Summit 2013

I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to find words to adequately express what was Summit 2013, but here goes nothing.

To give everyone a little background, for the last four years I've been working with a group of junior high and highschool students in a program called Awana. I have a class of kids that I like to refer to as "my kids". They're juniors this year and they're pretty special to me. In Awana, once you get into highschool there's this thing called Summit where churches from accross the US come together to compete at a national level. Since my kids are juniors this year, this was my 3rd year going on the trip.

What was noticeably different about this year was that it was the first year our group came as Desert Sun instead of Palmcroft Baptist. A situation than nine months ago seemed incredelous has turned into one of the most amazing situations I've ever been blessed to be a part of (even if it was a little reminiscent of a certain camp situation). The sense of unity and pride that our group had in who we are was amazing.
One of the best parts of the trip was the interest that we recieved from the Awana organization itself. We're currently the only church that attends Summit who uses Awana as their primary youth program. We've gained enough attention from people fairly high up at Awana HQ to warrant them wanting to fly out here to check out our club and to send people out here to learn about how we're doing things. That alone makes everything that this group has been through in the last year beyond worth it. In the past I've seen how facing adversity can make a group stronger, but I've never seen a better example of it than I have with this group. You already knew that I thought that they're amazing, but my love for this group just continues to grow.

Now, for the real details. Since last fall I've said that this would be a fun year to get two teams into the Platinum Round of Bible Quizzing for the first time ever. Our quiz day was full of lots of ups and downs (I could write an entire blog post just about that), but at the end of the day we did manage to get two teams into the Platinum Round. We had one Silver Round team, one Gold Round team, and then 7th and 4th in the country in the Platinum Round. All of our teams quizzed well. None of them were the kind of teams who tried to slip through by not buzzing in and just making it above the curve. I always tell the kids that I'd rather answer speed questions and fail to make it to the next round than answer zero speed questions and slip into the next round because of someone else's mistakes.
The Gold Round in particular was probably my favorite of the day because it was a room full of twelve teams that all buzzed in at least once and the questions were solid. There was no crashing and burning by any of the teams. It was just an all around great round of good quizzing. Two of our teams tying for second place in the room didn't hurt either. ;)

Our church has never been the strongest at volleyball or Awana Games, but the kids always enjoy the experience. I actually enjoy volleyball (did everyone just hear me say that?) because it's the competition where I just get to sit back and cheer them on.

As for Fine Arts, I don't think I've ever enjoyed it as much as I did this year. We have a lot of kids with amazing talents and it's fun to get to see them put on display. It's also a wonderful break from the craziness of quizzing and generally running around.

There are lots of little memorable moments of the trip, from the little things that resulted from me getting to drive a rental car this year to some of the individual conversations that I got to have with some of the kids, it was just an all around great experience. When people ask me about the trip the first thing they usually want to know is how my team did. And while it's fun to say that I coached the 4th ranked team in the country...that's not what comes to mind when I think about Summit. It's the little things like those individual conversations with the students, or the deeper level of friendships that occurred leading up to Summit, or the student who blossomed right in front of my eyes during the trip, or the parents that I love almost as much as the kids, or....just all of it. A year from now people will remember things like the fact that we had two teams in the Platinum Round, but what I remember will be far different. And it's those memories that remind me of how blessed I am to be a part of this whole experience.

2013 State Bible Quizzing

My favorite days of the year are always the first day of camp, any day that I'm traveling, days at Summit, and last but definitely not least, the AZ Awana YM state competition. Sometimes I enjoy State more than Summit simply because all of our families are there and I love the community part of it.

I guess if I really wanted to analayze it I would say that I enjoy quizzing more at Summit, but games more at State. Nonetheless, I love it all.

Desert Sun had 6 of the 12 high school quiz teams that competed at State this year and all of them did well. I'm still wondering how many people were sitting there going "Where's Palmcroft?".

6th Place - Desert Sun #6 (State team)

4th Place - Desert Sun #3 (Summit bound team)
4th Place - Desert Sun #1 (Summit bound team)
Caroline and Emily are missing from this picture!

