Even though it is only just the middle of August, my
summer is sadly coming to an end. I have had an amazing time working as a
counselor for the past 10 weeks and my heart breaks knowing that I have
finished my time serving at this beautiful place. Its no
surprise that I am coming out of these few months changed; I have new
experiences under my belt and many new life lessons learned.
One of
the biggest and most life-changing things I have learned this summer has been
how to find rest in God despite the circumstances that I am in or the
expectations that I have for my life. I can't count the number of times that I found myself in situations where I had absolutely no idea what to do or how I was ever going to have the strength to keep going. Counseling is hard. Each week I had eight new girls to lead, guide, entertain, teach, and care for. I heard story after heart-breaking story from their lives at home and had to accept the fact that I couldn't change anything about it. I created my own expectations for how I thought the week should go, only to find out that I couldn't be farther from reality. I set limitations for what I thought God could do in the camp and in my own heart. At times I became discouraged, frustrated, empty, and hopeless. There were many days when I even wondered how I was ever going to make it to the end of the week.
