Tag Archives: Bigstuf

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You reap what you sow

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This was actually the theme of session three at camp this summer. My favorite speaker Stuart Hall spoke about it. He started off by showing the clip from the new star wars movie where the girl was fighting Hans Solo’s kid. I was so glad bus leader Dan conned us into watching it on the way down. He said everyone has a dark side and you must deal with that before you can live the prime life. The theme of camp this year was how to live a Prime life. Anyhow today matters, right now matters and your next decision matters. All affects what happens in the future. Galatians 6:7 God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Mocking was defined by Stuart as the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. What you sow today, you reap tomorrow. So he left the kids with these questions:

  1. What wrong seed are you planting.
  2. What different seed do you need to start planting.
  3. Who’s going to help you plant?

Because I do not have the gift of writing a sermon (I am sure there is a name for this but I probably couldn’t spell it anyway), it often takes me quite a while to try to relate what I have heard to my own life but over the past weekend when my mother in law asked me who says I had to run twenty-four miles on Saturday this all fell into place.

First of all, no one says I have to. I have a training schedule that recommends sticking to it and not blowing off runs, especially the long weekend ones. It is totally up to me whether or not I do it. However, I have done two races that I wasn’t properly trained for. The first was a half marathon the weekend after my running friends John & Jennifer got married. I barely followed the training schedule and my longest run was six miles. This was probably six years ago and I can still see the exact spot around mile 9 where they were with a sign to cheer me on. I seriously thought about quitting and riding on home with them. I finished but my back was killing me and my legs hurt the next day. This April I wanted to do a full as my comeback after foot surgery times two. I had a race all picked out and it ended up conflicting with Emily’s white coat ceremony so I decided to a different one four weeks earlier. So about mile 22 my right thigh started burning and by the end I was looking at people wondering if I could offer someone, anyone to drive me to my car. Both were horrible races in that I did not enjoy them and probably prayed for death during this time.

So I have a choice, do all the runs in the schedule and be able to finish the thirty-one mile race enjoying it along the way or skip half of it and pray for death. I already signed up and paid for the race, so not doing it is not an option. So if you see me walking/running all over Arnold and South County this fall you will know I am planning to reap a good race by sowing all the runs.

 

Mole moral~ Even us old folks can learn something every year at camp.

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Big Stuf Prime Session 1

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The first four hours of the bus ride were awful to the point I was thinking that maybe I was too old to be on the bus. The driver we had drives like I do. She was swerving back and forth and jamming on the brakes and running off the side of the road over the tracks that make the noise. Trying to sleep was a nightmare and whichever side I was laying on my hip would go numb. I seriously considered giving up on the seat and laying on the floor but by this time my spot had been overtaken by a teenager so I struggled on. Dan (my favorite kid, who really isn’t a kid anymore) was my bus leader again this year. He is hilarious and always has me cracking up. He makes the time go by a lot faster. He also didn’t make us play the get to know your bus neighbor game which always gives me horrible anxiety. The outside seats rotate around the bus and you have to talk to each other. I seriously am shy when it comes to talking to new people so this is a way out of my comfort zone experience. However had it not been for this game I would not have met my two favorite Dan’s. My very first year I met Dan P who told me I didn’t look over 22. What a charmer! I still keep up with him through Facebook. I met Dan the bus leader four years ago when I put my favorite restaurant was Steak n shake, and his was subway. He said something like we skinny people need to stick together. I said time out I am not naturally skinny. That was at the prime of my running when I was super thin. Anyway calling me 22 and skinny makes me love you forever! So Dan persuaded us all to watch Star Wars 7 since he had never seen it. The movie played with sound until it started and then it went silent. So he restarted it and the same thing so he started it with subtitles. He then started reading us the words over the microphone and acting out the sounds. It was awesome and hilarious. He is such a good kid. The sound finally started working and I can say I watched the entire thing waiting for them to find Luke. Can I just say all those people look so old and yet I am still in sixth grade when the original movie came out. It’s funny how everyone ages and gets older except for me.