3rd Place - Desert Sun #2 (Summit bound team)
Thomas is missing from this picture!

2nd Place - Desert Sun #5 (State team)

1st Place - Desert Sun #4 (Summit bound team)
Micah didn't compete with us at State, but will at Summit.

I feel immensely blessed and priviledged to get to work with this group of kids, and to be a part of the lives of these families. And despite the fact that quizzing was rather short this year, I am proud of how well all of our teams did with the opportunity they were given. One or two more questions and the order they finished in could have completely changed, so it made the competition aspect of the day a bit more interesting.

A post about games is coming soon!

Letter To My Younger Self

Some of you may have written a letter to your younger self as part of a writing assignment at some point while you were in school. I never was given such an assignment, so I’ve never written a letter like this before. It’s been in draft status for months now, but I finally got around to finishing it. I’m not really sure why I decided to write this letter other than the fact that I’ve enjoyed reading them online in the past. Also, I have watched as my Awana girls walk through their teenage years and have gotten some major cases of déjà vu on numerous occasions. This letter isn’t directed at them, but I’ve always hoped that some of what I’ve been through in my short time on this earth might help them out.


To my 15 year old self,
There are going to be a lot of ups and down during the next decade of your life, and I’m sure for the rest of your life. Nothing that I could say to you at any stage of life will change that, but there are some things I wish I would have picked up on earlier in life.

First, go on a mission trip in high school or college while you don’t have to worry about vacation days and work schedules. It’ll help you gain a better perspective of how God views the world when He looks at it, and you’ll regret it if you don’t do it before graduation.

You’re at the stage of your life where you oftentimes just wish you could already be an adult. And let’s be honest, there are a lot of benefits to being an adult. But you’re going to look back and wish you had enjoyed the stress free life while you had it. So savor it for a bit and know that good things are coming.

You’re putting a lot of stress on yourself to get good grades in highschool. Some people might disagree, but I’m going to tell you that it’ll be worth every ounce of effort because it will pay for your college education, so keep it up. Oh and don’t sign up for honors Calc 1, just take the regular class...you'll have to trust me on that one.

You’re eventually going to realize the value of having good mentors in your life. Watch for a woman who possesses the Godly qualities that you want and ask her to mentor you now, not five years from now. Don’t procrastinate on this. Actually, you should work on your procrastination problem too, while you're at it.

You have a high expectation of what your college dorm experience is going to be like, and what you’re going to get is going to be nothing like what you had hoped for. The same will be true of your first apartment experience, so be prepared for that. Learning how to be a good roommate is something that takes time, and living with other girls who are still figuring that out is going to test your patience. Take the opportunity to practice patience, forgiveness and flexibility. God is going to teach you a lot about who you are as a person through those experiences, and in the end you’ll be thankful for them.

After your second year of college you’re going to have to decide whether you want to take a week off from your internship to be a counselor at camp or not. Make sure to choose camp, it’ll be worth more than a week’s paycheck.

In college, instead of focusing on that grade you get at the end of a semester, focus on becoming a better programmer. Five years out of college you’re not going to care that you got A’s in all of your 400 level classes. You’re going to wish you were better at what you do.

At times you’re going to wonder if you should have more friends than you do. Stop counting the number and invest yourself in the solid friendships that you do have. Beyond that, learn to love other people the way that God loves them. Building relationships and community takes a lot of intentionality.

Learn to work through conflict when it arises, because good friendships aren’t ones that have no conflicts, good friendships are the ones that know how to work through it. Nothing I can say to you now will spare you from learning this the hard way, but being friends with girls is going to be harder than being friends with guys. The earlier you start to face these issues the better off you'll be in the long run.

Learn to cut your frivolous spending your first year of college and life will be a bit easier those last two years. Most importantly, in regards to your finances, learn you think of your bank account as a temporary holding spot for God’s money. The earlier you adopt this mindset the easier life will be.

You’re always going to wonder if you should wear more makeup, or do something different with your hair, or lose a few pounds. The amount of time you spend worrying about these things is going to get you nowhere, so you really should just stop. Either that or decide to take action, but whatever you do, don’t dwell on these things endlessly. Satan will utilize every one of these moments that you give him.

