Love Tank

I believe that God is Love. I believe that Love Wins. I believe that we must be intentional about loving others.

One of the ways we're working on making that happen is by having this Love Tank.



On the first night of the Session every girl in the Longhouse wrote her name on one of these bags and all together they make this tank. Then during their two weeks here we write notes of encouragement, admiration, and... basically lots of love.

It has been so cool to see these girls writing notes during rest hour and at night to fill up other people's tanks. Then I get to see them peek into their own bag later and joy spreads over their face as they pull out a note someone else wrote to them.

As a community of believers and friends I love that we have taken up this practice of spurring one another on to be the very best versions of ourselves. A couple sentences of marker on a piece of construction paper can be powerful.

Who needs time off?

For many weeks I've been setting live traps and putting fresh apples in them. It's normal for girls to come running into the Longhouse at night screaming, "RACCOON!"
Today we caught one.
May he rest in peace.



Our newest fashion trend is hat sleeves. Pretty self-explanatory, we rip sleeves off of shirts and wear them as hats.
The girls on the bench are some of the most kind and fun and enthusiastic campers I've had all summer.
The 4 of us on the ground have been living in Theta Kappa Lambda (sis koom bah) all summer. I love this summer family.



I love this girl. Her name is Kiersten. This morning at breakfast she ran over to me and said, "When I get home, I'm going to name my dog Sarah Wright so that I'll never forget you."



Along with the 30 CILT girls in the Longhouse I work with 12 CILT boys every session. These young men are a treat.



There are few views more beautiful then the lake road. Something is just magical about seeing the sun shine through these trees.



At opening campfire I wore this posterboard around my neck and campers and counselors completed the sentence, "I Love Camp Because..."


I have only 4 full days left with the CILTs. Even after spending 6 days with them I don't feel like I've had enough time here. Tonight I had my night off but as soon as we finished dinner my friend and co-counselor Shelby and I couldn't wait to get back here. We missed our campers and this place after only a couple hours.

Back in River Village we found our 42 campers on the Longhouse porch playing Psychiatrist and then I'm a Tree and we had to join in. In 20 minutes we'll go back to do devotions with them. I'm thankful that I have a job that I don't want to leave.

digi photo style

If lightning hit

My friend Beef and I were talking today and he said, "Sometimes I think about standing on the porch of the trading post with an ice-cream sandwhich and looking out on main field and there are kids playing 4-square and counselors talking to kids in the grass and braves swinging around jellyfish yo-yos. And I wonder if lightning hit and all of sudden we were in heaven would we even be able to tell a difference?"


I think he's on to something. This camp is special. This camp has 86 years of history...but that's not really the cool part. I love the daily happenings. The high-5s on the way to chapel from the Day Camp counselors. The encouraging notes from friends scrawled on scraps of construction paper. The hugs from River Village kids just because. I think this must be really close to heaven.


I care about the history we're making today. Most of all I love the people here. I love that I get to work with some of my best friends in the whole world. I love that even if we get frustrated we figure out the problem and fix it and then an hour later we'll be crumping on the porch or playing with some creepy puppets.


I love that campers have become my family. I don't think they all realize how much we really love them. I was so excited this Sunday at flagpole as I looked around the circle and saw that some of my favorite kids in the whole world are here THIS week. 7 whole days to play and laugh and have new adventures together.


I know that heaven is going to be greater than I can ever imagine but this is going to be pretty tough to be beat.

for their sake

"When we look back on our lives what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked harder to make a day stand out...
A good movie has memorable scenes, and so does a good life...
I like those scenes in the Bible where God stops people and asks them to build an alter. You'd think He was making them do that for Himself, but I don't think God really gets much from looking at a pile of rocks. Instead, I think God wanted his people to build alters for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time when they were rescued, or they were given grace."
-A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, Donald Miller (This is one of my favorite books.)

I've been thinking this summer about making those memorable scenes and remembering. My friend Carolyn and I are both keep journals this summer where we try to write a sentence a day- that's helping me remember important things. I carry my camera with me EVERYWHERE and capture everything with photographs or video. I have witnessed some beautiful and hilarious things.

I think it is sometimes too easy to forget things. I don't want to do that. I want to remember the people in my day to day life and I want to put in the hard work to make memorable scenes.

Soak yourself with the hose to be the Gulf of Mexico for opening campfire.


Do cartwheels in main field before lunch.


Dress up like a Lax Bro for a day.


Give a dead mouse a funeral.


Decorate a rock, or find a piece of heart shaped coral, or write on a paper plate and give it to a friend. They'll love it.


We need memorable scenes.
I'm lucky that camp is bursting with them.