Hey there, God

Hey there, God,

This is the beginning of a long-overdue experiment. I have never been very good at doing this, you know, devotions. I used to do a better job at home with my family and through Bible Quiz at keeping in Your Word. But, since going to college, I have not habitually been good at daily spending concentrated time with You. Oh, I have gone to chapel, attended church, prayed and listened to good music. But that’s like reading about You, hearing about You, and talking about You without actually spending time with You. What a dumb idea! This needs to change….I’m going to need Your help more than anything on this. Help me please? I need the desire and ability for consistency. Show yourself to me; today and each day. May my spiritual life and everyday life be unified in You.

Love,

Laura

I wrote this on May 7, 2012 on the flight home from my first year in college. It is the first entry in my prayer journal, which since then I have been striving to make a habit in my life.

I’m not one of those people who insist you have to do devotions at a certain time of day or night. What’s important to me is that I get them done. Lately, I have been doing them by flashlight in my bunk before I go to sleep each night at FaHoLo!

 In addition to my prayer journal (which was a gift from my roomie, Ashley), I have a ladies’ devotional book that has a scripture and a little reflection for each day following a monthly theme such as joy, grace, humor or peace. This book was a gift from Ryan. His encouragement to keep up with daily devotions is so valuable. Right now I read that and then journal about what I read, my joys and concerns of the day, my musings, and any interceding for friends and family.

I am not kidding when I said that I am not usually good at this kind of thing. I am not! I am that kid that mom had ask me every night if my teeth were clean just to make sure. She still has to bug me to put my shoes in the right place, or to take my vitamins, or to make my bed or…..get the idea? Innate consistency is just not something I excel at.

 Yet, God has been answering my prayer to give me “the desire and ability for consistency.” He really has rewarded me each and every time I open up His Word and meditate on it. Sometimes it’s the theme of the month that I really need to focus on, or a sentence or phrase that stands out, or an idea approached in a brand new way.

For example, May 12^th I wrote: “Dear God, You are hilariously amazing! Each day this week you have rewarded me for my efforts to read and ponder Your Word and to spend time with You.” That was the day I was at Teen Bible Quiz regionals with my family. The passage I read that day talked about the power of God’s Word. The little story in my devotional book was about this lady’s mother, who memorized Scripture and shared it with her children. One day, this mother asked her daughter if she wanted to listen to what she had been memorizing. The daughter agreed and asked what she would be reciting. The mother answered, “First Peter.” Yes, all of it! What is amazing is that the material that TBQ is covering this year is Hebrews, First Peter and Second Peter. Rachel has all of them memorized and was quizzing on this material that day. It was just so fitting that I read that story that day. I was reminded of the gift of quizzing and the power of God’s Word. It was beyond coincidence. It was God.

That’s not the only time the “coincidence” has happened either. God spoke about moving powerfully even in cramped quarters while I was on an airplane in quarters that were definitely cramped. He has spoken about not comparing myself and my spiritual health to others or about rejoicing always when I could have easily been a complaining mess….I could go on and on!

So, even though I have only been at this for about a month and a half, I have met with God nearly every day since the day I began. Doing this has strengthened me and given me the spiritual energy that I have needed so desperately each day. Now I wonder why I waited so long. What was I scared of? How did I convince myself that I couldn’t do devotions like other people could? I think now about what I missed out on all those days I tried to do life on my own strength. What opportunities did I miss? How much energy did I waste being stubborn? What else will God show me now that I am intentionally being faithful in seeking Him?

I think the best part about this process is that I really can talk to God about anything. I know it is obvious, but you don’t quite understand how important that is to me. I am a verbal processor! Anyone who knows me can see why taking time to talk to God can be an incredibly safe and healing thing. God is big enough to handle my concern, frustration, anxiety, fear, and anger, as well as the perfect person to rejoice with and give praise to. This also protects those around me from having to listen to absolutely everything I ever think or need to process. It’s a win-win situation.