Now, the part that you’re probably wondering about the most. Yep, you’re still single at 25. Luckily the statement you're going make when you're 20 about how terrible it would be to turn 25 and still be single will not be the sentiment you end up having at 25. At 15 you have an image in your head of getting married right after college and having everything wrapped up with a nice little bow on it in your early twenties. Being single at 25 is probably not the option you’d take if you were given a choice, but eventually you’re going to see what a blessing God had for you by giving you the story that He does.
When you look back on those years you're not going to regret a single moment spent pursuing God and His desire for your life, but you will regret the time you waste waiting around for a guy. Make sure to use these years wisely.

Last but not least, read your Bible every day, whether you feel like it or not.

You’re going to live a very blessed life. There will undoubtedly be plenty of ups and downs, don’t forget to take some time to stop and thank God for what you have as you navigate the next ten years of your life. There are some fun twists and turns in the next decade of your life. I hope you're ready.

-Your 25 year old self

Golden West Camp 2012

OK, you guys all knew this blog post was coming. My "scrapbook" wouldn't be complete without a post about camp after all.

I've just recently started to feel like I've fully recovered from camp and it's been nice to spend the last week or so relaxing a bit. I've been majorly procrastinating on finishing my post camp work (think balancing the checkbook, ick), but one of these days I'll get around to it.

Golden West Camp 2012 had its ups and downs like any other year of camp, but at this point it's one of my favorite years ever. There were a lot of things about this year that were unique for me, but there were also a lot of things that were just camp like usual. So without further ado, the list (you had to have known it would be a list, right?):

1) Cabin 12 My wonderful Citation achievers (plus 1) cabin that I was blessed to be the counselor of this year! Aren't they cute?

2) The wonderful blue team.  I hadn't been a counselor on the blue team since my first year as a counselor back in 2006, and I enjoyed being back on one of my favorite colors. This team was by far one of my favorite teams I've ever been on, including my years as a camper. The team jived together amazingly well and I'm proud of their attitudes and teamwork throughout the week.

3) The awesome blue team counselors. The blue team had two first year counselors in JV and I think they both make stellar counselors. It was also Mr Good's first year as a Varsity team captain and he more than rose to the occasion.

4) The weather. Despite the fact that rain has a way of ruining the schedule, I always enjoy a chance to experience a good dose of it. My umbrella was probably the most essential thing I packed that week.

5) Getting to have new counselors like this one come to camp. Working with Kelli DiPietro throughout the year in Journey is already a blessing, so having her at camp was an even better blessing.

6) A bear skit. You had to be there. And even for those who saw it, what they didn't see was the 15 times the girls practiced this before they did it. Or how many times I almost fell off of my bunk laughing at them as they figured it all out.

  7) Theme days. We're still rocking them.

8) Citation achievers. 2012 was one of the best groups of Citation achievers I've seen as a counselor. I'm really proud of what these students have already accomplished and I'm even more excited to see what God does through them in the coming years.

9) Floor hockey. And speaking of those Citation achievers, they play a mean game of floor hockey at 11 PM on the last night of camp. The staff still beat them though. =D

U of A hats year #5

10) Traditions live on. You knew they would.

And last but not least I'll leave you with this picture because these guys are awesome.

A Dozen (or so) of My Favorite Camp Pictures

Something that people always seem to start doing as the countdown to camp gets into days instead of months is look through old camp albums on Facebook. I know I enjoy doing that every year as camp rolls around again. And with the team color assignments arriving in mailboxes today, I think the excitement about camp just escalated. At least it would seem so given the number of excited texts I received today.

I've started using this blog as a way to preserve memories instead of trying to keep up with scrapbooking. Someday I'm going to have thousands of pictures in hundreds of albums and instead of trying to dig through those, I'll have these blog entries. And since I only ever seem to have my camera around for Awana events, that's mostly what I'll have to look back on. =P

I had some time tonight, and I decided to look through my albums all the way back to my first year as a counselor and pick some of my favorite memories.

