God Is Still With Us

I drove back down to LA on Wednesday, after helping them get started at camp, with the first two days of Week 1.  I spent the rest of the week preparing the gear we needed for the week long shoot, and shipping it out to Fort Campbell in Kentucky.  Friday evening, once again there was a change of plans at the last minute, and while the shoot was still on, the shooting crew was cut in half for budget reasons.  As soon as I found out that they weren’t taking me with them, started getting ready to go back to camp.  I drove back north on Saturday, completing my shortest trip to LA.

 

I arrived at camp without telling anyone I was coming back early and headed directly to the lodge for the Sunday afternoon staff meeting.  I was right on time, but none of the leadership was there, so they hadn’t started yet.  Nate walked in a few minutes later, and seeing me leaning against the wall, hurried over to see me.  “Hey, do you want to be a counselor this week?”  “No.  But I will, as long I get to pick the cabin.”

 

There were only two options at Wild Oak, a cabin of eight younger kids, and a huge cabin of ten older kids.  I of course opted for the older cabin, but ten is a huge number of campers, my largest group ever.  I recognized about half of the names, and a few of them had been with me the year before, so it was a good reunion of some of my favorite campers.  With a total of eleven of us, there weren’t enough beds in any of the regular cabins, so I was stuck in the tent cabin for the first time, which actually went fine.  It was one of my most tiring weeks in my career at camp, but it was a good one.  That was definitely my last cabin, but it was a great one to end on.  I was pretty beat by the time they got picked up on Friday.  I was in the dinning hall when Superstar came in, and asked how my cabin had been.  “It went well, but that was my last cabin.  I am getting too old for this.”  Just then Champ walked in behind her.  While I had been supervising ten high-schoolers, she had been counseling a cabin of only two primary campers.  “I take that back.  If you give me a cabin of two campers, I will be a counselor again.”  They never did, and I am okay with that.

 

Nate later told me that my unexpected arrival Sunday afternoon was much more significant than I had realized.  They had ended the leadership meeting without a solution to staff all of the male cabins, and he had been heading to staff meeting without a plan.  After having constantly waited more than usual that summer for the Lord to provide, it seemed like God was really coming up short that time.  So seeing me leaning against the wall of the lodge waiting for him, had reassured him that God was still with them, and that things were well taken care of in the Lord’s hands.