This year the theme for Big Stuf is Prime and I forgot my ink pen to take notes so I had to take pictures of what was written on the screen so I could write this note. On a side note, I forgot all kinds of stuff this trip. I forgot my headphones, a sports bra, I lost my phone on the bus and I also lost my charger. I almost lost my fitbit charger as well. Next year I am going to rethink what bags I bring so that I am not dropping stuff and losing it. Stuart Hall spoke for the first session and he was awesome as always. The kids can relate to him and tune in nicely. I am sure a few weren’t listening but I would bet at least eight percent of the room was tuned in. The bible verse tonight was actually Herc’s life verse John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. He focused on the last part that Jesus wants us to live our life to the full. He put this really cool diagram up about strength and weakness and how people think strength is what you need and those people are usually so obnoxious no one likes them. But he talked about people who withdraw and that was me a good part of my life. I really wish I would have had a pen to take notes because it made perfect sense then and now I cannot even think of a way to explain it. Here are some key talking points.

God had a purpose for your life before anyone else had an opinion. I wonder if his purpose matched how I turned out. I mean was his purpose for me to be a nurse and on the women’s health floor. Most days I feel that is right where I am supposed to be.

Your best life is found only by placing it in the best hands. That would be Jesus’s hands and not the worlds. That’s easy to spout off but not always so easy to try to live out. The world offers fun and excitement that usually turns into a nightmare. Jesus offers a harder way but a life with fewer regrets.

Lastly, ten years from now make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn’t settle for it. I really feel I chose most of my life. I chose to go to nursing school, I chose to get married, I chose to have kids, I chose to work at Mercy, I chose to take the kids to Kid Stuf and become involved with Oak Bridge, I chose to be the camp nurse. I could probably go on and on. Maybe I need to think of some stuff that happened that I didn’t choose. I am sure I blocked all of that but I bet my mom can come up with a ton of stuff!

Session one has come to a close and I am totally excited for tomorrow to see what it brings.

 

Mole Moral ~ I am saying this for the hundredth time, it’s the best week of the year and I wish every single teenager in America coud experience this camp just one time in their life!

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Cruise Notes Episode 2

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Everyone knows a cruise is all about the food and what better thing to write about than the people we had dinner with. The first night it was just Kayla and I and two sisters who were from Oklahoma. I thought that was really interesting since that is where Emily is currently for PT clinical’s. One was a teacher and the other was finishing up school. They both had red hair so that made them cool. I can only remember Anna’s name. They were also a little shy so not too much talking went on that first night. It was the second night when the party started. First Laney and Jessica showed up and then a couple whose names I cannot remember or where they were from. He would be the only dude at the table. The life of the party arrived next Rose and her x-sister in law Florence. That is really how she introduced them. Apparently Florence was married to Rose’s brother for thirty years until he became stupid and they remained friends. Florence was from Detroit and Rose lives in Jacksonville. Now Laney said she was from Missouri too but probably no one ever heard of it, Moberly. I said yes I knew where that was as the friend I got my beagle from (way back a hundred years ago) had cousins from there. Actually Brian had even been hunting up there. Such a small world. Laney also said her entire life people would call her Lanny. Well that immediately made me think of Lanny Donoho who founded and ran Big Stuf camp for around twenty-five years. (Camp is six weeks away!) Laney reminded me and Kayla so much of Allyson except for she’s about two foot taller! But they have the same hair cut, similar glasses, and mannerisms. She really was a lot of fun and combined with Rose the two of them talked and entertained the table the entire time. It was a blast for Kayla and I who don’t always talk much but listen to everything. Cruise with Steve

One lucky dude at a table with 9 good-looking women.

Our waiter was wonderful. His name was Phillip but I cannot remember where he was from. He really enjoyed the nightly performances the waiters put on for us. He was all smiles and really got into the singing and dancing. Just watching him was pure joy.