Scripture says that if we seek Him we will find Him if we seek with all our hearts. Matthew says to “ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” I encourage you that if you’re not actively seeking God daily through prayer and His Word, you’re missing out. Take it from someone who knows (now). You don’t have to try to do it the way that everyone else does it. If you don’t like to journal, don’t! Draw pictures, make music, dance, or sit quietly and meditate. I don’t really care how you meet with God, but I do care that you try. If you don’t, you are missing out on the presence and gifts of God in your life. Nothing is more important than Him--after all, he created everything else!

Faith, Hope, Love and Summer!

So I promised to tell you all what I’m up to here at Faholo Camp. Here is the promised update!

For those of you who don’t know, this summer I’m working at a camp called Faholo (which is the first two letters of Faith, Hope, and Love) in Grass Lake, MI. It is the camp that the Assembly of God kids in Michigan come to every summer for kids’ camp, Junior High camp and Senior High camp. We also have a ton of independent groups come out, rent out the buildings and participate in activities. The place is always moving and changing.

I found out about working here through my former youth pastor, Jason Buchan. Jason worked at Evangel Temple (now Evangel Church) in Kansas City, MO. I was in his youth group for a year before I moved to Ohio. This spring, I applied to work at Faholo because Jason is the staff director here this summer. After considering it and applying for a bunch of other jobs, I felt like this was the job I was supposed to work. I’m here for 8 weeks working on camp staff.

I arrived here early last Saturday evening. I moved into one of the staff cabins (I since switched cabins, but that’s a different story), and mom stayed the night on my couch before heading back to Mt. Vernon the next day. I am so pumped because I have my car here! I feel pretty independent :)

Every day since the first week, the team has gotten up and gone to breakfast in the Dining Hall before 8 a.m. It was training week, so we got dumped into all the processes of the camp. I am now more or less officially trained to:

·         Help with housekeeping for the hotel-like rooms in the lodge,

·         Tie knots, belay, and guide guests through the ropes course and climbing wall,

·         Be a lifeguard at the waterfront, indoor pool or outdoor pool,

·         Clean all the pools,

·         Do CPR, First Aid, and use an AED,

·         And do whatever needs to be done!

I have a roommate named Shana and I live in a cabin called “Log A”. It is….well, unique. It has lots of little quirks. For instance, you have to grab on to the light bulb with a cloth to twist it on and off in the bathroom because there is no light switch. I have a sheet tacked up over the window for privacy. (I guess the blinds on that window are no more? The other window has them still...) We have a refrigerator…. Actually it is two mini refrigerators stacked up on top of each other. I have to wiggle the house key approximately three hard shakes to get my front door open. I killed 4 spiders the first night. You get the idea. It is nice to have my own place though, and it’s worked just fine for me so far.

We have an interesting gang up here on camp staff. The first day of training, we played the name game, where you have to say your name, something you like, and something you dislike. Then you have to remember all the people before you. “Hi, my name is Laura. I like making connections with people and I dislike long, dark hallways. That’s Shealee; she likes gummy bears and dislikes conflict. She’s Megan, she likes singing and hates spiders…..etc.” It’s hard! But it really helped me learn the names of my whole gang pretty quickly. I ran into a girl up here who was at a scholarship competition with me last year. It took us a while to figure out how we knew each other, but once we did it was really cool that we made that connection. I am also learning the game euchre, which is a card game that apparently everyone in Michigan knows. It is a fun game and I am getting the hang of it, but I am sorely outnumbered by tricky experts.

Since I received my lifeguard training and certification, I have worked pretty much every day at the waterfront or the pool. I like working as a lifeguard and I have learned a lot so far. Do you have any idea how much fun it is to watch people? Junior high-ers are the funniest :) Oh, and I like working the blob. Lifeguarding is also more fun when people actually show up to swim or do their activity, but oh well.

