DeBerry Baptist Church

Yesterday was the first day of girls camp.  I was very nervous.  The girls started to arrive around 1 ‘o’clock.  As they arrived, we put their things into their assigned cabins and took them out to the ball field to play games.  As I began to meet the girls in my cabin, I realized that being a counselor wasn’t as hard as I thought.  Soon enough, I couldn’t make one move without a hand in mine and someone yelling my name—to look at a bug or let me know whose turn it was on the swim.  Later after supper we had or first worship service.  It was like I had gone back in time to when I was at GA camp.  We sang the same songs and did the same hand motions in my mind I was back at Pinewoods next to my best friend. I knew what these girls were experiencing and I prayed that they would come to love camp as much as I do.  It’s a different perspective as a camp counselor especially in Alaska I think.  Since it doesn’t get dark, the sunshine came right on through the windows looking out to the lake and as the girls sang, they sounded just like 30 little angels.  I knew God was smiling down on us.  There’s still the wait for a shower and the camper who waits until everyone’s in be to need a trip to the bath house, but not of that will be remembered by these girls.  All they need to know is that God loves them and some else loves them too.  One of the differences about kids here is that they are tough.  Rain and cold doesn’t stop them.  I had a long sleeve shirt and my hoodie on with gloves as I watched a number of them pup joyfully into the lake.  They don’t get many chances to swim, so they’ll take what they get.  Many of them don’t have running water at their house so a shower is a weekly treat- if that.  I never thought I’d hear “when’s shower time!?!!” on the first day of camp.   :)

This week is boys’ camp.  We have about 35 boys here and 40 helpers.  Counting everyone, we have about 103 people at Laverne Griffin this week.  I serve breakfast in the morning and clean trays at lunch.  Between breakfast and lunch, Robin and I clean the bath house.  I also dry dishes and check the chapel bathroom at dinner… but Robin always helps me with that.  We filled up 1000 water balloons today… they should have fun with that!  Last night Adam Spencer was so excited because he led one of the boys to Christ!  He said, “Yep! Ya’ll get to do that next week!”  Next week is girls’ camp.  I’m excited but a little nervous.. . I hope I know what to say when they ask me a question or miss their mom.

Last week was a ton of fun! We did not have campers here, just a self service group that stayed the night and used the kitchen.  The first part of the week we drove down to Anchorage to pick up two more summer missionaries.  We taught them all the basics to cleaning up the bath house and I taught them both how to crank the weedeater.. HAHA.   From the start, our group has gotten along very well.  We laugh non-stop. We joke and pick until the lights go out… I woke up one morning to find all of my shoes on the roof.  I have realized how much God had been doing in my life just by getting to know the people here. HA it may sound kinda pitiful, but I have much better social skills now.  I am not as shy as I use to be. I credit that to God allowing me to be in Gamma Sigma… I smile to even think of how God pulled me around like a puppet my freshman year.  Well back to our group… my roomies for the summer are Jennifer McDonald from Georgia and Robin Brandt from California.  The two boys are Adam Spencer from Lake Charles, LA and Adam Pace from Mississippi.  They are a great group to work with.  We had a great chance to get to know each other during our week without campers.  We took one day to drive up to Hatcher’s Pass and hike up a couple of mountains to see Summit Lake.  It was A-mazing! (as Robin says) to see how beautiful everything is that God created.  That night I read my devotional that read “take a walk through nature and explore the beauty God has created”. Funny how that works out :)  Another day we went to a town called Talkeetna and saw Mt. McKinley.  It is the same town that the movie 8 Below is based on.  There are people there who park their cars by the railroad tracks and ride the rest of the way to their homes by 4-wheeler.  The last exciting thing we did on our week off was visit the Iditarod Headquarters.  The Iditarod is a 1100 mile race across the Alaskan Tundra and through the Alaskan Mountain Range.  As we watched a video at the headquarters, I realized that one of the only women in the race actually goes to our church!  She has participated annually in the Iditarod for 25 years and finished in the top fifteen most years… which I find exceptionally awesome for a women to do in a race so treacherous.    

Hello !! I am serving as a summer missionary at Laverne Griffin Youth Recreation Camp in Wasilla, Alaska. It’s a pretty small Baptist camp. I love it here! I made my decision to come to Alaska this summer to “jump off another cliff for God”. I know that when I put myself in a position where I must trust God and depend on Him I will grow closer to Him. Being far away from home and surrounded by God’s work will certainly help me on my way to seeking God. My last semester at college showed me that I needed to take a step back and learn to trust God with all that I have. I know that God has something prepared for my life... so I need to have all my trust in whatever that may be. I’ll describe to you a typical day so far:

6:00 am - go for a run and then shower. I like to run down the trails in the woods, but I’m afraid to venture out alone so I usually run down the dirt road. The trails are very pretty with lots of hills and roots and fallen trees to jump over.. and the occasional moose poop haha.

8:00- in the dining hall ready to serve food, eat, and dry dishes

9:30- staff devotional and discuss work plans for the day

10:00- work time: clean out paddle boats and canoes, clean the bathhouse, rake leaves, and weed eat

12:00- Lunch time... eat and then wash alllll those dishes!

1:30- more weed eating, raking, or selling candy at the snack shack. I’ve been labeled the “weedeatin queen”. I broke the weed eater today… I wished my dad was here to fix it.

6:00- dinner… about the same as breakfast or dinner. We have lots of leftovers after just about every meal. All the food is really good!

7:00- just about done for the day!

There are two other summer missionaries here this week: Jennifer McDonald (my roomie) and Adam Pace…the dish washing machine. Two more are coming this weekend! I hope one of them likes to run :)

So far I have seen 3 moose, lots of loons, 3 muskrats, and plenty of mosquitoes.

I’ll probably come home with a even more hick accent because it seems like everyone here is from Georgia.