In case you haven't been taking a stopwatch to the length of the days lately, I have a news flash for you. Today is the longest day in the entire year! Crazy huh? Yeah, it doesn't really make a difference down in the "lower 48", but up here it does when the sun comes up at 3 IN THE MORNING! Oh... and it goes down around 11. It isn't like I have been paying close attention, but that is just what I read. But yeah, Alaska is crazy. Today was also one of the first days that it has not rained at all, so cheers for that too. This week I got my new set of campers, and wow they are wired. They want to run everywhere and they always want to be doing the next activity, but I like them. Last week I had two campers for my PA and I, and this week I have six of them all to myself. And for some reason, six names is easier to remember than two. I don't understand that either. I am starting to get back into the swing of things and I am starting to see how all of the skits and things are going to get really repetitious, but the one thing that I love doing is bible studies. I get to talk to all of my campers in a group and then take them on paddle boat rides to talk with them alone. I am having so much fun because each camper is unique and they all are so innocent. There are a few that didn't know how to look up a bible verse so I am really looking forward to having some time with them so that I can really do a heart to heart. This summer rocks.

Well the first week is done and I loved it. I never knew that I could get so tired, but then I also can't believe how much God can work in kids who are so young. It is just reminding me that it is not them who are figuring out these things, but God showing to them. I know that it wasn't me that was teaching it to them.

One thing that all of the counselors have done during the week is give their testamony to the campers. A testamony is how someone was brought to God and how God has worked in their life. I was giving my testimony one evening talking about how God has pretty much pulled me into his family without letting me realize what was going on (it wasn't like I decided one day to go to church... it was a very gradual thing). So I was illustrating how God had called me, when I said my name. Now, our real names are supposed to stay secret until the end of the week so discovering a counselor's name is pretty exciting for these kids, but I was in the middle of my testimony and I was really getting into it. Well, almost all of the kids at once loudly let me know that I had blown the cover. Gotta love these kids.

On Friday night they all had the opportunity to give their testimonies and I can't belive how much these kids have had to go through, but then I see how God has brought good things out of every since bad thing that has happened in their lives. One person talked about how the death of an uncle brought a family to Christ. It really makes me realize how great God is.

Also, I have been teaching my kids the daily bible studies (the material is given to us, but we have the option of how to present it), and even though I have been the worst teacher ever, my campers have been learning these really deep things out of them. Some of the stuff that they are learning is stuff that I didn't even talk about! I just have to thank God that he is doing the teaching and not me.

Honestly, even though I am tired beyond all belief and I am not getting paid monetarily for any of this, this is one of the best things that I feel like I have ever done. The problem right now is what I want to do with my life because the thought of programming again doesn't necessarily appeal very much to me. Is college where I should be right now or is it somewhere else? I don't know, but so far God has lead me to where he wants me to be, so I guess I will wait until God takes me somewhere else before I make a change.

Now before I end this post, I want to pose a question to everyone who reads this. I don't want you to tell me the answer but just to think about it. If you were to die right now, would you go to heaven or hell and why?

I made it to my first break during camp. Whew. But let me start more from my last post.

A guy came in to talk to us Saturday night, just to get us going for the week that was coming up, but he made some interesting points that really hit home for me.

• As Christians, we shouldn't be as concerned with the acts that we are doing as our relationship with God. God is all that matters and empty rituals can sometimes hinder us. This really hit me because I have already been thinking about how the Catholic Church has turned me into a mindless church goer. It isn't that I don't get anything out of it, but when every mass is exactly the same and it is just a bunch of rituals (many of which are really really old and have no significant meaning to me). Sure, I know what they symbolize, but are they going to bring me closer to God? No. And I don't think it is going to change after I see the ritual every week.
• In every situation that we go into, we should have nothing to gain, and nothing to lose. So if I screw up, I don't loose anything. If I do unbelievably well, I gain nothing. This could be applied to many different situations, but one that popped into my head was social situations where I try to impress people. While it is not something that I am heavily concerned about, it is still one of those things that is in the back of my head.
• Be yourself. Especially at a camp like this, it is so easy to just be fake for the kids and follow scripts, but don't! The kids like you as you are and they want to talk to you... not a script. But this also reminded me of my everyday life. I was particularly thinking of a situation that I was dealing with where someone was mad at me for basically being myself. I was sorry that they were mad at me, but I am who I am and I LOVE IT!

Ah yes. We got Sunday to just kind of kick it, and then we started on Monday. This week we have the oldest campers that we will ever have, and I only have two. I was thinking that this week would be a breeze to get through and then I could really start next week (when there might only be one other male counselor in my camp). I feel tired, but I am not even close to wanting it to end. These kids are so awesome, and I would not trade this job for any amount of money! I love this to death (especially when I find myself running through the woods being chased by 20 little campers who are coming from every direction while we play "Counselor Hunt").

