Home is Where the Heart is

As much as I’ve considered Donaldson house my “home” this summer, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed actual home until I moved back. I’m very blessed to have such a close family, and it was awesome to have the whole family under one roof, even for just a few days…and what a busy few days they were!

My sister’s wedding was this past weekend, so I was welcomed into a state of near chaos and frantic list-making. I came home only to discover that since my departure in June, my room had been transformed into the “wedding room.” Meaning, I had Mindy’s dress, veil, my mom’s dress, two boxes full of vases or candles or something, several artificial flowers, and two very large decorative wreaths…which I don’t think were even used in the wedding (but don’t worry, I’m not bitter). For those of you who don’t know me, I like things to be organized, and I like getting settled in. I couldn’t handle living in the “wedding room”–I needed to unpack, and I couldn’t even open my dresser drawers! Thus, I promptly removed the wedding paraphernalia to the hallway. Problem solved.

Despite my grief about my room not remaining a shrine dedicated to me, it felt so good to be home. My mom, sister, and I got to go to the mall and get our makeup done. (This isn’t something we normally do, but we wanted ideas for the wedding). If you’ve never gotten your makeup done at the mall, it’s an experience. I was made to feel insane because I didn’t exfoliate my face or use toner. What the heck is toner anyway?! It was fun nonetheless, and my mom bought me a lip gloss so it’s all good.

One of the things I’ve learned through the whole wedding planning process, is that girls are never too old to want to play “dress up.” Mindy tried on her wedding dress every chance she got. And, to be honest, I tried on my bridesmaid dress probably more than was necessary. So, when we got home, my mom, Mindy, and I had a dress up party in the hallway:-) [In my family, we don't take very many normal pictures.]

Friday was the rehearsal. We got to the church early in the morning to set up for the wedding. I can’t rightfully say I helped with the decorations though. I was busy making ugly fake bouquets for the rehearsal out of all the bows from Mindy’s showers. Mine was America-themed.

Anyway, the rehearsal went smoothly (my dad did the ceremony) and the dinner was absolutely delicious. I could tell this was going to be a great wedding already.

None of us slept well the night before the wedding. Mindy was just too excited to sleep, and I was anxious about all the things I needed to get done. See, I had to do my own hair and several of the bridesmaids’ hair, my mom’s makeup, AND the bride’s makeup…so I couldn’t screw up or her pictures would be ruined. Talk about pressure! Long story short, everyone’s hair and makeup turned out perfectly, so it was worth the sleep-deprivation.

I don’t think the wedding seemed real to me until I saw my dad walk Mindy down the aisle. I feel like I cried the whole wedding. Don’t worry, it wasn’t all sad crying–Kyle is a wonderful guy who I’m very glad is in our family. I do think, however, I ruined several of Mindy’s pictures. Not everyone can be cute when they cry…

The ceremony was beautiful. It was good to see how a marriage can really bring everyone together. I got to see family and friends I hadn’t seen in forever. I got to get to know Kyle’s family even better. It was wonderful to see how well our families got along! Everyone there was just so supportive of Mindy and Kyle–it was truly just a happy wedding (even though many people cried…weird how we cry even when we’re happy, isn’t it?)  [This is a picture of my brother and sister on the big day!]

I’ll leave you with two words to describe the reception: dance party.

Since the wedding, we’ve all been recuperating. My parents are camping right now, and I decided I wasn’t going to go back to my job here. It’s a present I gave to myself for all the hard work this summer:-)  As much as I like being busy, it’s nice to be a bum for a short while. I’ve been able to catch up on sleep, spend a day in Chicago, spend time with friends from home I haven’t seen all summer, and wash my car–which I’m almost certain hasn’t been done in over a year (I blame Mindy).

It’s certainly been a busy and exciting summer, but I think I’ll be ready when the school year starts. As much as I love real home, I think Bethel is becoming a little piece of home too.

Well, camp has been over for a couple weeks now, but the memories are still vivid.  Prairie Camp was, in a word, awesome. I don’t want to ramble on, so I’ll try to make this as short as possible while still capturing the amazingness that was Prairie Camp.  (And yes, “amazingness” is a word).

My Cabin

I’m used to working with junior highers, so I was a little nervous when I first found out that I was going to be the counselor for juniors and seniors in high school. I felt intimidated because I’m not that much older than them! Plus, I was told I’d have 11 campers and no co-counselor, so my fears were heightened. But then at registration the next day, I met my campers and all my uncertainty seemed to melt away.

I was truly blessed with the girls who were in my cabin. They just had such a desire to know more about God and to live a God-honoring life. It was truly awesome to get to know about their pasts and just see how far some of them have come. I saw so much growth in them even in the short week we had together!

My Challenge

I was told that counselors weren’t allowed to have cell phones at camp. Only then did I realize how very attached I am to my cell phone. At my first camp, I got extremely homesick, and needed to call friends and people at home (during free time) for comfort. However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would probably be a very good thing for me to give it up for a week. There was stuff that I simply didn’t need to be thinking about while I was at camp, and having people call me would distract me. I really wanted to focus on what was important, and it was a good growing experience for me.

