It's Almost Here!!

So the week I have been impatiently waiting for for a year now is right around the corner!! Camp begins on Monday, but for my youth group it's starts on Sunday!! My youth pastor decided to stretch us this year (yeah!!) and take us Sunday shortly after church and head up to help set up the church that does this each year! I'm so excited I mean it's like an extra day of camp that we've never had before! I realize that Sunday and part of Monday will be more working than playing like we will the rest of the week, but that actually excites me!!

I am nearly done packing...have a few things of clothes that need to be packed away and of course those last minute items that if you pack them too soon you will have nasty teeth, messy hair, and no place for your head on your bed! So other than that I'm ready to go when they say let's head out!

I'm soooo excited...I mean a whole week of amazing worship, great speakers, and lots of God's word and truth!! I'm so ready to just dive in deep and prepare for me grueling upcoming senior year...it'll be tough and I'll talk more about my feelings on that after camp...something might change!

But really these weeks have always been a highlight of my year because it's a chance for me to just get away and grow closer to God and take home the things I learn. I remember one year I had been battling depression and insecurity for about a month before we left and this camp was just what I needed...the first night a speaker actually talked about overcoming insecurity...if that's not a God thing then I don't know what is!! It's always so much fun and this is a time when many of the younger girls have begun to look at me as a mentor. Right now I have 2 girls in the Jr. High part of the youth group that will pull me aside and tell me the things that are going on. I try my best to hold them accountable and ask how they are doing at school, what's going on at home, is there something we need to pray about and when there is they are fully open and honest with me about it. Plus it makes me watch what I do and say because I know they are looking up to me and if I do something and try to cover it up what example am I setting for them? They know of a few of my struggles, some of it I feel is too much for these young girls to have to know about and maybe one day when they are older and more mature I will tell them. My goal for these girls is to be someone they can trust and can turn to when their life falls apart and that they can look up to and see me totally trusting God and can follow that example. I want them to see God in everything I do and right now I know they do because they tell me and encourage me each week by thanking me for caring and by hugging me and just being open with me.

Anywho!! Please be praying for camp this coming week. Pray that our hearts would be prepared to see what God wants to do in our lives. Pray that we would be focused on God but not let go of our childhood by thinking that's all there is to our life. Pray that we would have fun, but be serious when God asks us to. Pray that we would all come back changed and challenged. But especially pray that whatever we leave camp with will continue to follow us home, as we get back into the routine of normal life, and that when school starts we can all stand strong and never let go of the awesome things he's going to do in our lives. Pray that we will be a youth group of Extreme Faith and will continue to grow even after we leave Oklahoma and head back here.

Quote: "For you did not recieve a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you recieved the Spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba Father."
- Romans 8:15 (Verse used on topic of insecurity by Monica Scott or rather Pankratz now)