Rachel's Reflections

I love my three roommates, we've been having a great time and our room looks so homey! We've finished four weeks of classes so far: Genesis 12-50, Cults 1 & 2, 2 Corinthians, Apologetics, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Bible Study Methods. My ministry for this year will be to help out at a church every Saturday/Sunday, starting next week. The Word of Life Quiet Time booklet that I am currently using has two questions: "What is the writer saying?" and "How can I apply this to my life?" The other day I told one of my roommates that I feel like last year my learning was focused more on the first question "What is The Author saying, what do I believe about the Bible, who is God to me? This is a very important foundation, but I have learned recently that I cannot stop there. I must go from there and ask the next question: How can I apply this to my life? God has been specifically pointing out areas of my life that He wants me to work on this year. My

RA training at Word of Life Bible Institute has been amazing so far! We've had classes on things like philosophy of student life, discipleship, leadership, Biblical confrontation, question and answer time, and hearing the staff's testimonies of what the Lord has done in their lives. All of it has been good, instructive, uplifting, and focused on the Lord and even if one was not to get picked for an RA position it's still practical to many different areas of life. Some of it were lessons I learned over the summer as a counselor, but it never hurts to hear it again. Here are some of the quotes that stuck out to me.  "People will be transparent to the point that you are transparent with them." Especially true for a leadership position. Transparency doesn't come naturally to any of us, but it's important when you want to be a spiritual mentor for someone! "Live what you say you believe." We all know what we believe, and often say it to other pe

Finally, sitting comfortably at my home in Michigan, I can reflect on how the last week of camp went. It was a good week with a great group of girls grades 3-5. The only difference this time was the amount of girls we had each day. Sunday afternoon-Tuesday morning was consistent, then we gained a new day camper, and later in the evening we gained a 7 year old girl from a different cabin (our youngest) and our third counselor, who had been home for a funeral. The following morning we gained another day camper, but later a different camper got picked up because of home sickness. On Thursday morning two of our day campers didn't show up and at night one of our girls threw up and spent the rest of the night in the health center and didn't join us on Friday until after all of our day campers had come back and joined us. It was somewhat confusing having a different number of campers every day, especially whenever we would leave a location. I would do the usual head count to make sure

I started the week with 20 lively girls and 3 awesome co-counselors. I started connecting immediately with most of the girls and Monday afternoon had a great conversation with two of the girls about God, living life for Him, things we are looking forward to about heaven, how to share our faith with others, and other things. One of them thanked me repeatedly and said God must have set that conversation up because she really needed it. The other one mostly just listened and I could tell she was processing everything the other girl and I said. Later that night after the gospel presentation she went forward to say she had just trusted in Christ as her Savior along with 7 of our other girls!!! Our God is awesome! :)  Tuesday morning we started going about our regular activities, but then I was told by my Unit Leader, Emily, that I was being switched to a different cabin because one of the counselors was in the hospital. My heart sank a little bit because I had connected so well with my ot

The two that didn't get along well last week were both going to be here again this week and I knew that they had not resolved the conflict between themselves and I wanted them to, so last Saturday night while I was praying I asked God to give me two girls from last week to me again this week, even though that basically never happens and I knew it would be very challenging for me. Sunday afternoon I was called up to get my first camper and guess who it was? Yes, one of the two from last week! I was super excited and told one of my counselors that I had asked God for her again. The other girl was a day camper, so we didn't find out until later that night during roll call that she was also going to be in our group. I grinned and looked at the other girl, who looked back at me with horror on her face and shook her head no. Monday they were actually good with each other, but by Wednesday they were having issues again. I kept talking to them individually throughout the week, but Frid

This last week my two co-counselors and myself ended up with 16 girls ranging from 8-10 years old, but Sunday afternoon started with only one camper. The two of us just sat on the porch of our cabin for and hour and forty-five minutes and spent most of the time talking about God and her family. She loves the Lord and wants to live a life pleasing to Him. She has an amazing relationship with her entire family, and it was really touching to see how she interacted with her older brother during the week. We talked about how she prays for everything, big or little, and sees God answering her prayers (which was a needed reminder for me). Monday night five of our girls responded to the invitation to ask Jesus to save them from their sins. One of them was already saved, but wanted to know how to stop gossiping because she knew God hates it, and the other four became a part of God's family that night. One of them didn't have any previous knowledge of God, what Jesus had done for her,

Fourteen girls, nine white and five African-American, neither group sure what to do with the other group. The nine acting very cliquish because most of them had grown up together to the point where they were excluding the others while the five trying to make friends with them. The nine speed walking everywhere we went, the five strolling slowly along enjoying themselves. The Five were energetic, noisy, and full of life at night but slow as turtles in the morning, and the other half was the exact opposite. This is one of the first things my two co-counselors and I noticed Sunday and Monday about our group of preteen girls. As counselors we wanted to teach the girls to include others so we had them do several different group activities and other things so that by the end of the week they were doing better at talking to each other and making everyone feel more included. Wednesday night, after a dedication service, I got to talk to some of them about what that night meant to them. One o