Rose was probably the best of everyone. She reminded me so much of my mom, crazy and fun all in one. She quickly noticed there was a table of hot young guys two tables over. She decided she was going over there to talk to them and have their picture taken. She found out they had just graduated from high school and were a baseball team. This was their farewell trip before they all went off to different colleges. They loved having their picture taken and ended up hanging out with her quite a bit in the casino. We asked them to take our picture and the one guy let Kayla know the other thought she was beautiful. After that I did notice the guys looked our way quite a bit.

Rose with hotties

The food was pretty good especially when the last desert of the cruise was my favorite. Lime sherbet and baked Alaska! I have loved that since I was a little kid and the best story involves me in middle school. We had just come back from ice cream and my mom decided to drive through Dave Montgomery (I had a huge crush on him from 4-8 grade) subdivision. He just happened to be outside and I panicked and jumped in the floor board and dropped the ice-cream.  I cannot not remember if I had baked alaska  before. I had always wanted to make it but was too afraid. If you don’t do the meringue correctly the ice-cream melts and it’s a big disaster. It was really good. The sisters always thought it was fish! They tried it as well. That was the night everyone had either two or three deserts.

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My husband asked me every night if we had steak and lobster. The answer was no, although if we wanted to cough up another twenty bucks we could. I did throw high fat, low carb out the window for the week and jumped back on program when I got home. There was soft serve ice-cream available 24/7 and there was no way I was skipping that opportunity.

 

Mole moral~ Never pass up good food on a cruise! One week eating like a crazy person will not kill you. I’m still alive so I’m living proof.

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We Are Camp Nine “Made New”

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This may be the first time I have actually written about every session. I usually have great intentions to do so but get home and back in the real world and out of sight out of mind. Sad but true. The last session was about being made new through what Jesus did on the cross. All of our sins are forgiven: past, present, and future. Things in the universe break down naturally over time. Just look around, except at me. God doesn’t want to improve who we are but implement a permanent new through Jesus. So because of Jesus you stay new no matter what you do.

This all lead up to what I call the “altar call”. Except at camp, people don’t come down to the front but just stand if they have decided they want to follow Jesus. After that the camp breaks into their small groups and the small group leaders talk to the kids and pray with them that they believe in Jesus and accept him into their heart. This is such a much better way than when I was a kid. Every week the church I went to had an altar call. The congregation would sing Just As I Am which the pastor would say things like “If Jesus is calling you to come down front and you don’t come and you die this week you will go to HELL.” Do you know how scary that was for a kid. I wasn’t sure if Jesus was calling me or not. (I was around the age of 10). What if he was and I didn’t go down and I died? Would I burn in Hell forever? It was scary to get out of your seat and walk down to the front but I finally did it but I have no recollection of my age or the date or even the time of the year. I do remember going to a small room and a lady praying with me. I think somewhere around 30 kids from our church stood up. Earlier in the day 14 of our kids were baptized in the ocean. They were kids who had already accepted Jesus and now were publicly identifying with him. In a couple of weeks we are having a baptism service at church and the kids that were baptized will tell their story and then the church will show the video of their baptism. Baptism services are the best.

