We trained our summer staff this last week. Staff Training is such an intense time. Somedays it feels as though we have crammed a year’s worth of information into a six day period and are then expected to remember everything. But it is so very good, too. It takes a special kind of person to give up their summer for others. Pictured here are kids who have given up summer employment, recreation, mission trips, educational and sports opportunities, we even have a couple who gave up most of their honeymoon to come up here to this little backwoods Bible camp and serve kids. Yep, three days after the wedding they were here and ready to work. Unlike the two dogs who are featured (Princess Leia and JJ) who are quite honestly having the time of their lives and whose greatest difficulty is rolling over so that they can receive belly rubs more effectively, the teens and young adults here will work their tails off all summer long. Pray for them. They will be beaten down with weariness of body and spirit, because when your campers are hurting, your heart breaks. There is no way around it. They will rise up as someone different than the kid who walked into the lodge on the first day of staff training. Because a challenge such as this requires growth. God will walk beside them and they will actually notice because they will be brought so low that only God can help them shuffle forward. And thus they will stand taller than they ever have before, because His strength will shine like the dawn in their weakness. Thank you, everyone who has left comfort and profit and a sensible summer behind to serve here at camp. Camas Meadows would not be here without you. You are our heroes. 

Boo Boo