The Games

Adam and Esther were the activity directors at camp–and they were definitely creative. At camp, I was introduced to slip and slide kickball, capture the flag (involving water balloons), and something called a flash mob. For those of you who don’t know what a flash mob is, I will tell you. The whole camp (about 160 of us) went to Deep River Water Park (and yes, it was simply splashtastic). Well, we all stood somewhere in the general vicinity of the wave pool, as nonchalantly as possible. Then, when we were given the signal, we all froze in place for 3 whole minutes. Yes, 160 people standing completely still in a public place. It was awesome. A lot of campers got creative with poses–ie, stopping mid high-five, fake proposing, drinking a mountain dew, etc. That was a definite highlight of the week.

Another highlight was Prairie Camp Idol. It was a lipsynch contest among cabins, and mine took it very seriously. We chose “Men in Black” for our song and spent all our free time on Friday choreographing it. It was a blast:-) We only got third, but I’m convinced that it’s just because one of the guy cabins dressed like women. Cross-dressing always gets the vote for some reason… Highly disappointing, let me tell you.

The Atmosphere

I’m really glad I got the opportunity to go to Prairie Camp. It seemed really homey with all the families there. I was glad we had individual devotion time every single morning, then a morning youth service, and the evening service with the families. It was just nice to have a change of pace. I was truly impressed with the campers’ thirst to know more about God.

Our Service Project

This was probably the coolest part of the whole week. Each cabin was given $50 and a 15 passenger van and was simply told “Go change the world.” We were challenged to really listen to what God wanted us to use the money on. We learned how far only $50 can go. My cabin bought supplies for Ronald McDonald House. We were disappointed when we were told we couldn’t talk to the families, but we thought God still wanted to use us at the hospital, so we had several opportunities to pray with people in waiting rooms and at the prayer chapel. It was really out of everyone’s comfort zone, but it was a great experience.

After that, we still had some money left, so we bought some cheeseburgers and gave them to people in downtown South Bend. We had more opportunities to talk and pray with people, and it was just awesome.  That whole day was a life-changing experience for almost everyone involved.

Closing Thoughts

I loved the staff. My girls were great.  I can live without a cell phone for an extended period of time.

I love camp meetings. Last week our team went down to Ludlow Falls, Ohio. This was our first family camp of the summer, and our last camp overall. I have attended both Prairie Camp and Brown City Camp for their family camps, so I sort of knew what we were getting into, but I was the only one on our team who did. Camp is just a totally different ball game when there are families there as well. It is not a bad thing; it just has a whole different feel.

We felt very welcomed by the camp staff and we had a whole day to settle in to camp, which was very nice. The first couple worship sessions were…interesting. The official worship band for the adult services would not start until Monday, and we arrived on Saturday. Instead of a worship band, there was this fellow playing the trumpet along with a recorded sound track. It was not necessarily what we were used to. Once camp got going full swing, things were awesome. The youth speaker was Clinton Faupel (or Fop, for short) who is the general manager of an online radio station called Remedy.fm. The station plays positive music in which teens would be interested and has Christian centred programming. With him, he brought the stations worship band which travels around to events like this. They were very good. I really enjoyed worship at camp. For the evening services, the camp had its own worship band which was very good. The adult speakers were Gerald Steele and Joel DeSelm–so fantastic. I have heard Joel DeSelm speak many times, so I knew he would be great, but Gerald Steele was awesome as well. God was moving left and right. It was incredible.

Youth Camp was interesting. Fortunately all our camps have been completely different so there is no real way to compare them. Fortunately, I was blessed with a good cabin. They were quite a random assortment, but at least they listened to me…for the most part. Actually, our time together went surprisingly well. I got to pray over several of my campers, which is always an incredible experience.

To conclude, I have a few things that I learned at Ludlow Falls

1. Even people in Ohio can have country accents.

2. I still hate shredded lettuce.

3. Ice Skating is not my spiritual gift.

4. Chelsea’s health and dodgeballs do not mix.

5. There are actually people out there who have never tasted the glory that is a no-bake cookie.

6. Adult Swim is a blessing from heaven.

7. Tragically, the coming generation has no respect for one of the best movies ever: The Princess Bride.

8. Don’t jump off of waterfalls.

9. A good septic system is essential, but when it is right next to they guys’ cabins, you are never really safe.

Some of you may be surprised at this, but even mathematicians get together for conferences. I just returned from a math conference in Madison, WI, sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). There were probably over 500 mathematicians there. Now you might be asking yourself what mathematicians could sit around and talk about for three or four days. Well, believe it or not, the frontiers of mathematics are ever expanding.

One of my favorite talks was given by Dr. Laura Taalman of James Madison University on sudoku puzzles.  She described the variants of sudoku (for instance, a 4×4 version that is known as shidoku), and the mathematics behind the puzzles. Here are some example questions that you could ask that naturally involve a lot of math:

Much of the answers to these and other questions involve group theory and/or combinatorics. (One note:  I can’t get by without saying that newspaper introductions to sudoku that say something like, “This puzzle isn’t about math at all” really don’t know what they’re talking about!)

You can check out Dr. Taalman’s website here:  http://www.math.jmu.edu/~taal/mainpage.html

If you’re interested in sudoku variants, check out this website:

http://www.brainfreezepuzzles.com

Happy puzzling!