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This was the first year I had a Fitbit tracker at camp. I set a record for total steps for the week. I was 10 weeks post surgery and for the first time in two years had two feet that weren’t on fire! I could have done without knowing how little sleep I got. I am an 8-9 hour a day person so an average of 5 did not cut it. Although I did nap and sleep on the bus, most of them did not register as sleep because my heart rate was not low enough to be considering sleeping. My heart rate is around 42-44 when I sleep. The sign of a finely tuned athlete! Hahahaha. This totally explains why it took me three days to recover! I was talking about some of the nurse stuff that happened at camp. I was busier than I realized but I enjoy every moment. I must give a huge shout out to my roommate Lynn who is so helpful. Especially when a kid would wake me up out of a nap and I wasn’t fully awake. She would make suggestions. She was talking about not coming next year because all of her kids are grown but I being selfish said who am I going to room with and who is going to keep me on track. She did get to observe me in full on nurse mode. When the girl was dehydrated and started puking and was not responding to my satisfaction, my spidey senses went in full gear and I started bossing people around to get done what I needed to get done! That usually means I am panicking but not showing it! The kids asked me why I didn’t just start an IV and run fluids in. Well folks, that would be practicing medicine without a licence. The state board of nursing puts a paper out every 3 months and it always lists what nurses get in trouble for. One time a nurse started and IV on another nurse and gave her a bag of fluids. I can’t remember if she was hung over or pregnant but the nurse that did that got her license on probation. So there will be no IV starts at Big Stuf camp!

 

Mole Moral~ It is only 362 more days until Oak Bridge leaves for Big Stuf! I will be honored to go as the nurse again next year! It’s the best busiest, exhausting week of the year! I wouldn’t have it any other way. There is nothing more awesome than watching kids understand there is a God who loves them!

 

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We Are Camp Nine “Brave”

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This was the last morning session and it was a good thing. Getting up at seven in the morning was killing this evening shift girl. Especially being up until midnight or a little later.

The foundation of every virtue is courage which is seriously missing in our culture. It takes a lot of courage to stand up for what is right, or the little guy, or anything out of the norm. How much easier is it to get with the flow and follow the leader than stand out. I guess this goes right along with being real. Often the right thing and the hard thing are the exact same thing. And if we are real honest, the easy thing is so much easier but often leads to not so great results.

Stuart said the way to obtain courage is to love someone deeply and to know you are loved deeply (by God). So the most powerful version of you, is you fully convinced of God’s love. That feeling loved by God has been huge for me! I have taken more risks and had more courage ever since I first experienced it seven years ago. So I am loved and I am braved sometimes. He finished by listing three incredible gifts.

1. We have existence.

2. We have opportunity

3. We are loved.

 

Mole moral~ I really have no idea about the three gifts so next year I better take better notes. Until then, may more courage and love surround us all.

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We Are Camp Nine “Real”

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Stuart started out session five with this statement “Social media, where fools go to feel important.” I found that so interesting and he wasn’t really ripping on social media necessarily. However, how many people define their self-worth by how many likes or comments they get? Although I may not define my self-worth, I am always interested in how many people see my stuff. This blog is a perfect example. It will tell me how many views I have had. Sometimes I remind myself that even if only one person looked at it, it might be just the person that needed to read my crazy stuff that day! The biggest issue with social media is that it allows you to filter your image by showing the best and hiding the rest. Everyone has that one person that they know that spends all of their time doing just that. They project the perfect image and yet most people can see right through it. I will be first to admit that when I am having chaos in my life (and I have had a lot recently) I become quiet. I don’t feel social media is the place to air all of that but I also have no problem putting up the silly side of myself. And as for pictures of me, I have no clue how to Photoshop or edit so what you see is the real (scary) deal!

It is almost impossible to be real if you are living with secrets. Everyone needs to have one person they can tell everything and anything to. I am fortunate to have a person like that in my life. It is also impossible to be real if you feel like you need to be fake to be loved. Say what? If you can’t be who you are but who others think you are supposed to be then it’s difficult to love yourself. It’s also real difficult to like yourself when you don’t think God loves you.

That statement really hit home and caused a flashback to my very first camp, eight camps ago. I never really thought a camp would be better than my first one, but this one blew it out of the water. Anyway, seven years ago for the first time ever I felt that God loved me. It’s hard to explain and most people think I’m crazy but up until that point, I knew in my head people loved me but I couldn’t feel it. Oh it is almost heaven like to be able to feel it. So when Stuart said that I got the goose bumps!

