The Bicycle Adventure and Other Stories

Did you know? Nearly every major injury I have sustained was caused by riding a bike.

The other day, I went on an adventure with my new friend, Sarah, at FaHoLo. It involved bicycles, and I will tell you about our adventure in a minute. First, I have to give you a brief tour of the Laura + bike=disaster timeline.

Let’s see. Once, I was riding a wheeled toy in our garage. I would have to ask my mom exactly how old I was, but that’s not important. Suffice it to say, I flipped the tricycle thing over onto the concrete floor and got a gigantic bruise on my forehead. I think it was right before some dance recital, photography session, or other moment at which it would be nice to appear photogenic, and mom spent a quite a while putting foundation on my bump to somewhat cover it up. Oops!

When I was about 8 years old—my adult front teeth were newly grown in—I attempted to ride my neighbor’s full-sized bike. I did fine for a while, until I tried to turn into my driveway. I swerved, and the next thing I knew I took a bite of concrete, scraped my nose and chin and chipped off at least a third of my right front tooth. I got a cap on that tooth and you can still see the faint line that delineates the real tooth from the cap. You’d think I would have learned my lesson about bikes. Or not.

When I was 10, dad left for his first international trip—a business trip to the island of Cyprus. When he called home to tell us he arrived safely, mom got to tell him I had wrecked my bike and broken my right arm. What happened was this: I was trying to ride one-handed down the hill in our neighborhood. I had seen many of my friends doing it well and thought I would give it a try. I veered out of control and to correct the problem I grabbed the left-hand handle brake (which makes sense, given that I am left-handed!). Unfortunately, the left brake stops the front wheel! This presumably caused me to flip the bike and fracture my arm. Now, that was in the days before every pre-teen had a cell phone, so I had to wait on the curb in pain for someone to drive by before I could get help. I wore a cast for six weeks and was as good as new. (Taking piano lessons for six weeks with a cast made my piano teacher’s life difficult, but I got a lot better at playing chords with my left hand during that time!)

That is most of the harm I caused. Since those adventurous days of childhood bike injury, I have managed to stay in mostly one piece while navigating the roads on my beloved bicycle.

That brings me to the other day’s bike adventure. I got a text from Sarah, which simply read, “Come to the new maintenance building. It will be fun!” I figured she was right, and so I wandered off to join her. She led me into the dark, dusty building and over to the corner where, to my surprise, lay a bunch of old bikes. It looked as though the bike section of Wal-Mart had crawled there to die. Flat tires, broken brakes, and loose chains dominated the scene, but with a little bit of searching we each found a bike that probably wouldn’t kill us to ride. With our new-found modes of transportation, we cycled off into the sunset.

The bike I found is a character. It is a red boy’s Huffy, and when I first found it, its chain was off the gears, its front brake was busted, and the seat needed tightened so it wobbled forward and backward while I tried to ride. I put the chain back on, figured the front brake was what caused my 10-year-old arm fracture so I was just fine without it, and decided it would be fun to try to ride with a loose seat. That dusky ride was one of the most delightful things I have done in a long time! I had a blast riding with Sarah. (And I didn’t fall or anything!)

The next day, I asked the mechanic, Kyle, to tighten up my seat. That helped make it a lot easier to ride and I have been riding it around camp a lot more since then. That night, Sarah and I rode down the entrance road and past the go-cart track to the field with hay bales in it. We hopped back and forth across the rows of hay bales and then sat and talked until it got dark.

So, while most of my major injuries have come from riding bicycles, some of the most delightfully fun times in my life have come from those rides as well.

Faith, Hope, Love and Summer--Update #3

Hey there! This will be a short post because I have to run to the dining hall for a quick lunch and then to the boat dock to lifeguard for three hours this afternoon. Just wanted to give you a quick update on life here at camp, though.