This week was definitely different from the other two weeks... I didn't know my co-counselor ahead of time, but we seemed to work well together for this week, especially since she was more used to older kids. Having older girls meant we were able to get into deeper conversations  with them, but then we also had to deal with more drama, like having crushes on boys and attitude issues. We had 10 girls, but they were a much more diverse group this week. We had three quiet Asian girls that hung out together, two MK's :) one from Romania and one from South Africa, after Monday night 9 out of the 10 were trusting in Christ alone to save them from their sins, we had two EXTREMELY hyper girls, one in particular was overly crazy at times, one had major attitude issues which one of the other girls didn't know how to handle and that exploded two or three times, and a few of them were wonderful, helpful, and kind. I noticed by Tuesday that they were very impressionable. They would come

This last week was a great week! My two co-counselors and myself had 15 wonderful girls, from 8-10 years old, who got along great, kept themselves entertained when we needed them to, and at least half of them were serious about growing in their relationship with the Lord! They were honestly a big encouragement to me, one of them in particular was really mature and she would come up and ask "so, how's it going?" It felt like I was talking to one of my friends and she really became that by the end of the week.  From the beginning I was determined to pour my energy and love into the girls and because of that they got me to do several crazy things that I wouldn't normally do. One day, in order to be dismissed early for supper, they begged me to do the chicken dance while hopping up and down on one foot in front of the entire dining hall. I attempted to do just that while turning bright red from embarrassment and laughing with my girls, but we succeeded in being next to

Hello everyone, week 1 finished this morning and I get some time off today before the next set of campers arrive tomorrow afternoon. Overall I would say this week was good, yes, there were a few low points, but it was so worth being able to pour into my girls lives spiritually while having fun! My co-counselor, Becca, and I ended up with 7 wonderful girls. It was great to see each of them grow in the Lord and learn to get along. I had the awesome opportunity to talk to one of our girls who went forward Monday night in response to a gospel invitation! She told me that she was choosing to let Jesus be her Savior to save her from her sins. After making sure she understand what that meant I went over a few promises with her and she told me she was so excited. Throughout the rest of the week we saw her growing in maturity and learning what it means to have a personal relationship with God.  Thank you for praying that I would learn to be completely dependent on God. He taught me a few mo

This last week was still prep week before the campers arrive tomorrow afternoon. They kept us very busy with classes in the morning, working in the afternoons, and rally's in the evenings, but it was good. After the information from the morning sessions I feel much better prepared, ready, and excited for counseling! This coming week, starting tomorrow afternoon, I will be counseling eight girls, grades 3-5, with my co-counselor, Becca. She's really awesome and bubbling over with the joy of the Lord and I'm excited to work with her! :) Wednesday night was a very eventful night in two completely different ways... Between the last rally and evening devos I walked barefoot into our bathroom and screamed extremely loud when I saw an enormous spider almost the size of the palm of my hand about two feet away on the ground! It had fat legs, a thick body, and I think it was black and red but I couldn't say for sure because I immediately ran out of the cabin. I had a hard ti

I arrived safely at Word of Life Tuesday afternoon after a long, 14 hour drive. We jumped right into classes like counseling, first aid training, and others. One of my favorites, called Shaping Influencers, helped me understand my role of bridging the gap between the previous generation and the campers that I will have this summer. I will be able to help some children figure out what their role in this world can look like as a Christian, and know better how to connect others with the gospel in a way they can really identify with and grasp.  There will be ten of us girls in our unit and we'll be paired up differently each week to counsel. I have a wonderful unit leader named Emily Hix who will take good care of us and see that we each get what we need to be successful counselors for God this summer. (aka, she'll make sure I get my down, away from people and high energy, time, which might include watching some Sherlock :) ).  I can still see God's hand working and know

Dear Friends and Family, I've been wanting to start a blog to keep everyone updated with what God is doing in my life, and I thought I should do it now before the summer starts so you will all be able to know how things go. I'm hoping I can at least add something small once a week on Saturdays. For those of you who don't know, I will be spending this summer at Word of Life's Ranch Camp in Pottersville, NY as a camp counselor. The Ranch Camp is set up for children in Elementary through Middle School. My job as a counselor will be to stay with a group of kids from the moment they arrive Sunday afternoon till they leave Saturday morning, and then repeat for eight weeks. On top of playing with the kids ensuring that they have a good time, I'll be asked to give devos, share my testimony, counsel children one-on-one who are facing difficulties in their lives, and maybe even be the key to a child's eternal salvation. Beyond that I don't really know what God h