Then he went back to the secrets and he stated people who have nothing to hide, hide nothing. Confessing your sin (secrets) might cost something but concealing it might cost everything. He also reminded us failure is an event, not a character trait!

Mole moral~This session validated me and the fact that I really try to be real all the time. Sometimes my lack of filter can get me in trouble but I’m pretty much my real self all of the time. Watch out world!

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We Are Camp Nine “For”

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Now that the distractions of surgery and the ER have passed and I am back home, I plan to finish up the sessions over the next few days. Session four was Wednesday morning and Stuart Hall was back. He and Jared Herd are tied for my all time favorite speakers. Jared has had a child or two now so I am not sure camp will see him again. However Stuart is older and his kids are almost grown.

Are you known for what you are against or what you are for? Most people are known for what they are against, drinking, drugs, abortion, democrats (just kidding) but not what they are for. Jesus was known for his love and that he came to teach love. This was new to the people of this time because of the religious craziness that was going on back then. They had over 600 crazy laws they attempted to follow to make them worthy in God’s eyes.  Jesus came and said love one another as I have loved you. He did not say your ability to change people’s behavior will prove to the world that you are my disciples or that your ability to follow a ton of rules will prove to the world that you are mine. He said your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Then he started talking about circumcision in a room full of teenagers. That was quite comical but his point was that Jesus made circumcision irrelevant because it was just another one of many rules that was now obsolete. Just like sacrificing a perfect animal for forgiveness of sin. The religious fruitcakes of the time asked what the most important commandment was and the answer was simple, love the lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

He concluded with love is the most powerful force in the universe and the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You have to be FOR someone to convince someone. (My notes are lacking here because I cannot remember what the point of that was.) So who will you be FOR? What will you be FOR? Will you be known for what you are against or what you are FOR?

 

Mole moral~I want to be known FOR helping others, being kind and showing love

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We Are Camp Nine ER visit

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It’s been a few years since I’ve taken a kid to the ER at camp so I was due. The worst part about it is my dang anxiety about driving someone else’s car and not having a clue where I’m going. Now last summers cake hunting helped the anxiety a lot and I now have a phone that yells at me where to turn. However Herc was kind enough to drop us off and come back later and get us.

This ER was crazy, they had you sign in by computer and then wait to be called. The kid I was with was really dehydrated. When they brought her to my room she was barely answering questions. I was trying to get her to drink but after about six ounces she almost threw up so I knew it was IV fluid time. After they called us to triage they took her to a room and got an iv in and within a 1/2 a bag she was much more perky and after 2 full bags she was ready to remove her IV and be discharged. Her nurse was really good and I liked her even though I got the lecture that the leaders should be making the kids drink. Apparently every other patient was dehydration and heat exhaustion. Her room leader felt bad and I said you cannot pour water down the kids throats. If the kids are big enough to spend a week away from home they should be big enough to stay hydrated. We got back around 2 in the morning. I missed the late night music session but I already have the camp music on my phone so it was ok.

 

Mole moral~It’s good to check out other ER’s to see how they do things. However, there is no place like Mercy.

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We Are Camp Nine Big Stuf Interns

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IMG_8816This is my very favorite kid and Big Stuf intern. His name is Dan. I met him four years ago on the way to camp. We were on the same bus and it was during the get to know your bus neighbor game. I am not going to lie, I hate that game. It’s where you move seat to seat and talk to every person. It is so hard for me and we actually skipped it this year. However, if we wouldn’t have done that, I would have never met Dan. One of the questions we were to talk about was what is your favorite restaurant. I had written down Steak N Shake (I’m real exciting) and Dan had written Subway. He saw that and high-fived me and said we skinny people can eat fast food. I was like time out, I’m not really skinny and I told him how I had lost forty pounds and how I run like a crazy person. Anyway by the time I switched seats, there was something about him and instantly became my favorite kid besides my girls. After we returned I checked in on him and prayed for him. (Ok stalked him for those who know me well. Haha) I would find out later that Dan had run into Tom (pastor) at chick-fil-A who told him he should do the Oak Bridge internship and he agreed. This past fall/winter when Dan told me he had applied for the Big Stuf internship I was so excited. The opportunity to spend the entire summer at camp leading kids would be so incredible and a life changer. When I found out he was chosen I was thrilled for him. The interns have to pay to do this so most of them fund raise. They do stay in a hotel and are fed for free. However, Dan told me it was camp food all summer so that ended the camp nurse dream. This was the best camp ever. I really never imagined any could out do my first year but this one far surpassed it and I have much more to write about. However I was at the hospital until 2 with a kid who was dehydrated so I must nap for a while. I am so thrilled that Dan was here the entire summer and I am confident it was a life changer for him!

