Loving the Least of These

Anna and I flew home from Honduras on Saturday, June 27th due to some ' unrest' in the country...I'll save that story for another day. But within 24 hours of being home, God made it abundantly clear that he needed me to be home right now. Sunday evening at church Ryan asked if I'd go on mission trip with the youth group, and a few hours later Donna asked Anna and I to counsel a week of camp at Manatawny. I agreed to both, and then I sat down to look at my calendar and realized these two weeks were back to back. So the following friday Anna and I went to Donna's grandparents house with the entire Brothers' family. And saturday we went on to camp. :) And let me just say that that week was one of the best weeks of my life, and I don't say that lightly. There are very few things that rank that highly in my book, but that place certainly deserves a spot among the best of the best. I can't begin to tell you how much it changed me and I was just counseling some teenage girls, who ended up teaching me a whole lot more than I taught them, I'm sure. I was blessed to have some of the sweetest girls in my cabin. They truly were great, I couldn't have asked for better.  One of the things that stood out to me immediately about camp was that it was just the good little christian kids that showed up to be campers, but some of them came against their will, some came from homes and situations that certainly aren't desirable and yet by the end of the week the whole place acted like one big family. It was amazing. The staff was incredible. The director told Anna and I that we were already on the schedule for next year...but he definitely didn't have to beg us to come back. ;) We can't wait. 

we get to cross this off our 'bucket list' :)

It couldn't have been more perfect. :)

haha.

Best bible class ever.

Me, Honk, Squeak, and sister. Yes, they are actually referred to as ' squeak and honk'

Adopted grandparents. :) we love them. 

That's the adopted family...well some of them anyway. ;)

Bryani and me. i love that girl.

cabin 10! 

i love her a whole bunch too. :)

phily.

hahahahahaha.

yay democracy...and the NYPD. haha.

Friday morning before we left Anna and I got up around three and left around 4AM to drive out to Ocean City, NJ to watch the sunrise over the ocean. And that was definitely one of the highlights of the week. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and I couldn't have had better company to witness it. So we spent some time sitting on the beach listening to the waves crash on the sand then made an extremely LONG drive back home. By the end of those two weeks we had been in 6 different states, and had MANY fun adventures. And some stories that will be fun to tell our children some day...   ;)

love this one. :)