Summer Recap

This summer was beyond crazy but one of the best summers I've ever had! It went by super fast but I loved every moment! I got to meet some great people and had so much fun at staff training! I had the privilege of working with five incredible teams of counselors at five great churches! I also got to go to New Orleans for a week to serve at the ELCA National Youth Gathering and I am so thankful for that experience! In addition to camp and the Gathering, I went to two weddings! The first one in June was two friends from school so I got to see a lot of Biola friends and it was so fun! At the end of July, my friends Stephanie and Jeremy got married and it was so fun to be in their wedding!! It was a packed summer and filled with so many memories!
One of my favorite weeks definitely had to be when I got to work at Solheim Lutheran Home in Eagle Rock. I had a great team and we got to sing and do crafts and Bible Studies with old people all day! We had lots of adventures in LA too and so much fun and many memories! It was great to return to some churches that I worked at last summer and see campers I love!
I am so thankful for the opportunity to work at camp and be a part of such a powerful ministry! I hope and pray that next summer I am able to work!
This is my last post on this blog until next summer..be sure to stay up to date on my school blog at http://thesearethedaystoholdonto.blogspot.com/ (that is if I find time to update it!)

~Amanda

Newport Harbor

I got to spend my last week of camp by the beach! It was GREAT!!! I had so much fun with a small team of three counselors and only 8 campers! Newport Harbor Lutheran Church is the church where Pastor Brad now serves and it was so great to spend some time with the Stienstras!!! Their grandkids, Kylie and Noah, were staying with them for the week and attending camp. Johna was there on Sunday and it was so fun to spend time with her! The U.S. Open was going on in Huntington this week so on Monday night we went down to Ruby's on the Pier. It was so fun! And good! (They have gluten free burgers!) We stayed with an adorable and quite amazing couple, Pat and Marge. They are an older couple and it was so fun to listen to them talk about the places they've lived and travelled to. Marge made up breakfast every morning and had stuff for us to make our lunches each day. We all got our own rooms and beds and it was great! We watched the Olympics each night with them and ate the best food! Newport was a great place to end the summer. It was low-key, the kids were good and had fun, and the weather was wonderful! I'm so thankful for the Stienstra family and I'm so glad I got to spend time with them and at their church:)

Salem!!!!

Sorry for the delay in the updates on my last two weeks of camp. The end of the summer was insane for me! After my adventures in New Orleans and the airport, I got to go to one of my favorite chuches, Salem Lutheran in Glendale! Disa and I got to stay at Grandma Lee's house for the week! We had almost 60 kids this week and it was HOT HOT HOT! We had to try and keep the kids in a lot. This week I got to work with first graders and it was great fun:) They loved listening to me play guitar! It brought me such joy:):):) We got to eat Persian food, go to the LA Farmer's Market, hang with Pastor Sarah and her new baby (the coolest pastor around!), and spend time laughing with the ever so sassy Julie! Julie was our church contact and she is so much fun! She took us to Wendy's for frosties and french fries one night! It was a blast! I got to work with an excellent team as well. We had six people this week. We laughed and sang the Pasta Song A LOT! We also had an adventure in the three story Target in Glendale! On top of a crazy week with what seemed like a million kids, one of the counselors had a broken nose. During his time off on the weekend prior to day camp at Salem, he took a baseball to the nose. So he went to the doctor's a couple times while we were in Glendale that week and I got to take him one afternoon when they rebroke it and put it back in place and put a brace on it. I felt so bad for him! But he's tough and was a trooper. We watched a lot of movies and had so much fun at Salem! I can't wait to work there next summer! They've already reserved the last week in July for next summer:)

Sprinting through the airport

I'm so happy to be home!!! I love the state of California and I'm very glad to be back:) and so excited to be back at camp! I missed it!!! Getting home was a tad crazy but an adventure nonetheless! Our plane was late getting into New Orleans which meant we our flight was late getting out. Our original connection was only 30mins and we were a tad worried but when we heard our plane wasn't scheduled to land until 8:50pm and our connection was at 9:11 we were freaking out! They said we would have to stay in Houston overnight because the flight to CA that we were supposed to be on was the last one out for the night. I was not about to stay in TX overnight and miss the first day of camp! So when our plane landed in Houston we had to go pretty far but Disa and literally ran through the airport with our backpacks on! Disa said it was a good thing we were wearing our running shoes:) we just made it into our plane and they closed the doors behind us! I can't believe we made it it I'm so thankful we did! It's good to e home and at camp this week at a great church I love!
California girl through and through,
Amanda

A stroll in the park...and the RAIN!

