Camp Life

Reality set in this week. I am leaving in 6 months. I am leaving the comforts of Southern California to pursue living and serving among the poorest of the poor in Lima, Peru. This means leaving many things that have meant so much to me over the last few years. As summer speeds by, it means that I am closing out my time at Forest Home where I learned the beauty and hardship of living in community as well as watched God transform the lives of students as they seek Him. As the fall approaches, I will start my last semester of substitute teaching and saying goodbye to kids that I have watched grow up over the last five years. January will be filled with goodbyes. Goodbyes to people I have known my entire life as well as goodbyes to people who I have just recently met and love.

One of the things I am currently struggling through is grieving things that I will be leaving like working at camp. Forest Home is a special place where last summer I so clearly heard God call me to serve in Peru. I have learned how hard but good it is to live in community and be transparent within a community setting. It is so life giving to have youth pastors pour into me as I serve their students. They have spoken life-giving words in a way that renew my spirit in the midst of difficult weeks or teach me how to find real rest and real joy while doing ministry. God has surrounded me with people that have loved me well this summer. I am so grateful for one young lady in particular who is also being called in to full time missions so we are able to be honest with our fears and anxieties. The conversations I have everyday with my new friends on staff have become such gifts and they are able to encourage me as I process through leaving. I realized how much of a gift time is. I value the rare moments where I can have real conversations with one person in my room while getting ready or while sitting on Tucker porch and watching bloobers fly through the air. I value the friendships I have made this summer as well as the ones that grew from last summer.

I am learning to lean into God's calling and I have full confidence that He will provide for my every need along the way. I am learning what it means to leave well while also enjoying and embracing every moment.

"Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life." Mark 10:29-30