Rachel's Reflections

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