Today was a great day! I got up early, hit the gym, went to another hotel to get some of their free breakfast and then headed to meet some friends before going to the Garden District. We got day passes for the street car and were planning on a beautiful day touring uptown New Orleans. Well instead we experienced one of the scariest thunder storms any of us had ever been in..while on a cable car! The rain started the minute we boarded the first trolley. So we ditched our shoes right away and put on flip flops..good thing we brought those because we walked through puddles almost up to our knees! After a beautiful but scary and wet ride to the Garden district during an intense lightening storm we got off and had a delicious lunch at a little Mexican food place. There was an exotic ice cream shop the girls wanted to try and it was a lot farther than we thought. This was the part when we got off the street car at the beautiful and flooded park thinking we were only six blocks from it. It was definitely not six blocks! We finally found it and were soaked and very soggy! We had lots of laughs and fun times today on the street cars and city buses as well as being the only fools walking around in the rain. All the local stores were out of ponchos and we had 3 umbrellas for the four of us. When we got back downtown we wanted to shower and nap but that didn't happen because of the insanity with youth groups trying to get about the town in the pouring rain. I planned on staying down at the hotel where we've been working evening events but there was too much craziness I had to trek back across town to my hotel where we had pool furniture being thrown in the pool and the fire alarm going off! Sadly I didn't get to go back to the big hotel for evening events because we thought it'd be best to have some people stay at our hotel to make sure things were under control with the crazy weather . Things are mostly good here now. Some exhausted youth and some wild ones. I'm currently doing floor sweeps and updating my blog! I love this app!
Tired from a long but great day,
Amanda

Wisconsins

Today all our youth groups arrived! My team was sitting in the lobby of our hotel from 9-6 anxiously awaiting their arrival! Most of them drove 28 hours and had been on a bus since yesterday morning! They were hot and tired and ready for a shower! It was so fun greeting them all as they got here! Some of their rooms weren't ready so I pulled out some of my camp counselor skills and played games with them and entertained them for awhile! I was telling them I worked at a camp in CA and they asked which one and they actual knew what El Camino Pines was and made a trip there last summer to do work projects and help!!! Crazy small world! It was great meeting everyone and I'm looking forward to working with them this week!
Lovin the Wisconsins,
Amanda

Calm Before the Storm

Tonight was the opening night in the Superdome! It. Was. Awesome. When we were in there we heard thunder. I was a little worried on our walk over there bc it was getting cloudy and looked like the sky might open up and dump buckets but hoped it would come pass and be over before the evening session let out. Well...it started about 8pm when I left the dome to head to a hotel for community life events. The rain started and came and came and came. I just kept walking and got soaked despite the umbrella I had. All the Gathering participants had to stay in the Superdome until the storm let up a little bit! It was crazy. When I finally arrived at the hotel across town I was drenched and cold. But I instantly met three girls who are awesome! Their names are Alisan, Sarah, and Adrian. I get to work with them every night this week! We like to hashtag:) We got to have a whole 'fun zone' (lots of bounce stuff and a DJ) to ourselves for a little bit! So fun! Once the Superdome was released we had a lot of kids at the hotel looking for dances and events so we dealt with a lot of sopping wet kids who were barefoot and the hotel did not like that! However, due to the storm we didn't had nearly as many as expected. I definitely see the storm as God's grace upon the Community Life team because it meant we could have a little practice run and a lighter night figuring out how to shuffle youth and people through the hotels and to events. So we like to describe tonight as the calm before the storm of 3000 kids in a hotel late at night that we know we will have to deal with tomorrow. God is good and I'm so thankful for this opportunity! He has also provided another cool opportunity for me tomorrow! At 6am I get to take 3 kids from a cross country team running! They don't want to mess with their training schedule while they are here so a girl on my staff volunteered me and of course I agreed! I warned the kid that it's been awhile and I definitely am NOT a cross country runner! Not sure what I'm getting myself into!! I just finished rounds to make sure everyone was in bed and being quiet. Off to bed!
God is so good,
Amanda