Recap of Camp STEVE

Well so much has happened in the past two weeks since I have written. This is a quick recap of everything that has been going on for Kristin and I.

July 29-Aug 2
Camp Mega-Top ended and I said goodbye to my many equipiers. They all left gradually over a period of about three days. Siljia went back to Switzerland first and the next day Rachel was off to Northern Ireland. Pierre Andrais, Alexia, John Mattieu, et Cecil didnt depart until two days later allowing us all a bit of time to recover after the departure of the others. It was very sad to see the first two girls go, but it was easier because we still had a pretty big group that was hanging out continually. Before John Mattieu left he took me into town and bought me a bunch of french food and NUTELLA. It fits since he began the addiction that he would have to help me find some more since we ran out. We also spent the afternoon at the bus station waiting for Melissa and Becky. The cali group arrived as well as Dana, Mippi, Chad, Laura, and Kelly. It was a super hectic transition, and i miss pierre andrais and alexia a ton! Jeremy sent a message through Andy and his wife telling me to put my pictures online or email them, so soonly i will be putting up the equipier pictures from the past two weeks or so. Cecil and John Mattieu are sooo missed here. It was very hard to watch the parents of the equipiers leave, but they have invited me to visit Paris with them during the coming year, so I know I will see them again soon. Also for Christmas Alexia and Pierre Andrais are coming back to stay at their grandmothers and will visit me! I am soooo excited that I will get to see them again! It is very hard to transition between having this big group and having such a good close friend like rachel to having my friends who i havent seen in so long and becoming a camper in just a few short hours. Luckily i will be helping some throughout this week as i have been taught by john mattieu everything about camp in case anyone has questions!

CAMP STEVE!!!!! Aug 2-11
Camp began really fast. I wasn't even here when the group from America arrived because I was grocery shopping and picking up other campers. Because of this it has been a most hectic day to begin camp. The cali group is amazing. They are very big and bring a lot of energy. I am super excited about working with them in the coming days! I feel bad though that they dont even get a moment of rest before the campers begin to arrive and we go go go again.

This afternoon the guys (Flo, Jonny, Chibo, and Ben) arrived and it was soooo good to see them again. Blain wouldnt let them eat and Mippi wasnt going to tell us they where here despite the bargain we all made that the first person to see them had to tell everyone. I guess they arrived when we were praying in la grange with the cali group. Either way we skipped half of lunch so that we could go and see them! I can't believe a whole year has passed. It is soooo great to finally get to see them! This evening the campers arrived and we had a meeting. It was pretty lo key and I don't really remember that much as I was sooo tired.

It has been really nice to reconnect with eveyone again! I love seeing people that I have been talking to and finally actually get to see! Camp was amazing. We got to hike for two days into the french alps and sent the night in this valley filled with sheep. We had a bonfire and sang around it till super late. Then Alison, Ashley and I headed to try and sleep in this little tent. The two of them where sooo funny, they spoke some random language in their sleep and responded to each other all night long! it was sooo funny to hear! We also had the most horrible bathroom experience ever! Alison didnt want to go alone to the bathroom so we all walked over in a group behind this big rock. Stupid us we should have announced we were there because we walked in on this random dude. Alisons face was worth millions and we all turned and ran. By the time we where all done laughing and talking about how bad it was the whole camp was waiting for us around the campfire! Another awesome thing about the hike was that Dana baptized Chad in this little mountain lake right by our camp. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen. He gave an amazing testimony and we all got to sit on this hill and watch. It seemed like it was taken right from a passage in the bible because the setting was sooo surreal! The hiking itself was pretty easy, as I was in the simpler hiking group, and so we all got to talk and sing a whole lot. PJ and Shaw hated hiking and so they were our constant DJ's and entertainment!

Other than the hike we played thunder ball (dont worry no tables died this time...I restrained myself), a cool photo game, a less cool murder mystery game, and of course did a day hike to les adrais (spelled wrong im sure). That's where we spent the night under the stars for those of you that have heard that story 400 times. It was such a good hike and we got to play a quick game of capture the flag before we turned around and came back down.

One of my favorite parts of camp this year was the seriouse tone. Last year was great because we all joked around a lot. I missed some of the sillyness this year, yet I also loved the more mature side. This led to a lot of deeper conversations and some great table talk. I also appreciated the chapels much more. Worship was unlike any place I have ever worshiped before, different music than last year, but still just as amazing! There are no words to capture the worship services here so this is all I can say....IT WAS INCREDIBLE! The talks where also amazing. I loved one that craig (from cali) gave on patience and love. We also watched a ton of numa videos and the fire one is amazing! I love when God gives a message that touches my heart perfectly at the moment! It was also remarkable to see God's message being shown to some of the campers through the french and cali kids testimonies. It was sooo neat that they addressed some of the very questions being asked at dinner the night before.

I liked that at camp steve we have a lot of free time to just talk and catch up again. We also dont have a curfew so we can all stay up till whenever. One of the first nights we stayed up and watched the stars and chibo played guitar. It was pretty sweet! Despite all of these amazing times I feel like I missed a lot at camp this year. As many of your know I am really bad without sleep. Lets just say I havent been sleeping that much since I got here and that took its toll during camp. It wasnt even the funny emily has wayyy to much energy phase, nope it was the total and complete crashing point. So basically i was listless and out of it until the final day of camp. At least I got one day of energy and I faked it for certain portions. The last day was amazing because I stayed up late the night before with Becky jo's room of french girls talking till wayyyy wayyy early in the morning. It was neat to actually have a conversation with the girls as I feel like its always harder to get to know them than the guys in france. Plus they are freakin awesome! They are sooo funny and made me laugh sooo hard! Anna and Hannah would have loved to talk with these girls. Mabey someday they will come visit me in America and u all will get to meet them too!

Besides that I don't rememeber much. Just a lot of chilling and talking. We played a sweet game Terri made of guessing the bands and than coreographing our own dance. They were sooo good and soooo funny! Anyways theres tons I'm forgetting and sooo many things that I just can't put into words for those of you that didnt get to expeirence it! I guess camp here is one of those things that you dont get unless you see it yourself! It was basically fantastic once again!

oooo and we saw a few amazing thunder and lightening storms. I saw some french cows, a ski mtn in france, went on a couple pretty bad bus rides along the ledges of the french foothills, listened to wayyyy too much abba, become obsessed with coldplay once again and all in all just fell more in love with God and his creation. The theme of steve was nature and noticing life. I think that it was a great theme especially as camp is set in the french foothills and its basically the prettiest place in the world here. My small group with Chad was great and we really got into some deep talks about missing nature and how God is expressing everything through his creation if we only know how to look.

The days after came are never fun. It's hard to say goodbye and its worse when you are staying here. It's hard to switch back to working, yet it does take my mind off the pain of everyone leaving. We've been listening to a ton of fix you and wish you where here and of course catching up with everyone back home after a few weeks of no talking. Basically thats it and theres tons more, but once I've reflected a bit I will add more! God Bless u all and I hope ur having as much fun wherever you are as I am over here.