Things are crazy, as usual. Lifeguarding was the hardest this week that it has ever been, because this week was Kids Camp! That means that a boatload of 2nd-6th graders invaded FaHoLo for the week. I decided this week that little girls listen and behave much, much better than little boys in general. That does not mean that girls are better than boys or any such thing. But as far as lifeguarding goes, sessions with more girls go smoothly, while boys are harder to deal with. You see, girls are content to play happily in the pool and follow the rules. They play Marco Polo, the dunking-each-other-until-you-guess-the-color game, and swim around looking at the bottom of the pool with their goggles (which break all the time!). Little boys--and many of their teenaged group leaders--are not content following the rules. They would rather run, hang on the volleyball net, throw each other, wrestle each other, run and jump in, dive, splash each other, splash me, not hold still quietly during buddy check, and so on. They like to push limits on the rules and therefore push my buttons. That's frustrating to me, but I'm learning to deal with it. It is helpful that when we lifeguard we always have at least two people on duty. Usually I am partnered with a guy such as Kyle, Casey or Graham, and they can handle the little boys better than I can. Thus, we work well as a team.

I also had my first saves this last week. I was one of the guards in the water during swim tests, and so I pulled the kids to safety who couldn't make it all the way across the pool. I was surprised a few times, both by the kids that could and could not make it. There were some little 7- or 8-year-olds, that I was sure I would have to save, who made it across no problem. Some others were older and looked like they were doing fine until all the sudden they freaked out or got tired and started to panic and  bob up and down until I could get to them. I learned from that to never judge only by appearances, people will always surprise you.

Housekeeping is going well. We are working well as a team and getting the rooms turned around quickly and accurately. I still get grossed out sometimes, but most of the time I just suck it up and deal with whatever nastiness we find. I still like it when people leave soda, loose change, or unopened Oreos in their rooms...It makes the summer staff happy!

I began working in Laundry last week when one of the other summer staff couldn't work there anymore. I am getting to be a professional folder and sorter of sheets, towels, bath mats, and cleaning rags. Sam and I work together folding the flat sheets. It's a lot of fun, actually. I work in there on Tuesdays and Thursdays after my pool chores.

We found 4 frogs in the pool yesterday afternoon. I like catching frogs, but I will only do it with my net. I squeal pretty much every time I find one in the skimmer still. They camoflague very well in thee leaves and bugs and so I am usually very surprised.

I still love devotion time and staff meeting here. I hope that in the future I can work in another place that is as spiritually and relationally uplifting as this place is. I love the people here! I got to share one of my devotions with the summer staff this week. I spoke about freedom. There are many things that drag us down, but Christ has promised to set us free from the yoke of slavery and to help us cast of the sin that so easily entangles so we can run the race marked out for us. I still come back to "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1) I am learning to not be bound by what other people think, by fear, or by my circumstances. Christ helps me not be dragged down by that anymore, because He made me to be free. That is why He died on the cross, so what am I doing living in bondage if freedom is right there for me? I also have to extend freedom to others to live as God created them. Sometimes people drive me crazy. But I have to look at the bigger picture--that they are redeemed sinners seeking freedom, just like me--and extend freedom and grace to the people around me.

God is so amazing to continue speaking His Words to me, even when I am staring at my journal at 11:00 p.m. after a long day's work and just trying not to fall asleep before I finish my thoughts and prayers. He still speaks even when I am weak and tired. I just have to open the door of my heart and invite Him in to speak!

Wow...I wrote for longer than I thought already (and thus do not have much time to proofread!). I'm off to work again.

*sings* Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to work I go!

Faith, Hope, Love and Summer--Update #2

It is hard for me to believe that it’s already been about a month that I have been here at FaHoLo camp. I have so many stories and adventures that there is no way that I will ever be able to share them all here. What I can do is give you a little idea what I have been up to, and if we run into each other sometime, I would be happy to share some more stories or elaborate on what I have written here.

First, some definitions:

FaHoLo: n. an abbreviation for Faith, Hope and Love. Also, the name of my camp, which is an Assemblies of God camp and conference center in Grass Lake, MI

Turnover: n. the process of getting all buildings and grounds of the camp cleaned up from one group and ready for another. Usually this happens on the weekends—sometimes both Friday and Sunday if we have groups here for both the week and weekend.



The Blob

The Blob: n. a large rectangle made out of the same material as bounce houses usually are. It sits at the bottom of a tall tower out in the middle of the lake. One person sits on the end of the blob, another person jumps from the tower to the middle of the blob, and the first person goes flying. The second person crawls to the end and gets situated, and the next person jumps.  “Blobbing” is the act of using the blob.

