Pictorial Recap of Saranac

I took well over 1000 pictures during the week at Saranac. With editing, I whittled that down to a cool 400 on my computer. I decided that only 370 NEEDED to go onto Facebook. I will try to
keep it to my top 20 or so on here.

Yes, black t-shirts are back in style. So is fluorescent lettering. Large fluorescent lettering.

I designed these shirts myself and felt like a fool wearing it the whole week. But my cabin LOVED them.
So did guys. Also...the girls wanted MEDIUMS instead of SMALLS. Gasp.

Ah young love. Does it get any cuter?

We were pretending to be on the cover of Teen Vogue. Yes, yes we were.
Thank you Hills for giving me ANY references that make sense to 15 year-olds.

Classic High School Musical Shot.
One girl from my cabin was chronically missing from EVERY picture from the week. I just couldn't find her, ever.

Well, you can guess how the ropes course went.

Doesn't it make you want to be back in high school again?
Wait, don't answer that.

So stinkin' cute...you know they get in trouble ALL THE TIME.

I cried when we left Saranac this time.
I don't know if we will go back next summer.
It was like saying goodbye to my high school self and my memories.
It has been like opening an old wound to return there and be healed.
What a gift these last three years have been to me.

About 15 girls from Asheville stood up at Say-So and proclaimed that they had given their lives to Jesus this week.
I cried buckets of tears.
I have prayed for Young Life at Asheville High since I moved to Asheville nine years ago and I was blown away by seeing how mightily God has moved there this year. After all this time. Amazing.

Yep, they are only 15 years old. I don't think they come any more beautiful than this.

Oh great, it does get prettier.
It definitely makes a mom of two kids in her 30's feel awesome about herself to hang around these girls.
Let me just tell you.

We managed to get the sunset parasail on the last night of camp. It was gorgeous! The light was amazing and the girls had a great time; except for the fact that they spent two hours straightening their hair and doing makeup to then go do this. But they forgave me. Maybe.

We brought 75 kids to Saranac-all first timers! It was a great trip and we are so excited to see what happens in the next year and the rest of these kids lives due to what happened this week.

But of course, a great reminder that kids are still hiding so much.
From themselves, from us, their parents and from God. We love them and they still hide. There is nothing that holds us back from God and each other like fear does.
Pray that walls would continue to fall even now that we are home.
We are in it for the long haul and we need endurance!

Was that a Barrel Around His Neck?

A lot of times when you are leaving to go to YL camp for a month, all kinds of disasters might strike. Sometimes you don't find out until you get home what they were. (One year, we came home to a rotten bag of potatoes that liquified. I still gag at the thought of how they smelled). Sometimes they happen minutes before you leave town. Thankfully, we haven't had anything like that happen just yet to US.

But on our team, Bryan and Lindsey Hancock experienced a day that made me so grateful that they took the hit for all of us. On Thursday morning, the Hancocks were hosting a preschool end of the year party at their house (Of course! Why wouldn't you HOST a party for 15 preschoolers and their parents right before leaving town for the month? This is why we are friends) So they had all of these kids and parents at their house. They also were dog sitting Bryan's sisters St. Bernards. That's right Bernard'S. Two of 'em. One of them is rather old and a bit cranky.

He was freaking out at all of the chaos at their house and Bryan went outside to calm him down. He was settling the dog when he just latched onto his forearm and would not let go. The only way to release his grip on Bryan's arm was to hit the dog. So two quick punches to the skull and the dog went on his way.

Bryan was also on his way to the doctor's office to get 19 stitches in his arm.

On his way to the doctor's office, he called his sister to give her the news. She asked him to get the dog put down due to his violent tendencies. So, before leaving town for the month...Bryan and Lindsey needed to 1) pack their three kids and house up. 2) clean the house from the preschoolers party and 3) put a dog to sleep.

Bryan agreed and once he got home he loaded a shotgun into his car. Yep. That's how the dog was going to be "put to sleep". And then he made his way out to the dog pen where he found the St. Bernard was already dead. Sweet.

It is pretty much assumed that he killed the dog by the blows to head. Either that or the dog has rabies.
So now add to the list, get the dog to vet so that he can get autopsyed and get a major dosage of antibiotics for the open wounds on Bryan's arm; oh, and get arrested for killing a dog. (just kidding about that last one)

So when Bryan and Lindsey rolled into camp at 2am on Friday morning, they were pretty exhausted. Yay-it wasn't us this year!!!

Tuesday

Camp has been going really smoothly this week. We are already on Day 4! That means that camp is over on Thursday :( and we will head back to the east coast on Friday. We will spend a few days resting and getting our legs underneath us before heading back to Asheville early next week. It is hard to believe that our month here is almost over! A ton has happened here and we feel so priviledged to have been here. We have really made good friends with all of the people that are here with us, but one family has really loved on us well. Brett and Kim Allen have three boys and a girl and all of their kids have fallen in love with Asher and he would proabably go home with them if we let him! Here are some pictures from this week:

Fun days

These last few days at camp have been fun as Asher is as equal if not a more well-known celebrity than Matt is. I am pretty sure that every girl in camp would take a picture with him if they could. Every guy in camp can not believe his athletic prowess as he dribbles a basketball, soccer ball and throws a frisbee 20 yards now. You would think that all we do it play sports with the kid...oh wait-that is true. I mean, he has to pay his own way through college since we clearly can not afford it!

On the Road Again

Matt and I left with a busload full of high schoolers at midnight last night and headed north.

We stopped for breakfast outside of Baltimore, MD and then on to Philadelphia by lunchtime. We arrived in downtown Philly to take a quick run up the steps that Rocky made famous in one or all of the Rocky movies.



Then we went to a downtown market to eat lunch. I stood in a line for over an hour to get a Philly Cheesesteak.I mean it was good and all, but seriously, does it really take an hour to make cheesesteaks?





Then we checked into the hotel and ran off to the Philly/Tigers baseball game. Matt and the boys all took off their shirts and painted themselves with ketchup all in hopes of getting on the giant video screen, they never did. But it was hilarious and all of these serious Philly fans were not very excited to have a group of guys standing up and singing for the last four innings. But the Philly's won and so all ended well. We just got in and you know that this trip has made high schoolers tired because, it is 10:40 and all of the girls in my room are getting ready for bed!



We leave at 6:30am tomorrow and drive for seven-to-eight hours tomorrow to get up to Lake Placid to go to YL camp on Saranac Lake!

We are tired, but fired up to get there. To see more pictures so far, check out the flickr link!