hold it against them.)

I have never been so ready for a day off this early in the summer.

I usually spend my 2-4s by myself BUT I had some great friends off this time. Tanya, Mallory and Kristen (otherwise known as the best 2-4 ever) were all off and our time overlapped. it was so refreshing to have those women off at the same time. I was able to debrief with all of them about kamp and life. We laughed till we cried, told hilarious stories of the year and slept in this morning. And by slept in I mean we woke up between 8:30 and 9:00. Oh and ate tons of donuts.

The best kinds of friends are the ones that simply being together brings a sense of happiness that can't be matched.

And now we all will split up and go back to Lampe, Golden and Branson. Bring on the K.

Proverbs 27:17, As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

I never want to be at a place in my life that I don't have women who are holding me accountable. I want these women to confront me if they see sin in my life. I want to do the same for them. This 3 women are a huge blessing in my life.

All thanks to KK, I ended up at Kanakuk 4 summers ago.

Staff Training Week

These 10 days are the always the HARDEST at kamp. It may seem crazy but summer is easier than staff training. I am so grateful when kamp starts because it means life slows down! This year especially has been crazy. To start matters off, our entire lower fields was flooded. And by lower fields I mean bottom half of kamp was an ocean. Literally. We did not see grass for days, but thankfully all the storms have left for a while and we have had nothing but sunshine.

I am so exhausted from the schedule this week but I know it will slow down. And since this is my 4^th summer I know what it looks like when families are here and I am so ready for that aspect of kamp! I am so so so ready for families to get here!

I am coming into the summer so much more prepared than I ever have before. Being back in Branson by May 1^st did wonders for my kamp-mindedness. I had time to write the DHDL notebook. I did tons of research on health codes and created daily spiritual themes for the kitchen and assisted my director with anything from writing emails to new staff to making dinner for the family.

I have an awesome group of kitchies. Which makes my job so much easier and a ton of fun. I am excited to have this group of 14 girls. I cannot wait to dive into James with them and live life with these girls for the next 6 weeks.

It has been really encouraging to see friends from the Institute. I have seen the besties, everyone who is currently at kamp and some Insty staff. It is awesome to hear how the Lord is working in the lives of my classmates and seeing how the Insty was a training ground for the rest of our lives. We learned how to pursue the Lord using just His Word and how desperately we need Him EVERYDAY. It is not about being in the mode of the Insty and pursuing the Lord because my school requires it but it is about the rest of my life.