Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn!

Today is Kailtyn's seventeenth birthday. She's spending her birthday in Budapest, Hungary. Happy Birthday Kaitlyn! We miss you today and love you even more.

Thinking About Camp

I just spent the evening working on a newsletter for TEEN CAMP 2009. I read through old camp journals and old camp newsletters and was immersed in camp memories. Funny, I can't easily call up exact memories of specific campers, but I am awash in a feeling of complete contentedness and joy. There was frustration, fatigue, sometimes even fear, but what stays, what permeates everything else is the joy.

I saw names I haven't thought about in years! Where did Melanie and Tina Adams, Tina Basham, Bill Crawford, Tracy Karas, Alyssa Gould, Skye Oudesm, Shelly and Talia Yates, and Alisha and Kayla Zabriskie go? And I laughed at pictures of Greg Ellwell, Rebecca Owen, Joey Darlington, Eric Hawkins, Sammi Gould, and Kendra Trudgen. Reading these lists of names, my heart is a little sad. Where are they? What are they doing now? What did camp do for them? Did it make a difference in their lives? I have to believe that it did, and not because I was there, but because every year the staff commits itself to serving God by serving the youth. Almost sad, but not really when I think about who came to camp last year: Rhodes Tarbell and Marissa Hayes, the children of former campers. This year, Jonathan Geier (son of Corrie Geier and Kayla Zabriski) is old enough to attend camp. I believe in some small way, camp touches the life of everyone that attends.

My kids have grown up with camp, supporting it knowingly or unknowingly all of their lives. This year Hailey becomes a counselor. I believe that camp touched her life because she desires to serve there, too. Chase will be a CIT again for the second year. Before he could attend camp, he helped load and unload camp boxes, set up the camp, and run errands for the staff. I believe that camp touched his life because he desires to serve there, too. Kaitlyn is still a camper. Throughout the year she plans skits and songs and pranks (that she doesn't perform ;)). Sometimes she says, "When I am a CIT, I will...." I believe camp has touched her life because she desires to serve there, too.

Camp has touched my life. I learned to be flexible there; I learned patience there; I received immediate answers to prayers there; I saw God move on young people and old people alike; I saw kids play with Apostles; I heard campers open up in ways that I never thought they would, and sometimes it broke my heart to hear it. I learned about Women of the Bible, the importance of tradition, and that fun has a place with serious. I won't be there this year. Some people might think that's a good thing, and I guess I understand why they might think that. But I get so much joy from serving at camp. That one week of the year is HARD, but I crave that services.

Sometimes we talk about the one week of camp. We say, "We only have ONE week to touch these kids lives." But on the other hand, "We have ONE (WHOLE) WEEK to touch these kids lives." I pray we never squander that week.

A Perfect Mid-western Evening

Saturday night at Jeff and Michelle's house. Picture this: all the neighborhood kids are next door playing a basketball game. Girls and boys of every age, working together, cheering and clapping--like music. One little boy from three doors down jumping on a pogo stick in front of us, trying his hardest to bounce more than seven times, trying harder still not to fall and hit his head on the cement sidewalk. Another neighbor sits and plays with his Scottie dog, tossing a ball four or five houses away and waiting for the inevitable return of the ball every single time. On Jeff and Michelle's front porch, we are perched in wicker chairs, or on the edge of the step, or at the corner of the porch, just watching and listening and talking and smiling.

What will define my life...

In a quiet moment, as I passed from one activity to the next, the thought crossed my mind, "By what will my life be defined?" The question has been dogging me for nearly a week. Right now I am caught up in the idea of "teacher." Like many who enter this profession, I want to think that I will have effected some life. That some day a former student might say, "I will always remember Mrs. Yates because...." But, in truth, my occupation is not what I want to be defined by. That alone came as a huge revelation. If this were even five years earlier, I would declare a deep and abiding desire to be remembered as a teacher: a public school teacher, a Bible School Teacher, a Sunday School teacher, a camp teacher, a home teacher.

But as I sort through the thoughts and sift out the gems, I have felt an increasing desire to be defined by, to be remembered as, to be an example of righteousness. Thoughts are rolling through my head, but one thought is emerging and gaining strength: it's not just enough to be a teacher who is righteous, to be a nurse that is religious, to be a cop that is morally upright. I want to be righteous person who was a teacher, a wife, and a mother.

What will define your life?