L.A. in a P.T....and no, I did not meet Britney

So, yes, I made the fantastic 25 hour trip to L.A.  It was amost crazy adventurous time in those few hours, let me just tell you.  And to my utter surprise and misfortune due to stupid rental car place....I was CRUISIN' the town!  Basically, my trip was one thing going wrong after another, (if you want details, ask) but still very fun and amazing and great...very glad I went and I of course did not want to go home...vacation is very fun, even if it's chaotic and short.  I had a few hours during the day of the wedding, so I just drove around.  I went from Jen's apartment in Torrens, up to Hollywood, through Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica, back down and then over to the wedding in Fullerton, and back to LAX.  Let me just tell you that I HATE CALIFORNIA TRAFFIC!!!  Well, at least Friday afternoon rush hour in Los Angeles county....gr.....it finally ended up with me being late for the wedding!  Once there, a fun time was had by all...it was a fun and beautiful ceremony..made me laugh and cry and the reception was stunningly beautiful and Christ centered....it brought this thinking to mind....when I got on the shuttle back to the airport, the driver (who had taken me all over the night before) asked about the wedding and commented that I was not wildly "drunk and all up on" him.  I stated, "well, it was a calm wedding."....How amazing that attending a wedding where the couple is focused on Jesus and serving God together and being bound in Him, and time is spent in worship and praise of the Savior....it is so fulfilling and a special experience for all who attend because it is glorifying to God and that's what matters.  Some may take "dull, religious" weddings as a bore and they look to the booze etc. to have a good time.  How much more wonderful when we find our joy in Christ!!!!! 

Last week at camp, there were a couple hours where no full time staff were on the grounds....therefore, Bill was the top dog...in honor, we named the camp after him...    Just wanted to share those shots!!!!

a lil catch up

I really did write a post earlier this week...and then I had to go drive the tubing boat..well, actually, I didn't because we forgot to put the sign up out, but I realized the post disappeared when I came back. So I realize that this is an incredible amount of time in between posts. :(
Well, Tara is okay...we had a long day on that Wednesday. We got up early to get to Crosby by 8am...spent some time there ...not fun...the doctor was rude to her, then finally he said, "I think you have some bleeding back there." (yup, we already knew that, right?) "I want to send you to a retina specialist in ST. CLOUD!" So we had to drive right away another hour or so to St. Cloud. This guy (who had Harvard and other pretigious eye person certificates up the wazoo!) checked it all out...dialated her eyes again, and took pictures and finally told us that there are some contusions (bruises) in the retina and a couple of tiny little holes. So right away he had to do laser surgery. That was painful plenty as if the whole experience wasn't painful enough. She was a tough cookie and I wanted to cry while it happened. So that was finally done and then we ended up deciding that Tara would fly home to Tennesee for a couple days, so we drove down to Mpls, and spent the night at my house before she flew out in the morning. She has been back at camp now for a week and doing just fine. We have to go to a check up appointment on Wednesday of this week, so it's not fun to leave, but I know the appointment will be fine.
This last week of Junior High was kind of a long one. I was very very very busy doing things all over the place and I never got to do all of my office work. I was driving campers all over during activity times....there was one who used a wheelchair, and by the end of the week there were...um...two campers and two counselors that had been using crutches!!!! Only one of them was for more than a day or few hours though. I had a hospital run and a clinic run. And there was one camper who was dealing with issues and nightmares that kept me, her counselor, her whole cabin, two other counselors, and the camp pastor up till 1:30 one night, 3:00 the other!!! And this was only the beginning....there were your typical, homesickness, attitude and behavior problems, etc. I had to be reminded this week that the enemy is real. And he is fighting us. He knows that we are doing the work of the Lord and he knows how to make himself present in the small ways and the mighty ways. He knows how to discourage us, to freak us out, to wear us down, distract us. But we are at BSC declaring the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!!! The battle is His and He will win it. :-D Despite the struggles that I saw and the business that occupied my mind and heart, God used our speaker Steve and our staff to speak powerful messsages to the kids and adults that were here. He focused on many important aspects of faith such as knowing Jesus, making Him the center of your life and sharing Him with others. I know that in cabin talks, many tough questions and issues were addressed and the kids went home with a deeper understanding of having a relationhsip with the Savior.....I may often say that a day or a week was long or hard or stretching, but you will never hear me say that it was bad. Every minute of every hour of every day of every week for the whole summer is a moment that God is present....therefore, every week is AMAZING! :)