Week 4

Updates as promised.

Week 4: York, Nebraska.
Fan-freaking-tastic.  I sadly have no pictures to show from this week, but for a good reason I suppose.  I was so completely invested in this awesome community that I never got my phone out to snap any photos.  My host parents, Pastor Terry and Jill, were pretty darn incredible.  Once again, they were one of those couples.  It was impossible to leave their house as the same person.

They were an older couple, and their love for each other was so precious and inspiring.  Sometimes I think I know what love should look like, then I meet an incredible couple like these two who show me that I should never settle for anything less.  That I should be with someone who still looks at me the same way 50 years later.

Not only was their relationship with each other precious, but so was their relationship with God, with their congregation, and with these two strangers whom they welcomed into their home.  Every morning they would make us breakfast, and wait for us before eating so we could share our meal together and do devotions before starting our day.  They made the best breakfast too--sadly I forgot what they called this delicious creation.  It was a bowl full of dry oatmeal, plain yogurt, apple and banana slices, chopped almonds, raisins, and wheat germ.  Mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Besides Terry and Jill, I got to spend the week with a wonderful, wonderful counselor, Caitlyn.  She and I bonded a lot and worked really well together.  I am so thankful she was sent with me to York and I look forward to continuing our friendship.

Now the campers--the campers were the most polite and well-behaved children I have ever had in three years at camp.  You don't always get that at day camp.  Sometimes the kids at day camp have known each other their whole lives, they are in the same class, on the same baseball team, go to the same babysitter, etc.  So they know each other a bit too well and are sick of each other.  Not these precious children.  They got so into Bible study that we would go over time every day.  How cool is that?

One girl I will always remember is Hannah.  Hannah wears a back brace for scoliosis and was very shy at the start of camp, and couldn't participate in a few activities because of the brace.  She never said she couldn't do things because of her brace, though, she just sat there quietly and said she didn't want to play.  One day, I sat with Hannah at lunch and started asking her about her brace.  I told her that I had to wear a back brace all through high school.  As soon as I mentioned this, she broke out of her shell.  (Funny, because her friends call her a turtle--the brace being her shell.)  Let's just say she opened up.
The first things she asked me:  "Did your pants always fall down?"  "Did your mom have to tie your shoes?"  Yes and yes, kiddo.  It gets better.  The next day, her mom thanked me for making Hannah feel comfortable in her brace.  Mentally comfortable that is.  It is next to impossible for those things to be physically comfy.  Hannah even wrote a rap about her "shell" and shared it with me and we had a special little bond the rest of the week.

Overall, York was fantastic.  Too good to be true, almost.  I am so incredibly grateful for the blessing these people have been in my life.