The scenery out here is so beautiful! The sunsets over the lake are some of my favorites. The other day I just enjoyed staring out at the lake (mostly because pretty much no one showed up for waterfront while I was lifeguarding that day). As I looked, there were little bluegills, minnows, and other fish darting through the water. Water lilies floated among the lily pads off to my left. Some large white birds—presumably swans—glided off in the distance as the sun glinted off the water.

Here at camp, bedtime is earlier than I’ve had it for a long time. We have to be in our cabins by 10:30 p.m. with the lights out by 11 p.m. It’s a good thing, too, because we get up pretty early (beginning today breakfast is served at 7:30, be there or be square). It has taken some getting used to, but I have adjusted to this revised schedule pretty quickly. With all the activity during the day, trust me—I have no problem sleeping at night!

When a group leaves, we have to get their areas ready for our next guests. This is affectionately referred to as “turnover” and takes all our energy as a combined team to pull it off. The other day, during our first turnover, I cleaned enough bathrooms to last my house a few weeks!

I don’t know why all God brought me here for the summer. However, I do feel like it is the right place for me and the experience and training I have received and will receive is so incredibly valuable. My confidence in myself, others, and God is increasing and I am growing in my independence as a young adult and my dependence on God. I am pumped for the services during children’s’ and teen’s camps. Such powerful moving of the Spirit and amazing changes in peoples’ lives happen during camp. You know, this summer marks two years since I was at camp and God filled me with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I am open to what God has for me this year. I am seeking his presence and his guidance in my life. And I am having fun! What more could a girl ask from a summer job?!

God is good. I fail, mess up, do stupid things, and make mistakes. But for these 8 weeks He has brought me to this place of “Faith, Hope and Love” and, even through my failings, I am serving and learning here in a way that is bigger than myself. Stay tuned for more adventures…they’re coming, I can guarantee it!

If you want to send me mail while I am at camp, here is my address:

Faholo Camp and Conference Center

Attn: Laura Roller

3000 Mt. Hope Road

Grass Lake, MI

What are you doing this summer? I want to hear about it! Comment on my blog, Facebook me, send me a letter, shoot me a text….let me know what you’re up to and what God is doing in your life. My prayer is that He blesses you and when we meet again we will both be stronger and more joyful people because of Him. Blessings friends! Enjoy your summer :)

Summer Adventures

In case you're just catching up with me for the summer, I'll try to get you up to date. It'll be a bit of a whirlwind tour, but here you go!

I got home in early May and went to Teen Bible Quiz Regional competition with my sister's team that weekend. It was my first time officiating at that level of competition (I was a judge) and I got to see my lil' sister come in 4th individually in the Great Lakes region. Her team did great, too--they even had a teeny shot at making it to nationals!


I loved spending time with my family for a few weeks this summer. Especially my sister and I really were excited to see each other after I had been gone so long. One night, as the sun was setting, I grabbed my camera and shot some pictures out in the yard. The irises were gorgeous, the sunset was amazing, and my sister obliged me by letting me shoot some of her, too. She was my favorite subject that night!

I spent several weeks at home, just hanging out. It was glorious just to sleep in some days, run errands with my mom and sister, and have stories with dad every night again. I also started working on my swimming, because I knew that later in the summer I would start lifeguard training. I hadn’t really been in the pool for a long time, so I needed to build up endurance and strength again. The YMCA and I were buddies for several weeks. I also started a summer reading list, which so far has included:

1.      Dragons of the Watch by Donita K. Paul

2.      Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

3.      Of Men and of Angels by Brock and Bodie Thoene

4.      Epic by John Eldredge

I am now in the middle of The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, which is a business novel that teaches the concept of the law of constraints. It is an interesting book and I have learned a lot so far. (It would probably be rated PG or PG-13 if it were movie rated. There are some instances of language and other inappropriate behaviour. Just a heads up if you decided to read it.)

After dad finished most of his semester responsibilities, we took off on a camping trip as a family. I’ll highlight several places we went. (But I took like 700 pictures on the trip, so there will be so, so much I just skim over. It was a great experience!!)