So without further ado...

(These really aren't in any particular order, but I numbered them anyway)

12) Fun team color day pictures

2008

2009

2011

 11) Waking up in the mornings to find out that a mouse (or something) had been chewing on my flip flops

I loved the teepees. One of the saddest things about not being at Prescott Pines and camp being smaller is that the 6th graders don't get to experience Teepee Village.

2006

 

10) My all Palmcroft cabin
I wouldn't want to have an all Palmcroft cabin every year, but it was a fun experience to have for one year.

2011

9) Counselors having fun after putting the campers to bed
We could stand on opposite sides of the chapel and toss Skittles into each others' mouths. Multiple times in a row.

2009

8) Brianna and the trash can
You had to be there.

2010

7) Getting the opportunity to soak the campers during Friday water events
It really is a bummer that we don't do those anymore.

2007

6) The Lake
Definitely an adventure.

2011

5) The counselors playing floor hockey
Floor hockey was quite possibly my favorite game as a camper. And getting to play it while eating ice cream as other people babysit our campers? Perfection.

2008

4) Amazing fellow counselors
'Nuff said.

2011

3) How long these guys have been around
Don't they look so young?

2007

2) Getting to be a counselor with girls that I grew up going to camp with
Natalie and I met our 6th grade year in Teepee Village and went all the way through camp together. Sadly, the only year we were counselors together was in Teepee Village. Danielle was also in our grade.

2006

2010

1) My first year having some of "my" girls in my cabin

Little did they know what lie ahead.

2009

There are many more memories than I could ever hope to condense into a dozen points, but these are the pictures that stuck out to me as I looked through my albums tonight. And it's crazy to think that after this year I'll have been a counselor for longer than I was a camper!

My Second Family

Sometimes people ask me why I spend so much time being involved in Awana related ministries. Awana eats up a lot of my time and I'm constantly running from one Awana event to the next. So why do I do it, you ask? Because these families have become my second family. I could tell you about how much I love my Awana kids, or about how they've blessed my life way more than I could ever bless theirs, or about how much they've helped me to grow the last few years despite the fact that I'm supposed to be the one who's helping them. I could tell you more about how amazing and talented they are, or about how they're the group of kids that give me hope for the next generation, but I think that all of you already know how I feel about the kids.

What I may not have taken the time to mention recently (or maybe ever) is how much their parents have made a difference in my life the past few years. As my own immediate family has gone through some major transitions in the last 3-4 years, I've found that my Awana families have really become what I consider to be family. I like to call them my second family. Between camp and Summit and just the extended years of working with their kids, I've had the opportunity to get to know most of our Awana families pretty well. I've been blessed by the wonderful examples of what being a wife and a mother looks like from the women who are involved in our Awana circle, either as leaders themselves or as a mom of one of the kids. A lot of them have taken me under their wings in one way or another. I've been invited to spend various holidays with their families, been called an extended daughter, attended numerous kids' sporting events (both to cheer the kids on and to be amused by the parents during said events), been fed lots of meals, and I have a whole group of women on the lookout for my future husband.

A few of the moms

I have a lot of friends who are involved in youth ministries and love their students as much as I love mine, but I've found that this group of Awana families is one of the few environments where you really get to be a part of something with families, not just high school students. I hope that someday I can live up to the example that these women are setting for me, and I'm thankful that God has provided me with the opportunities to be around these families.

When I decided to become a Trek leader a few years ago I had no idea how much that seemingly small decision was going to shape the course of my early twenties. I can look back now and see that God has His fingerprints all over this situation, and for that I'm thankful.

Summit - Bible Quiz Summary

Palmcroft went into Summit this year with a new goal. Not only did we have five quiz teams for the first time ever, we also intended to get all five of those teams into the medal rounds. We'd been practicing since September for this one day, with the hopes that it would be for two days (Platinum round is on a separate day). When the day finally arrived my team did an amazing job in the early rounds and took 2nd in their first room and 1st in their second room and easily advanced. They were calm and collected the entire time and worked really well together. I was more than pleased with their performance.

