HEB

I've been gone a few days so let me try to catch you up with what I've done. Thursday had lunch with Chera before going to the church where I met with the leaders in prayer before loading up the stuff and then driving away with 3 awesome girls. It was a lot of the same drive I do going out to ASU. Then I went down a big scary hill. Unloaded the cars and set to work making pasta and garlic bread, a note to other potential cooks, 40 servings of pasta in the same bowl lead to a mashed potatoe looking spoonful on the bottom. Major props to Lauren for making my bed (which got moved every night for different reasons). Then after dinner we had our first small group session, I had an awesome group of kids, most of whom I only sort of knew. Then we went to the soccer fields and played Alien Baby and Aliens vs Earthlings, I managed to step in a cactus pile (it was only about 10 oclock when we did this). Then it was bed time. 6:00 AM I was up and moving so I could get in my quiet time before making breakfast. I had planned to read the Bible, but it was too dark to read so I just sat on the deck over looking Silver Creek and talked with my Lord. Then it was off to make breakfast tacos. I'm not sure I've ever made 7 and a half dozen scrambled eggs before. But it was cool, got some buff muscles just from mixing and stirring. Thank God David was the one in charge, that meant he got to do all the heavy lifting of pots for me. Then another worship session and small group discussion. As soon as that was done I hightailed it back to the kitchen to help David finish making hot dogs for lunch. He is such an awesome man, I didn't know him before this weekend but we worked well together and he had everything very efficent, made sure I was able to keep my focus on my small group first and cooking second. Then we played some team games, my team just really wasn't into it. Then we got to go to the Blue hole. Which was AWESOME. It was one of the few things I absolutely wanted to do at HEB camp. Jumped off the cliff once into the water, then decided that was enough, spent the rest of the time seeing how deep I could go down in the water, I venture 25 feet or so, I think I found one of the cold water springs that feeds it. Then back to the camp to cook chicken fried steak, mix the huge pot of gravy, mashed potatoes and green bean. It was good, the problem is after spending an hour making that much food you just don't have much of an appetite to eat it. Then my team had clean up, I took a cook's exemption and just supervised my team doing dishes. Then we had another worship session, then bed. Saturday morning similar routine, except this time it was biscuits and gravy with bacon. Can I just say one of the highlights of the weekend was watching all the adults coming into the kitchen for their coffee. Then we had another worship session followed by a designing of our ideal church out of duct tape and natural materials (rocks, branches etc), it was the first time I'd really seen my group come together on anything. Major props to James for stepping in to help David with hamburgers while I was finishing up my small group responisbilities. After lunch it was time for dodgeball. My team rocked, a couple of our girls didn't want to play so we enlisted David and James too, then we played some youth vs leaders, and other assorted combinations. Did that for almost two hours. THen the rest of the day was free time so I snagged a kayak and did a loop on the river before sitting down to work on my cross stitch and read a book. Then I managed to talk David and Nathan into going on a hike with me to see the place across the stream where 3 crosses had been placed. It was a pretty good climb, I'm glad they indulged me, I'd been to HEB 3 times and never hiked over there, then we followed the road down to the flats and met up with part of the group that was playing in the water there. The flats are a limestone area that has water covering them about 6 inches deep with pockets big enough to swim in scattered around. Then we walked up the hill back to camp, all in all it was probable 2 miles. We started to make dinner when we got back but the chicken we had taken out before the hike was still frozen solid, it took some creative cooking skills and lots of team work to get them all cooked, and we had corn and rice to go with them. David did a marvelous job on the chicken. Props to Michelle for her tips, and to nathan and Lauren for helping me with the sides. Dinner was about an hour late, which was ok, and it was the only meal we didn't have ready right on schedule. Then we piled people into cars and trucks to go up to the cliff for worship and star gazing. The stars were just stunning, and reminded us of a verse in Philipians we had studied, the milky way was easy to spot, and the moon was magnifent. Its amazing how a cold lifeless rock can reflect so much light and beauty from the source of light. Trevor (the speaker) did an awesome job, and then we had time for prayers to heal our youth group and strengthen it. I think that night was hardest for me. I felt like everyone was getting it but me. There were lots of hurting hearts that God touched that night. After awhile I just prayed asking God to let me "get it" and in his gracious mercy the most horrible image kept drifting into my mind's eye. I saw the cross in all the majestic beauty and in all its terrible, bloody mercy. Paul says that he "preached only Christ, and him crucified". That's all, that is the "it" that I had failed to get. It was powerful because it was truth. Then back to camp for cookies and nachos and general hanging out. I would classify Saturday as a perfect day. Everything was great. Then Sunday morning I overslept, woke up 10 till 7, threw on some clothes and headed to the kitchen, managaed to beat David there by a few minutes, but missed my quiet time. Luckily it was french toast sticks and sausages so it was really easy. It was the only meal I actually went back for seconds on. Then we had everyone pack up, and clean, had one last worship session, then Ryan gave us a tea light with our name on it reminding us to "shine like the stars" before we took down our rocks from Thursday night and built an altar against the mighty oak tree planted by the river. Then a quick lunch, a group picture and last minute clean ups. Loaded up my car and it was the funniest thing to be the leader of the caravan. Going up the hill scared me even more than going down the hill, and it had about 6 vehicals behind me all the way till we got on the high way. Then a quick stop for sodas and potty and we were home. Unloaded everything and put it away and headed home. My priorities when I got home were very important, computer, nap, dinner, bath and now I'm updating lj/xanga. Well if you made it through all that you get props too.