Etc.

I started working at the Salvation Army Northwoods Camp this week. I’ve spent most of my time there this week. Mom works in the kitchen there, so we can go to a from there with each other. This is their first year of holding summer camp so things are pretty disorganized. It’s only a few miles from our house! I feel a little guilty cause it’s like I’m betraying Grindstone where I’d been a loyal camp counselor for five years! It’s all good. You’ll never guess what position they’ve given me at Northwoods. I’m the camp nurse! It’s so funny. I’m the least qualified person to be the nurse. All the counselors and staff there were required to take a 3 hour first aid course. Now the only person without experience or training is doing the job! All I’m really doing is taking care of the campers’ meds. If anything really serious were to happen there are plenty of people I could ask, including an LPN who’s helping out in the kitchen. The Lord has such a sense of humor to open up this position for me. I’ve yet to see what his purpose in it is.
It’s been good to be home, but sadly I’m quickly forgetting about China almost as if it was simply a dream and not reality. I don’t want to forget it, but I feel so strangely about talking about it. I haven’t talked about it much, cuz I’m asked very few questions about it and I feel like people are tired of hearing about something they could never truly share with me. So I just let it go, and with it go some memories. Sad! I’ve got to get over that and just talk. There’s other things I’ve got to get over. Here comes the part where you learn more about my issues. In China I’m the cool foreigner who can do no wrong, so I feel very comfortable to talk and initiate friendships and be myself. But when I’m around these crazy American’s I shut down. What’s the deal? Jesus, free me from the fear of man! Seriously.
I’ve finally started to be able to breathe lately. Allergies be gone! Since I’ve started to sleep in the tent I wake up without sneezing and going through a box of klenex. It’s awesome. It even rained buckets last night and I slept right through the storm.
I’m enjoying going out into the field with my Dad and Grandpa and watering the baby apple trees. In the next few years I’ll have to learn to start calling it the orchard. There’s about 40 trees out there. And then there’s the raspberries and blueberries to pick. It’s really good for me to be here. I must apologize to all my friends whom I love dearly who haven’t heard much from me since I’ve been home. I just haven’t felt ready to be entirely social quite yet. August is my designated friend month. I am planning a Tour de Amigos. Then in September I am off to start something new in North Carolina.
I admit its been a struggle for me spiritually since I’ve been home. Being so secluded and disconnected from a church body for so long had really dried me out. It’s been so hard for me to keep up with every one here. The first couple weeks home I started to get really angry with God as I compared myself to others and where they were at with the Lord. But He’s slowly getting to me, teaching me that I’m in a different place and it has nothing to do with any one else. And the big picture is, it’s not about me. It’s so elementary, but for where I am right now, it’s like hearing it for the first time and it’s hard. Please pray for me as I press on and let the Lord gently draw me back into fellowship.