Palmcroft Baptist #4

Sadly, at the end of the participation rounds Palmcroft only had four teams still competing. But the eliminated team's attitude was positive and they were excited to cheer everyone on and even more excited about coming back next year. Following lunch the remaining four teams dispersed to their assigned rooms for the Silver Rround. After getting my team seated (Palmcroft #4...check!) I was waiting while they called out the other teams in the room. Next thing I know they're calling for another Palmcroft team. None of the other Palmcroft teams were supposed to be assigned to that room, so I assumed they had a mix-up and were wanting one of our teams that had gone to another room. And then it hit us...they were calling our eliminated team. After a long delay with calculations and teams being called and us running around getting all the members of our eliminated team, we found out that there had been some miscalculations. A few teams had accidentally been told that they weren't still going even though they were. All five Palmcroft teams making into into the medal rounds? Check!

Two of our teams got knocked out in the Silver round but I'm incredibly proud of both of them. The one team that we thought had been eliminated got to experience the Silver round and had a great time doing so. I'm really glad that I got to see them participate in that round as it was the first time that day that my team had been in the same room as another one of our teams.

The last round of the day was the Gold round and the competition was down to 15 teams (there were other teams competing the next day, as 50% of the teams compete on one day and 50% compete the next day). It was the toughest round of Bible quizzing that I've ever seen. The teams that were in there were fierce and the buzzing was crazy fast. I was happy to finally get to see our all girls team and our all boys team competing since I hadn't been able to see them in competition yet. Although I am happy that our teams didn't have to face each other early on.

In order to make it out of the Gold round you have to take one of the top five places. The Palmcroft teams placed 5th, 6th, 11th in the gold round. The boys team took 6th place by 10 points. Wanna know which team took 5th in the Gold round? I'm proud to say I was the coach of four amazing students who earned their way into the Platinum round.

As for the Platinum Round...it was also craziness. This year they did a full set of 50 questions for  Platinum which is a format that I like a lot better than the shorter, timed round that they did last year. My team answered all of the multiple choice questions correctly and buzzed in on two speed questions for 40 points each. They would have answered more, but during the second half of the round a few other teams crashed and burned and more or less ruined the rest of the speed questions by buzzing in too early. It was unfortunate that the second half of the round didn't play out better for everyone's sake, but it was a good round of competition nonetheless.

For those of you still reading at this point... my team ended up being awarded 3rd place (in the nation). They kept their cool during the crazy buzzing spree that some other teams went on and did an amazing job. I'm proud of hard they worked, I'm proud of how well they worked together, I'm proud of how well they kept their cool, and I'm proud of their attitudes throughout the entire experience

On the stage during the Platinum round

And now quizzing is over for the year. What in the world am I going to do with all this free time that I now have? ;)

Golden West Camp 2011 = Success

Another year of camp has come and gone. I can't pinpoint all the specific reasons, but I have to say that 2011 was without a doubt one of the best years Golden West Camp has ever had. Oddly enough, I'd say that 2011 was a year with the most controversial curriculum to date, shorter evening sermons, and yet it was a year that had one of the largest spiritual impacts on the campers that I've ever seen. The reason for this, you wonder? I think it was more about individual communication and relationships than intense messages in a large group setting. This isn't so say anything against either of the pastors who spoke at camp this week. They brought the word of God and they brought it well.

But it was the one-off conversations that counselors had with campers and the individual questions that were raised that had an impact in my mind. I wish we'd had more time to deal with individual questions than we did, but I'm thankful for the ones that did get answered. And luckily, with camp being so small in numbers this year I feel like most of the campers have made enough of a connection with counselors that they were able to be ministered to in ways that weren't always possible with a larger camp.

Why do I come back every year?
There are numerous reasons why. One of the reasons that I come back every year is because I've grown attached to the campers that keep coming back year after year. I've built up strong friendships with a lot of them. At this point it's hard for me to imagine what camp would be like without them there.

