trust.

So this week has been an interesting one...

I actually couldn't remember for a while what we did but then my lovely roommate Jordana reminded me that we had a class on Monday and Tuesday! We did a class called Camp Ministry. It was really interesting to learn about the Sex and Culture part of this course. It breaks my heart to see how prevalent pornography is in our culture and how young kids are getting exposed to it. Can you believe that the average age of first exposure to pornography is 11 years old? The enemy has done quite a number on this generation by making this kind of garbage so easily accessible to young minds. It's heart wrenching! We not only learned the facts about this, but also what implication this has for our ministry at camp. If this is what kids these days are being exposed to, then what does that mean for how we counter that at camp? I really enjoyed this part of the class because I believe that kids need a good dose of Truth right now in a world where they are being spoon-fed lies by everyone and everything around them.

Then Wednesday was caving. However, I stayed back at camp to get some much-needed rest and homework time in. This was such a good day for relaxing and actually getting some work done. The rest of the week was then filled in with random stuff like a "how to write a paper" session and meetings about the retreats that are coming up.

This weekend was Juniors Retreat, and man, it was wonderful! I loved seeing kids here again. Yes, we see kids here as guest groups and such, but seeing kids here for camp just lifted my spirits so unbelievably. I had lost sight of camp and why we do what we do, but this weekend just reminded me how fantastic camp is. The kids got so into everything, especially since they were 9-11 years old. I wasn't counselling this weekend but rather was on program staff and worship band AKA an All-Star and on Quixotic, respectively. I loved being in the role I was in because I still got to connect with kids but wasn't responsible for a cabin of youngsters at all times. It was especially cool because even though I didn't have my own cabin, a group of girls adopted me almost as another counselor and they were such a cool bunch!

This week has also been about God asking me to trust Him with my relationships here at Kaleo. I tend to hold tightly to my friendships and sometimes find my worth in them, but this week, God has been telling me in different ways that I need to stop searching for my worth in those friendships, but rather to find my worth in Him. This is not easy, let me tell you, but I know that God will continue to work on my heart until He is my only source of acceptance and worth. It will be so good. Please pray for this.

This week starts Old Testament Literature which should be interesting. I was reading the textbook for the course and it talked about not understanding ourselves fully if we don't know our history and how it is the same for Christianity. We can't understand our faith fully if we don't know the history behind it and how God made everything work together to lead up to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I'm excited to learn more about this part of the Bible that I generally try to avoid aside from the Psalms and maybe a little of Isaiah (and other random parts). Please pray, as always, for the ability to stay focussed and engaged in the class as this is difficult for me sometimes.

Something really huge to pray for is the possibility of starting a youth group at my church here on the island. The chairman of the board has stepped up to be our youth sponsor, so please pray that we could get something off the ground for the teens of Lake Cowichan.

Drowning in His Grace,
Holly