 

Mole moral~Often the things we dread the most, turn out to be life blessings. Without the get to know your bus buddies game I would have never met Dan! He truly is my favorite kid!

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We Are Camp Nine Day 2

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I am not going to lie, I am tired! Like really tired! Like I could curl up on the sandy fake wood floor of this room and go to sleep. And maybe not wake up for ten hours. Not to worry, the kids are in small group while I type this. And when they get out, I have a couple already scheduled to stop by and may get a few more surprise visitors. Every time someone knocks on the door I am like who is it now but I am thrilled these kids come to me and trust me. I did see a foot today that has me a little concerned, most likely because I was reading about the bacteria in the gulf of Mexico that can cause necrotizing fasciitis. (aka flesh-eating strep). Google can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. I always call myself the worse case scenario nurse so whatever the symptom is, I jump to the very worst thing it could be. This is so it doesn’t happen. And this folks is called magical thinking, which my counselor nazi told me does not exist. Anyway, I just went off on a huge tangent so I will try to get back to camp.

At the very first bathroom stop on the way down, I made a really stupid statement. I am not even going to repeat it because I must protect the privacy of others and my own stupid self. Well that comment must have went like straight to God’s ears because ever since then it’s been I will show you Rachel Carty Moehlmann. And he has! It’s so easy to sit and judge others by a few actions you have seen without ever getting to know the person or know their story. However, once the story comes out and God reminds you of how you fell into the same trap not long ago, its embarrassing, annoying and you really hate the God is right and you are wrong! Ok I think I just spoke morse code or something but lets just say I have a huge nice note to write this week at camp. If I tried to speak to this person, I would turn red, get tongue-tied and sound like an idiot. I have a gift for writing (thanks counselor nazi for convincing me) so I might as well use it.

Morning session was we are better together. And because I am so tired I could sleep on the floor, I am going to copy and paste Dianne Prewitt’s post from this morning.

Studies have shown that the #1 ingredient for growth in any area of life isn’t practice or learning or discipline or self-control or any of that – the #1 secret ingredient for growth is SOMEONE ELSE! King Solomon put it this way: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

I saw that on Facebook and thought it was awesome. I could have said the same thing in about a thousand extra words. The speaker challenged us to think of two people who could be our iron. And these people you have to be totally authentic with and not like the fake self that we often project.

Tonight’s session~we are human. Dianne is in small group so she hasn’t posted anything so I can’t borrow it. I had a really hard time concentrating as my mind was all over the place. But basically bad things are going to happen. God came down in human form so he knows what you experience as he experienced it. He will stand with you and he will win for you. Well he already won for us with defeating death and the enemy.

That is camp day 2. If this makes no sense please refer back to the first four sentences of this blog. I plan to get up early tomorrow as it is a 2 mile walk day. Hopefully, I can squeeze a nap in at some point! Today I was dead to the world when someone knocked on the door, and I remember thinking who is knocking at 2:30 in the morning. It was actually 2:30 in the afternoon and I had a 30 minute sleep like the dead which helped but not enough to fix all this rambling.

Mole moral~I can barely think straight on a normal day, add camp, no sleep and God pounding on me and I am a lost cause!