The biggest reason that brings me back every year is because camp has had an impact on me like few other ministries ever have. Sure, a lot of my love for camp came from the fact that it was just plain fun. I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. But there were spiritual changes that happened in me as a result of camp and friendships that were strengthened through years spent at camp together that couldn't be easily reproduced in any other setting. In fact, a couple of those friendships are still going strong today, partially as a result of our continued devotion to camp.

A few picture highlights of the week...

 Cabin 10 was the best cabin in the whole camp. I consider it a privilege to get to work with girls as amazing as these five are.

There was a lake experience. It was epic (and I have the cuts and bruises to prove it). Better picture coming later.

14 years (of camp) with these guys

At the end of the week the points ended up with the teams finishing in Awana order

We have an amazing group of counselors who provide the best support group that any of us could ask for.

Traditions live on.

Summit 2011

I know this post is long overdue. I originally started writing it by attempting to write out a lengthy explanation of everything that happened at Summit. There's really too much to fit into a blog post and since a picture is worth a thousand words I'm just going to give you guys the high level summaries.

Bible Quizzing
Palmcroft #3 (Danielle's team) and Palmcroft #4 (my team) both made it through two rounds of Bible Quizzing. At that point the 51 teams competing on Sunday were narrowed down to 27 and both teams got eliminated.

Palmcroft #3

Palmcroft #4

Palmcroft #1 and Palmcroft #2 advanced to the Silver Round and ended up in the same room (out of three rooms) for this round. I was excited about that since it meant I was going to get to see Palmcroft #1 during this round (since I planned to follow Palmcroft #2 after my team got eliminated since it was all freshman). And speaking of the freshman team, they pretty much gave me a heart attack in this round. At the break halfway through the round they were in last place with NEGATIVE points. A little too buzzer happy, maybe? Regardless, both teams managed to advance to the Gold Round and were once again the same room (this time because there is only one room at this point).

Palmcroft #1 in the Silver Round

Palmcroft #2 in the Silver Round

After a valiant effort, Palmcroft #1 got eliminated after the Gold Round. Another team that I was really enjoying watching, the bandana team (can't remember where they were from) got eliminated at this point and that made me sad as well. The good news? Palmcroft #2 made it to the Platinum Round making it the 2nd year in a row that Palmcroft had a team in the final round and an all freshman team to boot!

Palmcroft #1 praying over Palmcroft #2

I didn't manage to get any good pictures of the Platinum Round due to the fact that I was videoing but long story short, the all-freshman team took 2nd place in the nation! That's the highest Palmcroft has ever placed and it set the bar very, very high for the class of 2014. Watching "my" kids in the Platinum Round was nerve wracking to say the least. I seriously think I was more nervous than the moms were. Each time they answered a speed question I think I stopped breathing.


Volleyball
I honestly don't remember where our volleyballs teams ended up getting eliminated. Volleyball is a lot more low-key of a competition and I think the kids all just had fun with it. We had three teams and whenever one of them was playing there was usually another one going on another court. I felt like I spent the entire evening running from one court to the next trying to keep up with what was going on. The team made up of mostly freshman made it through quite a few rounds and I watched them the most.

AwanaGames
Palmcroft brought two game teams this year for what I believe was the first time ever.

Palmcroft #1 managed to make it through two rounds before getting eliminated. There are some churches that go to Summit and specialize just in having a game team. I think it's kind of ridiculous and I'm glad that Palmcroft comes prepared to do all the events and that we put a healthy emphasis on Bible Quizzing. Watching the chamionship round in games is pretty intense. 

Palmcroft #1

I got the pleasure of coaching Palmcroft #2 at both State and at Summit. We added one boy and one girl to bring the team up to 12 players when we went to Summit. We had a really, really rough first round where we faced on of the teams that ended up in a champsionship round and as such placed 3rd in that round. In our second round we easily took 1st place and advanced to a third round. We needed to take 1st place in our third round to advance and I'm pretty sure we took 2nd. It was still a good day and I love the kids that I had the pleasure of coaching. 

Palmcroft #2

The best part about trips like these? Getting to spend time with my kids. And like camp, there are always random memories that come out of it.

Anyone remember Brianna and the trashcan?

Now I have Meagan and the ironing board!

I love ALL of these kids like nobody's business!