California the past two days

Saturday:
Today was a really relaxing day and a great day to get to know some of the staff. We woke up at about 9:30 and headed to grab some breakfast. As we sat at breakfast, we pondered how we were going to get to the beach…I mean, that’s a pretty big question. Finally, our boss, Adam, called us and told us that his wife and him were going to the beach as well, so we jumped on that bandwagon and headed out with them. We headed out to the beach and hung out as a staff team and really got a chance to relax. Once we got there, the boys went to the cliff down the beach and started to have their own adventures. They decided to go rock climbing on the cliff and that is where they spent most of the day as us girls hung out reading and laying out on the beach. The weather was absolutely amazing, but we learned our lesson as we tried to get in it…it was freezing cold. Swimming in the ocean is overrated anyway, it’s so much more fun to hang out and talk. We did have some good get to know you conversations and that was fun. One thing that really stuck out from the day at the beach was my conversation with Alex (the media and visual arts intern at the camp) about children. Alex and I were standing on the beach watching kids run into the ocean with no fear. The waves were tumbling over them and the water was freezing cold. Even so, they did not care, they continued to run into the water at full speed and it did not faze them one bit. As we watched them, Alex said, “Isn’t amazing how much faith children have?” I thought about it for a bit and then agreed with what he said. It is incredible how much faith children have. They do not think about what might happen, but they just have faith. They do not doubt the situation, but trust the situation. They believe in what they cannot see and go with whatever is told to them. We watched some more and then got into a discussion about this topic. We talked about how we are told to have faith like a child in the Bible and how much faith we lose when we get older. I mean, we should test situations and be skeptical, but when it comes to God, we cannot let our skepticism bring disbelief in Him. Bottom line is: seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing.

Sunday:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24

When I made this deal, this contract, to follow God, I made an agreement to leave my past behind. I promised him by coming into a relationship with him that I would let go of the impure way of life. I no longer would live a life that was not pleasing to him. I no longer would live a life that did not glorify him. I no longer would let unwholesome talk come out of my mouth. I would not longer live in darkness, but I would live in light as a child of God.
This is how I started out my day today. I spent a good time in the Word today and really allowed God to speak to me. It was good to have a quiet time with the weekend already being packed. It reminded me that I need this in order to gather my thoughts before the day begins. Not only to gather my thoughts, but to really have my mind in the right place.
Once Heidi woke up, we headed up to lunch and ate with the boys. As we were sitting there, Daniel looks at me and says, “Want to go jump off a cliff today?” and I respond with, “Sure, why not? I don’t have anything else to do.” After lunch, we jumped in the car and headed to Fish Creek. We hiked up a treacherous one mile trail to this water fall. The trail that we hiked up consisted of rock climbing, normal hiking, and a bit of swimming. It was a sweet hike up and absolutely gorgeous, but at the same time, pretty tough. We had a great time doing it though and it was true team bonding. The way that the guys stepped up and helped everyone out showed true leadership and that was awesome.
We got back and it was time for dinner and so we headed up to have some dinner. Following that, we took a little break before playing Apples to Apples. We finished up the night with some cards and then headed to bed. It was a pretty full and awesome day.