What a Summer

Oh wow. 

What a summer. What a challenging, amazing, God-filled, incomprehensible summer. 

Student Life ended almost a month ago, but by time I began to start processing all that had happened, it was time to be back in Clemson. I'm definitely not complaining about that, just supplying an excuse as to why I haven't blogged. (I've been working on this blog for about a week and a half)

To be honest, I don't know where to start, how to proceed, or how to end. So this could be a mess of a blog post. Try to hang on. 

I guess I'll state that I miss camp a lot. I also miss those 22 people who went from strangers to family in 2.5 months. 

I miss them a lot. I miss all of our inside jokes. I find myself exclaiming phrases and frequently making references that no one else even comes close to understanding. My friends in Clemson have already recognized some of my new found phrases, which is great because it's helping my heart hold on to a little bit of this summer.

So here come all the rest of the random and awesome things that I got to do this summer.


We had the privilege of going to the beach. A lot. Consequently I have a newfound love for the beach.

We tried so hard to get Evans, our Compassion Representative and Kenyan, to float. Eventually he came up with his own idea of what floating is. He convinced Brett to try it, but Brett was definitely not a fan. 

We even got to have staff devotion on the beach for our last day of camp. That morning God's grace to me was so evident. I sat and stared at a seemingly endless ocean that God spoke into being while being surrounded by people who I love with everything I am, remembering the summer and the memories they had given me. 

Other adventures...well Stetson was an adventure all on it's own. We had two camps there. The first camp at Stetson was my favorite camp from the whole summer. Despite the oxygen stealing humidity, that week was incredible. Mainly because I had some of the best youth groups around.

My mission sites were also really great that week.

In between the two Stetson camps we had one of the best days of the summer. Near DeLand, FL there is this place called Rock Springs where you can just float down this beautiful river. So we did that as a team. We came back to campus, grilled out, and played yard games. It was a perfect day. 

Another reason why Stetson was so great is that each department got a night off. With Connor Graves as our Mission Director, our night off was one for the books. 

We went out and ate delicious Mexican food, went go-carting (Melanie and I beat the boys!), rode a roller coaster, dropped 250 feet from the sky and flew, and topped the night off with some good ol' gelati from Jeremiah's.  

After Stetson, we made our trek to Wheaton, Illinois. Since the drive is almost 20 hours, we stopped half way and stayed at Lee University, where two other Student Life teams were having camp. 

Consequently, I got to see these lovely hometown friends. It was very, very good for my heart to see them. 

Unfortunately, about an hour after we left Lee...

But we made the best out of our busted tire situation and ended up playing cards on the side of the road in some shade. 

We ended up switching vans with one of the other Student Life teams and continued our journey to Illinois. 

Because of the way the camps worked out, we had two free days once we got to Wheaton, Illinois. And you'll never believe what city Wheaton is outside of...

So we spent the Fourth of July in the Windy City. 

The day ended with some deep dish and watching fireworks on Navy Pier. 

Then we had an awesome camp in Wheaton. 

Then we had another awesome camp in Daytona with over 5500 students. 

Then we went to Mississippi and participated in some shenanigans...

After Mississippi, we went to south Florida and had our last camp at Palm Beach Atlantic University. But before camp started, we had Christmas. 

We woke up Christmas day to a worship room that was fully set up. The guys on our team were sneaky and spent the previous night setting up the worship room, the office, and unloading all of the mission and rec stuff so that we could spend the afternoon at the beach instead of setting up for camp. 

It was an incredible blessing. 

After the beach, we had Christmas dinner at Cheesecake Factory. 

It was a time of looking spiffy and eating great food. And cheesecake. 

Then we had CHRISTMAS. 

At the beginning of the summer, everyone is assigned a Secret Encourager, or an SE. Throughout the summer, you secretly encourage that person. Then, at Christmas, everyone's secret encourager is revealed and you give them their final gift. 

My SE was incredible. All summer I talked about how wonderful they were. This person encouraged me so well and was so secret about it that I didn't even know whether it was a boy or girl. 

Little did I know that this person was the girl the Lord knit my heart closest to. 

Geez. I could do a whole blog post on how Sara encouraged me this summer, both undercover and way out in the open. I am so thankful for her life and the way she loved me this summer.

After our last camp, we drove back to Birmingham where the Student Life office is located and unloaded all of the Penske trucks. Then we gathered around, prayed, took one last group picture, and said our goodbyes. 

I don't think I've ever cried so hard in my life. 

Off to the airport we went. Thankfully I didn't have to fly alone but had some Green14 company. 

I miss camp so much. 

I miss holding my unit sign with these two. 

I miss late night reg day taco bell runs.

I miss packing lunches (kind of) and seeing all the coolers lined up outside of the Mission Penske. 

I miss hanging banners with these two. 

I miss doing Rally Point and speaking truth to students. 

I miss going to mission sites.

I miss truck pack. 

I miss being in a room where hundreds of students encounter and worship Jesus for Who He truly is. 

I miss the silliness and ridiculousness of a team that never failed to make me laugh till I cried. 

I miss painting up and doing the Purple Craze cheer. 

But most of all, I miss these guys. 

The Lord's grace comes in a lot of different forms. Most often I see it in nature, in the vast ocean, or a setting sun. But more and more frequently, I am seeing His grace and beauty in the people that He has put in my life. 

These people. 

People like them are few and far between. The Lord used them to teach me, to grow me, to challenge me, to show me how to love well, to be humble, to die to myself, and to encourage me. 

I had the best summer of my life. It was not always easy and it was not always fun, but I wouldn't trade a second of this summer for anything.