Weekend at LBC

I'm exhausted!! I spent this weekend cabin-leading at the TCL reunion at Lakeside Bible Camp. It turned out the ratio of leaders to TCLers was pretty high, so my responsbilities were minimal.
Overall, it was a good experience. Some parts were more fun than others, but I think it was good for me to do stretch myself and do something outside my comfort zone. Yes, I had to pray out loud. Sigh. At least it was in a small group.

I also had to do something I hate. There are few things I hate. One is tuna. The other is ice-breaker games. (I strongly dislike mayo, but not enough to put it in the "hate" category) There were WAY too many ice-breaker games for my comfort this weekend. Actually, just one would have been too much, but there were multiple sessions of multiple games.... which seemed to go on forever. I learned all the TCL classics. Most of which involve mortifying positions (can you say "cowboy"?) or quick movement. You can imagine my embarrassment when, in the midst of one such game, Mike V. ended up on my lap! Some events were ok... Jim had the good idea of a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, which was at least do-able. Except that I inadverently kept winning, and then before I knew it I was in the final showdown. Which wouldn't have been so bad except for the crowd of people behind and around me, cheering me on!! At that point, my comfort zone was so far away, I couldn't even remember what it felt like. :-)

There were some good talks given by the various TCL directors, and then Jim gave one this morning which was pretty good, considering his age (21) and experience. I'm looking forward to hearing more from him in the future. The weekend was a really great opportunity to spend time in the Word and in prayer. I won't post everything that I reflected on here (or this post will get very very long!), but I will share with you 1 Corinthians 10:13. "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

These last few days have been really hard. I was glad to have the opportunity to spend some time alone with God. I definitely needed it, the way this week was going! I took a long walk in the woods, even though it was raining, and just prayed while I walked. I really needed to just talk to God about some of the things going on in my life, and sob hysterically about others.

I've been spending time in Romans lately. "...but we also rejoice in suffering, because we know that suffering produces perserverance; perserverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (Romans 5:3-5... I could keep going with the passage we all know, but this is the part I've been thinking about.)

Perserverance. That's my prayer.