Monday, July 28, 2014

Girls Camp

Before Christmas I had a call to come in for a meeting with a high councilor.  I couldn’t imagine what he would want to talk to me about, and it turns out I never would have guessed.  He told me that they wanted to call me to be over the service projects at girls camp. 

I accepted the calling, but with tremendous reservations.  For one thing, the last time I went to girls camp it ended in a hurricane.  (True story.)  For another thing, I’m not as young as I used to be and I wasn’t sure camping for a week was going to work for my body.  And for one last thing, I really had no idea what he was talking about.

The short version of this story is that at our stake’s girls camp every day the girls rotate through 3 activities—certification, service, and a devotional aptly called “destiny.”  I was to, with a committee of youth leaders, come up with and execute 4 days of service projects for 3 groups of 50 girls each day. 

The actual doing of camp was both better and worse than I had thought/expected/dreaded.  The service was great.  Each day (x3) I taught for 5-15 minutes to set the stage for the specific project.  Sometimes I forget how much I love teaching.  The projects went off well—some of them much better than I had even imagined.  I felt like I successfully completed year 1 of what is typically a 3 year calling.

The camp setting was lovely.  For the first few days I didn’t go much past the cabin in which I was sleeping, but on Thursday our service activity involved a lot of walking around specific areas and I appreciated that my girls could come to a facility like this.

My concerns about camp proved to be well founded.  I didn’t get enough protein some of the time (good thing I had my own stash of greek yogurt) and one day there was a shortage of food in general.  I definitely didn’t get enough veggies and next year I think I will take salad jars and just keep them in a cooler in the walk in refrigerator in the lodge.  At the last minute I told the camp director I couldn’t be a cabin mom because I was concerned about not being able to get enough sleep and I think this was a good call.  As it was I had break-through pain one night and was awake from about 3am on rubbing my painful SIjoint/muscles.  I switched that night from a bunk with a foam pad to an air mattress and did a lot better, so I think that will be my plan for next year.

On the last morning after I’d gotten my stuff all taken care of I walked around and took some pictures.  And then I happily went home—back to civilization and my comfy bed and best of all…my own clean bathroom!

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5 comments:

  1. Boy, when WE went to camp, we didn't stay in cabins!

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  2. Just thinking about Girls Camp makes me tired to the bones. I directed our stake camp for two years and at the end of each camp, I walked into my house, straight to my bed and collapsed. It's the most exhausting thing I've ever done. But, I have great memories of the experience. How nice that you could be at camp with your girls.

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  3. Love that Angie L. is in that picture!

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  4. Becky, Angie is the queen of girls camp. She runs it and does a really amazing job.

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