So far the summer staff schedule at FaHoLo included training week, one week where we had several medium-sized groups using the facilities, Jr. High camp week (about 375 kids plus leaders), and Family camp week (probably 300-400 people), in addition to some church groups on the weekends.

We start every day with a short staff meeting to assign jobs and make sure we’re all on the same page. My favorite part about staff meeting is that we have a short devotion and a time of prayer before we start the day—as a team! This creates a very uplifting work environment. I mean, the team is about 20 to 25 young adults, most of whom live on camp. We pray, eat, work, clean, play around, watch movies, make mischief, talk, and live with each other. Every day. Sometimes we want to strangle each other or just go in a corner and hide for a little while, but for the most part we have become a very strong and fairly tight-knit little gang. It’s an incredibly different work environment than something like a retail establishment, but I like the differences for the most part.

My main job here at FaHoLo is being a lifeguard. (Yes, I’m getting really tan. Any other questions?) As a lifeguard, in the mornings my group is responsible for cleaning the outdoor pool and its bathrooms. In the afternoons we lifeguard for the groups swimming, and sometimes there are late night swim activities that we work as well.

Cleaning the pool is always a little adventuresome. One day we found 4 frogs in the pool on the same day! That’s a record for me, but we usually find at least a few a week. They get in and they can swim but the walls are too high for them to get out so they get into the skimmer baskets on the sides and chill there until somebody opens up the lid, screams (usually), and then tosses them over the fence. I just cringe when I open those baskets now, expecting a frog to jump out at any moment. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not exactly afraid of frogs, I just am often startled by them!  We also found two dead chipmunks in the pool so far this season….guess we don’t make lifejackets small enough for Alvin and his chipmunk friends? The critters need to learn to only swim when a lifeguard is on duty!

Watching people in the pool can be pretty entertaining.  It is difficult to keep little kids from running around the pool deck all the time. I swear my most repeated word this summer is “WALK!” The little ones are so darling, so I try to help them understand without scaring them. Usually I end up enlisting the parents’ help. I think one of the hardest times to keep the little kids safe was yesterday. We had a Korean church group come swim, and it was mostly families with small children. I kept trying to get these three little boys to walk, but I am not even quite sure they understood the English words I was using. I didn’t just keep blowing my whistle every time they did it, but I did ask their adults to help the kids to understand they needed to walk in the pool area. The parents would stoop down and instruct the kiddos in rapid-fire Korean with some good finger-wagging thrown in. The kids would nod their heads and then run again not even 30 seconds later. Oh well. I tried?

Then there is the blob (see definitions) where I get to work out on the lakefront sometimes. Cody works it more though, because he loves to do it—he was the kid in high school who always got asked to blob other people because he could make them fly really far. He also is really good at putting the kids at ease on the top of the tower before the jump. He also can tell when they’re fibbing about their weight (there can only be a 50 lb. difference between the two people on the blob for safety reasons). I got to work it a few times though. Kids love it and it is one of the only jobs where you have constant interaction with the campers instead of just observing silently from afar unless something dangerous happens. I like talking and interacting, so that makes it a fun job.

Junior High kids are just kind of crazy, but they listen pretty well if I tell them to do/not to do something. I am kind of terrified of next week, which is Senior High camp. I fear I won’t get any respect from the teens and that all they’ll want to do is flips off the edge of the pool, run, wrestle, and dive in (all things I have to yell at kids about). It’ll be ok, I hope. It could be an exhausting week of frustrating teens though. We’ll see.

I usually don’t like it when there are storms, and we have had a couple. We can’t do any of the activities as long as there are thunder, lightning, or high winds, so a run-of-the-mill storm can shut us down at the pool pretty quickly. If it is really bad, we all have to go to the Clay Activities building, which is a 50-year-old gymnasium with no air conditioning, to wait out the storm. I am thankful we’ve only had to do that once and it was for about 15 minutes. The clouds were boiling and the rain was pelting down as the wind whistled by—I was happy to be in a safe place at that point!

At least one point during the week we usually have a “turnover” day (see the definitions). It’s an all hands on deck and work until you’re done kind of day. Today was one of those days. We started at 1 p.m. and ended about 5:30 p.m. this afternoon. I am a pro at cleaning bathrooms, mopping and vacuuming, making beds, making mirrors sparkle and shine, cleaning windows, folding towels and blankets, replacing toilet paper or soap in the dispensers, etc. There is always something to do on those days.

