Except for finishing up a little more catch-up work from being nearly a week late, staff training is done. Sunday our first set of campers arrive! And, I found out this morning, at least the first week, I will be a counselor.
I want to tell you about Solo time yesterday – and no, no worries, I was not singing in front of people – that would be cruel and unusual punishment. Solo is a time that we were all required to take Friday, and will probably have another time in a few weeks, to just go and spend some time alone with God. Our allotted time was six hours, so I got to spend almost six hours without seeing another person. Don’t get me wrong, the people here are great – but getting that one-on-one time with God was absolutely amazing.
I drove towards the cliffs where we did our campout and rappelling on Wednesday night, but didn’t go as far as we went on Wednesday before getting sidetracked exploring and finding a great place to spend my solo time. I parked my car, grabbed my chair, sandwich, Bible, staff manual, and notebook paper, and climbed to where I was sitting on the top of the nearest hill right there, looking out about 250-300 feet and down about 50 feet to my car. I was able to see over a lot of the nearby trees, and could just really enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.
We had to do several things for staff training assignments. This past Monday I had to turn in a list that had something I could use for doing devotions each night if I were to end up being a counselor, Thursday morning at the campout I had to give my testimony, Thursday night I had to do a quick personal interview with Jim, the director here, and Friday I had to turn in a list of 42 teachable moments. The teachable moments was by far the one that had me the most worried, as I had to come up with 42 situations that could be used to demonstrate a different Biblical principal. Going into my solo, I had written down the astonishing total of: 1 (Pat, Jim, Sarah, or anybody else on staff if you’re reading this, please feel free to pretend you didn’t read that part). I was able to think back through a lot of the different activities here that the kids will do, as well as just some other things that God brought to mind while looking out over His astonishing creation, and I was able to come up with the other 41 that I needed. We also were supposed to have entirely read the staff manual (something like 193 pages) as well as Pat’s book, Tears in the Bug Juice. I borrowed Becky’s copy of Pat’s book on Friday night after I got in last week, and finished reading it on Sunday, then started in on the staff manual. I also finished reading the staff manual during my solo time.
After finishing those things, I filled out another paper with responses to some of the questions that kids might ask, and spent some time reading my Bible and praying. Each of us on staff has a bookmark with a list of the names of everybody on staff, and I prayed through that list, praying for each person individually as camp is getting ready to start. I also prayed about some other things going on in life right now, and ultimately ended up thinking “man, this is a stupid thing for me to do, but here goes” and I prayed for God to teach me patience and to deal well with adversity. A few minutes later I walked down to my car to put my stuff in the car and go for a walk, and as I walked up to the car, I noticed that one of my tires looked low, so I checked it: 20 psi, instead of the desired 32 psi. I figured “while I’m checking I might as well check all the others, too” and I found one of them to be good, and the other two at about 25 psi. It was drivable, but definitely not good. I thought “wow, God – you didn’t waste any time on that one, did you” and then remembered that 6 weeks ago, one of my LeTourneau friends gave me one of the two little air compressors that he had for keeping in a car, and mine was in my trunk. So I was able to get all of the tires back up to where they needed to be, although the compressor is slow. I know I still have a lot to learn, but God definitely decided to give me a good start in improving my patience and helping me deal well with adversity. He also used that situation to remind me that, no matter what I need (not necessarily want, but truly need) He will provide.
Overall, the solo time was absolutely amazing, and I highly recommend doing something similar. I know, 6 hours seems like a huge part out of your day – but I think most of us, if we really wanted to, could make it work on a weekend or something. If throughout the week, or at least on the weekend, we were to maybe give up some TV time or reading time, most of us could make it work. If not 6 hours, then I recommend doing at least 3 or 4 hours. Just go out, alone, and spend some time with God. If possible, I recommend going somewhere where you can be alone the whole time, without being likely to come across anybody else. The focused time with God is absolutely amazing. Just spend some time in His Word and talking with Him, and maybe most importantly, listening to Him. I know that I plan on making sure that solos similar to today are able to take place for me on a somewhat regular basis.
Oh – and for those that care, during my drive up here last week I saw 26 antelope, and during solo today I saw 1 coyote and 2 members of the deer family (I couldn’t see them well or long enough to be exactly sure what they were – I don’t think they were whitetail, though).
After solo we came back to an amazing dinner, after which I had dishes duty, then we spent some time with the group of us sharing what God has been doing in our lives during staff training, and during our solos today, singing, and finally, sharing in communion. Although I wasn’t initially looking forward to it all that much, Friday turned out to be an absolutely amazing day. God is truly amazing.
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