Camp 2011

This year camp seemed to turn into "conquering fears" camp. It started off, as planned....but then, oh my...major change of plans.(For those of you who don't know: I am deathly afraid of last-minute changes of plans...okay, I may have exaggerated a bit, but you get the point). We had planned to ride horses all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from location to location. Camping at two different places before finally reaching our destination for the weekend. Well.....the horses were acting strange. Riders were getting scared. One by one, each kid decided they didn't want to ride. Okay...so what to do. We have 8 children depending on us to provide them with camp.
Enter brainstorming session.
After approximately 15 minutes we came up with an alternative plan. Four of us would ride the horses that were behaving to our first campsite and the rest of the kids would stay with Pastor Charlie and help him get water and set up the camp. The two days we would conduct horse lessons, hiking, etc. and then on Sabbath and Sunday we would go ahead with our original plans.
So that's what we did. Or at least attempted to do. (Oh, and I'm obviously still alive....)
Thursday went well. We had some work time, horse time, hiking time, game time. And then came Friday. Bright and early we were informed that there had been a change in Pastor's plans. We needed to move camp. A flurry of activity followed. We broke camp and then left the kids (again) while the four of us rode the horses to the new location-our property up on Anvil Mesa. After we got there, we had to set up camp and get ready for Sabbath. When all work was done, we let the kids indulge in a water fight, which turned into a bucket fight, which turned into a mud fight. It was great fun! And of course, after everyone got muddy they all got to get clean again!
Sabbath, our families and friends joined us for church. We had a potluck lunch (where those who were camping didn't bring anything) of Navajo tacos (sort-of like haystacks). Then in the afternoon, we went for a walk and had fun throwing juniper berries at each other.  After everyone left, we managed to collect our kids and close the Sabbath with some games and a campfire.
Sunday we broke camp and everyone went home.
Camp was a great blessing this year. Watching lives change for the better brings joy unspeakable. It may have been challenging. It may have removed our comfort zones from us for that time, but it was worth it. To see Christ working in the lives of young people, to watch them begin to realize how much they are loved, to be able to love them.....That makes all the pain, stress, agony, leaping-off-the-edge kind of faith, worth it.

Thank you for your prayers!

Camp. Is. Over.

Camp is over and it's time to give you all some pictures. :) So....here goes!

Hadassah

Song Service for church

Hermus Poorthunder, speaker for church

Ulrica

Denny, our most capable helper

Musical Chairs

Serena

Tamara

Nefe

Talia

Mark

Chanlynn

Talia

Denny

Nefe

Joanna

Water tank

Tamara

Sorry guys, no pictures of me....I was taking them.

Turning the Page

It’s time, once again, to turn the page. School is finished, well…not for me. But school, as in the MV Mission School, is done for the summer and that means…….yip, yip, hooray….

I don’t have to cook for thirty-plus people two days a week.

Yes, I’m rejoicing. It’s a lot of work and I now have a lot of sympathy for those who do it every day. The responsibility is enormous. And it’s really hard to cook appetizing food, and a variety of it, on a limited budget.

And besides that,

I’m rejoicing because three young people, despite challenges and difficulties,

have successfully graduated from 8th grade.

And yet, on the heels of this ending of school….

….comes major stress.

Yep, guys. No relaxing allowed for those of us on the Navajo Nation. At least, not until camp is over.

Camp.

Think: deadlines, craziness, stress, time running out.

Yep, that’s right.

Turns out, I’ve got months worth of preparation work to do in a week and a half. Schedules to create, camp codes to print, a route to ride, permission slips for land use to get signed, etc. etc.

And on top of all that, I’ve still got to keep on top of my schoolwork.

So ya’ll,

Don’t feel sorry for me.

I love it here,

I love my schoolwork,

I wouldn’t be doing anything else (except maybe sleeping, and I wouldn’t do that anyway).

But, please,

Please pray for the staff of Diné Youth Camp and

the Monument Valley SDA Church and Mission.

Please pray for the young people we are striving to reach.

And oh,

If I have time to post, I will.

But, if you don’t hear from me for awhile…

It’s probably because I’m busy….

….doing something.

May God bless all of you!

And for more information on Diné Youth Camp:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Din%C3%A9-Youth-Camp/123909730958158

www.dineyouthcamp.com

If you have questions:

info@dineyouthcamp.com

Or, you can simply leave a comment here on this blog. If you want a personal reply, from me, that’s not done here at the blog, email me at kezzia@dineyouthcamp.com