In the evenings when groups are here there are usually services. They are one of my favorite parts of this job, probably because the services were one of my favorite parts of camp as a kid.  As a staff member, I’m supposed to stay in the back and not actually interact with the kids during the service (something about some groups being uncomfortable about people other than their counselors working with the kids, which I understand, even if we have all been background checked and are pretty good young adults here on staff) but even from there I can pray over the kids, worship with them, and benefit from the messages myself. One of the main themes I have been hearing over and over is that of freedom. Each camp has talked about the burdens that we carry, the life we are called to, the things that hold us back, the fear that ensnares us, and sin that binds us. God doesn’t call us to be in bondage, but to be free and effective children of God. There is this song by Jesus Culture that the band at Jr. High sang a few times:

There is power in the name of Jesus

to break every chain

to break every chain.

It was amazing to see my sister and her peers going up to the altar and calling on God to break their chains and give them freedom. So many lives were changed that night, and so the Break Every Chain song has stuck with me as an anthem of God’s power. Hebrews 12 talks about throwing off that which entangles us and running the race God has marked out for us. Each time the theme came up it made me think. Then, during the month of July, my devotional book is following the theme of freedom. I began asking myself, if God calls me to live a life free in Him, am I living a life like that? If not, what’s holding me back and how can I remedy that with God’s help?  I certainly haven’t found all the answers to those questions yet, but God and I have been talking about it a lot during devotions lately. I’d like to turn that question on you—are you living free in Christ? If not, what’s holding you back?

I was really excited that Rachel got to come and experience Jr. High camp at FaHoLo while I was on staff. She and I did get to see each other briefly several times a day, but for the most part our activities and responsibilities were much different. I would see her at the end of service and we would go to snack shop and grab something to munch on as we sat under the big tent to talk about her day. I was a pretty proud big sister; I was always saying, “Look! That’s my little sister” or “My little sister, Rachel, is a camper this week.” I was so excited to have her here! Camp was a stretching experience for her, but in the end she had a blast. I saw her frequently with either a big smile or a huge yawn spreading across her face, which to me was a really good sign. It was a fun week.

I do get tired and stressed out sometimes, and when that happens, my peaceful spot is the lake. I go there to talk on the phone, watch the sunset, let the fish nibble on my toes, lay in the sun, watch the pontoon boats go by, observe the robins taking a bath at the water’s edge, or just sit and do absolutely nothing. It is so beautiful and relaxing, so I usually come back refreshed and ready to face the problems of the day.

God has really been taking care of the camp and making things work out one step at the time. The biggest story of God’s provision happened on the 4^th of July. We were going to have a family fun day at family camp to celebrate the 4^th. One of the biggest activities was having a bounce house and a dunk tank for the kids to enjoy. It was going to be expensive for the camp to rent, but you can’t have family fun day without them, so we were going to go ahead, bite the bullet, and pay the money. Frances, the camp director, made arrangements with the rental company to do so. Meanwhile, her husband, Pastor Otis, fell and broke his foot a few weeks ago and has needed surgery and constant attention since then. Needless to say, picking up the rented fun equipment basically fell off the radar, and we didn’t pick it up on the 3^rd. Frances was sitting in her truck in the parking lot at 8 a.m. on the 4^th, waiting for the rental place to open, when she found out they were closed on the 4^th and we couldn’t have the equipment at all. She was crushed! She came back to camp and told some people, who talked to their friends at camp about it. Pretty soon these people were calling churches and old friends who had bounce houses or dunk tanks and making arrangements to borrow them. In the end, by 10 a.m. FaHoLo was sending several people to pick them up. Other than the gas money to pick up and return, the camp got two bounce houses and a dunk tank to use for the family fun day—completely free of charge. God provided and people began to say that this was probably the best family fun day they had ever had. What could have been a disaster turned out to be a great event!

Oh boy. I have so many stories I could tell. I hope these tidbits gave you a bit of a picture into how my summer has been so far. I guess I will have to come back next time and tell you some more, but until then I hope you’re having a great summer and I look forward to catching up soon.