First we went to Valley Forge National Historic Site. It was really interesting to see where the troops would have wintered over that fabled winter during the Revolutionary War. Between this stop and our adventures in D.C., I came to respect George Washington as a man and a leader more than I ever had before. He went from the man whose likeness is on every quarter and dollar bill I have ever touched to being someone I had explored the home of and come to know in a personal sort of way. It was a great experience!

Near Lancaster, PA there is a magical place called Sight and Sound Theater. I can't tell you too much about it, because what I really want to tell you is to go see a show there! Our family went and saw the production of Jonah, and it was incredible. It struck emotionally close to home with the dramatic retelling, and everything from the set to the costumes, the music to the dancing, and the message to the delivery was stunning and excellently done.  Seriously, if you or your friends live near either their Lancaster location or their new theater in Branson, MO, just go! It's not cheap by any means, but you will get your money's worth and enjoy it tremendously. I sure did.

Rachel and I outside of Sight and Sound

We went from PA down to the Washington D.C. area. We rode the metro all around and had a ton of fun exploring. I don't know (and don't really want to know) how far we walked.

The Smithsonian Museums are amazing places. We went to the Air and Space museum, the American History museum and the Natural History museum.

The Air and Space with the family

At the Air and Space museum, I saw so many neat artifacts from history. Usually, when you read history books or go to museums, the captions on things say: on display in the Smithsonian. There I got to see the real items. My favorites included seeing Amelia Earhart's plane, the original Wright Flyer, Apollo 11, and a real lunar landing module. So cool!

The museum of American History was really neat--we got to see the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner and several Stradivari violins. So many other amazing relics of our past were amazing to see; one of my favorites was the exhibit of the First Ladies' dresses.

I could write for hours about the Natural History museum. It was alternatingly delightful and frustrating. I enjoyed the exhibits with the dinosaur skeletons and the gems. I was frustrated by the deep seated belief in all things about evolution. I guess that most of my life I have understood that people believe in evolution as opposed to creation, but I didn't really understand exactly how pervasive that belief was in some places. I had studied evolution versus creation in school, but seeing it so stubbornly presented in a MUSEUM of all things was disturbing. I listened to a mom telling her probably 9-year-old girl, "See? Here's an ape's skeleton. This looks a lot like your earliest ancestors, because we evolved from animals like these." Suddenly, it wasn't just some stuffy science book going on and on about evolution, which I can easily laugh in the face. It was mothers telling their children they come from apes, which breaks my heart. I haven't finished processing this trip totally, but it sort of rocked my world. Oh, and we saw the Hope Diamond! Isn't it marvelous?

The Hope Diamond

(I just love the little kid's eyes behind it, which was a complete accident!)

Here's the family at Mount Vernon, which is George Washington's home. As my mom would say, "It's almost as beautiful as our Mount Vernon (OH)!"

We decided to try and get inside the Capitol building, even though we made no advance reservations or tour plans. God took care of us, and less than 5 minutes after we walked in we were on a tour. It was really neat, too.

We walked around and saw the Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and World War II monuments. My favorite part was all the amazing quotes, speeches, and verses inscribed on the monuments of our Nation. If you're wondering whether this nation was built on a foundation of Biblical values and where we stand in respect to that today, go and read the marble and granite in D.C. You'll be reminded of this country's roots. One Nation, Under God. It still is!

The Washington monument

Finally, we went to the Hocking Hills of Ohio. I had so much fun hiking and exploring! The lack of flush toilets and cell phone signal was a bit frustrating (to say the least!), but it was special time with my family in a beautiful location.

I climbed down these!!

After we left the Hocking Hills, I was home for about 48 hours before I headed to work at FaHoLo Camp for 8 weeks. I'm out of time to write today, but I will have to give ya'll an update on what I'm up to this summer at FaHoLo. It's crazy, but I'm loving it!