Week 3: Domainia Week

After I ended the last post, there were still some preparatory things to take care of before suburban week (aka Domainia week). Sunday evening they had a foot-washing ceremony. The leadership women washed the counselors feet. It reminded me of Pass the Baton at OU (I still have my baton from that- I keep it next to my bed to remind me of the commitment I made to the movement). Speaking of my commitment to serve Crusade at OU, I'm also going to be discipled for the rest of the project by Erin, who was actually my co-counselor the first week I was here but has moved up to leadership staff since then. We had a really good chat this week; she had some really great advice and encouragement. So I'm looking forward to that. After foot-washing we had a communion ceremony. That was nice, because I feel like I haven't had communion in awhile.

Monday I found out that I was in cabin 6 with Alee. I didn't know her that well, but she was an awesome co-counselor. We worked together well and definitely got to know each other better through the week. Lots of late night chats outside the cabin when the girls were asleep (or at least they were supposed to be). Registration was later that day. We only had 4 girls in our cabin. All middle school age, though one was in 6th grade and the rest in 8th. Three of the girls already knew each other because they went to the same church; two of them were best friends. I was worried at the beginning of the week that the two bffs would stick together and not get to know the other girls better, but they really included the other two well. Also, one girl in the cabin had a learning disability so she was a little socially behind as well, but she grew so much this past week. It was great seeing her come out of her shell and be social and just much bolder than she was when she arrived. She came to all of the dance workshops and gave it her all. It was great. One of the best friends actually was gone a lot (one day for a doctor's appt. about a rash and another for a swim competition), so that helped the other one get to know the other girls, but it was hard to bond as a cabin.

Because it was suburban week most of the kids were pretty familiar with the Bible and the gospel in general. It was hard to find time to get into a deep conversation with any of them about what it means to have a personal relationship with Christ, but Alee and I still did out best to show Christ's love and what a young woman of God looks like. They did comment a couple of times about how much we read our Bibles and pray, so I think that that made an impact on them because they at least noticed it.

Probably one of my favorite parts of the week was running the dance workshop with Lindsey. The kids can choose from a number of workshops in the time between breakfast and lunch, two workshops a day. Lindsey ran the dance workshop last project, but she let me kind of take control of it and make some adjustments. I really wanted to focus more on the idea of praise dance. Lindsey and I choreographed some new praise dances and came up with some questions to give the kids an idea of what praise dance is. It is honestly such a joy to see kids dance for Jesus!! So fun!

Another highlight from the week: I also got my first bee sting ever! I figured that would happen while I was here at camp. It was right in the arch of my foot! It actually didn't hurt that badly, but it kind of itches.

After all the kids left on Friday, we had a debriefing of sorts and one of the leadership men announced that they had a surprise for the girl counselors in the conference room. So we all went up there and found red roses with notes for each of us from one of the guys! How sweet!! The note had this really sweet poem like thing on it about women in God's eyes and then there was a personal note about us. It was so nice.

That night we all went out to Chipotle for dinner! Mmmm! Then we all had to pick up some things from WalMart, and then to the Starbucks nearby. It was a good time off camp. It's nice to just chill and have some good fellowship.

Yesterday I was on facebook for about 3 hours uploaded over 100 pictures from the past two weeks and captioning them. So if you are my facebook friend, check it out. Or get someone who is to log in and show you. After chilling at the pool for an hour or so, we had dinner and went to see the new Batman movie. I liked it. After the movie we had a late-night pool party. I was tired, but it was fun anyway.

Some more notes from the week: I really feel God building a servant's heart in me and showing me what it means to be a servant leader, which is pretty sweet. Also, my prayer life has gotten a lot better. I've been really working on being in prayer continually and trying to be truly walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Well, momentum kids come today and the urban campers come Tuesday. I'm in Cabin 1, so I get the youngest ones. I'm not sure how I feel about that right now, but with momentum to help us it should be okay.

That's all for now!


In Christ,

Audrey