I know that God is here when I am talking to the kids and they just all of a sudden say something that is amazingly deep that just blows me away. Yesterday we were praying in a group, and one of the campers said something that just blew me away. Then today, one of my campers who couldn't do the swim test yesterday because it was too cold got up the courage to do the test and passed! Yeah, I am going to love this summer.

I can't wait to see how much I change over this summer, because I know that these guys are having a much bigger impact on me than I am on them. They are great.

I miss you Amaris. I tried to call again but you were still gone. I will talk to you later though.

Orientation week is still in full swing and will be throughout the weekend. Even though there is so much stuff going on, I really am not stressed out at all. I know that God is my wingman and won't let me screw up too bad. But as we get closer to Monday when campers will be rolling in, I am realizing how unprepared I am to share God with other people (much less kids who may have never encountered Christ before). For example, what if a camper comes up to me and says that they are ready to accept Christ into their life. There is really no way to prepare for that because I am not going to give them a canned speech. I will have to rely on the Holy Spirit to just speak for me, and that takes a lot of faith. Not only that, but I have been a little weak in my relationship with God, and I can usually just fake it when I am going to church every week and when I am living a Christian life. I am not saying that I am fake in my relationship with God, because I love God and want to devote my life to him. But what I am saying is that when I am having one of those days when I just don't feel like praying, it is not a huge deal because God is always with me. However, if I don't keep a very close and very personal relationship with God up here, then I am going to fall on my face and possibly push my campers away from God forever. This whole camp is way more than I signed up for. When I signed up, I was thinking that it would be a great time to grow in the Lord and spend some time in Alaska, but it is so much more. I mean, guess who gets to teach bible studies to my campers? Me. Guess who they will come to with their hard questions about their faith? Me. Guess who is in charge of getting these kids to go out of their spiritual comfort zone. Me. I need God's help. There is no way that I am ready for this, and it is scaring me to death. Sure, next week I won't have as many campers as the following weeks, but I still have to be 100% for those few kids that I do have! God is putting them in my hands and I have to be ready! Ahh... but this is going to be so much fun. I can't wait. I was praying last night, and I started to realize how many people I know that are either lukewarm in their faith (which God says is the worst way to be; be either hot or cold but not lukewarm), or have completely shunned God all together. To you guys, I ask why? I guess after getting so much closer to God while being stretched in my faith, I don't understand how you couldn't believe in God. I want to know... why.

All of the other conselors are starting to show up and camp is starting to fire up. I have been in riflery and archery training during the past four days which has been pretty fun (except that I have had to take tests for each of my certifications). Since tomorrow is Sunday, we get the day off which will be a nice break before orientation week (which I have heard is a real dog of a week).

I finally chose my name for camp. I took Amaris's suggestion and will be called "Packman". Not pacman... there has to be the "k" in there. I did that because everyone has taken a liking to bashing the packers ALREADY. I mean... I figured that it would be atleast a week or so before my hat was stolen and people bashed my crew, but whatever. The name really has a nice ring to it.

More updates later. See ya.

I am still looking for a camp counselor name (seee previous post), but other than that camp is really starting to roll along. On Monday, Amaris drove me up to camp in a drive that took a little bit longer than we thought, but I got to be with her the whole time so no complaints :P. She dropped me off in time for dinner (I found out that the food here is pretty dang good too), and I met a whole hoard of people who are up here. There are so many names and I have such a hard time remembering any of them. Apparently, this camp is pretty well known because there is a group from New York up here for a few weeks, and there a good percentage of the counselors that are from the New York/ Penn area.

After dinner, I got a ride from the grounds keeper to my cabin. We were talking for a while, and the topic of wildlife came up.

"Watch out for moose around here. They are more dangerous than even the bears because they generally have their babies with them. If you get between a momma and her baby, then you had better be ready to run. The good thing is that they have terrible eyesight, so you just have to get behind a tree and they should lose you."

I had heard this before, so I just put it in the back of my mind figuring that I would only see a moose if I went a little bit into the woods away from the cabins and the lakefront in front of the cabins. I left my stuff in my cabin and started to take a walk around all of the buildings of the camp. As I started to approach the waterfront by the cabins, I came to a fork in the road. One direction went down to the water, and the other went to a shack. I stopped in my tracks, because right by the shack was a huge moose staring right at me. Not only that, but she had a baby right next to her. I stopped in my tracks. I didn't know if she would come after me or what but I started looking for big enough trees around me, but all I found was bushes. She stared at me and I didn't move.

After what felt like an eternity, she turned and started walking through the bushes and grazing. I finally relaxed a little bit. I slowly started creeping towards the shack so that I could be safe while still getting a good look at this moose. I got to the shack as she continued to graze down. As I looked at her, I realized that she had a huge hump on the back of her neck, and that her baby was no where to be found. I could understand the baby hiding out, but I didn't know that moose could have humps... especially ones that big. I found out later that it was because she was irritated about me being there, and she must have been pretty pissed.

I sat down and watched her for a long while, and eventually she sat down too. At that point, I knew that this was going to be a good summer. A summer in Alaska.