Camp Mundo Vista is great fun!

In 2006, I wrote this, and it is just as true today as it was then:

Since my first summer on staff at Mundo Vista I've wondered how it is that I can feel God's presence so much more clearly in some places than in others. At Mundo Vista I feel as if I breathe God in with every breath I take. It's a thick, soothing presence, kind of like the overwhelming smell of my grandmother's freshly baked yeast rolls. (I love it when they have only been out of the oven for a few minutes and I can hold one while its soft heat warms both of my hands and my heart. Those rolls are a tradition, as is the real wooden rolling pin that must be used to make them., but they never come out exactly the same.) It makes me hungry for an intimate relationship with God... one where I can feel his presence spreading through me like the warmth of grandmother's rolls... where I can feel the history and the tradition, but where every minute is completely different. I don't get that feeling anywhere else... not at school, at work, or even in my own church.

It's good to be back on the mountain where my head is not cluttered with reputations, appearances, expectations, and idleness... where I can think clearly and be honest about who I am and what I am learning that God wants me to do and be. 

This summer, I want to keep up with myself. I want to remember things that I think and feel, and I want to share what camp and what God mean to me. 

I don't really know why God has called me back to camp this summer. While I am the same person I have always been, my life is now significantly different. I am a wife and a teacher. I help my husband plant churches and I am praying for the day when God will allow me to be a mother. My life experiences at this point make me essentially different in many ways from every other young woman on staff. With the craziness of my schedule, I'm not sure when I'll have time to make an impact. I'm left wondering... but that's ok. 

There are a couple things that I know I want, and desperately need, out of this summer. First of all, I need God to show me something new about who God is. I am stuck in the spiritual life that I had three years ago, and it is time to move forward, refocus, and delve into intimacy with Christ. Secondly, I need God to show me something new about who I am. With the expectations of adult life, I have allowed myself to become defined by my family, my education, and my career; yet, I know that is only a small segment of who I am created to be. I've felt a little lost to myself for a while now, and it's time to rediscover who God made me to be. 

When I leave this summer, I want to have remembered how to let God fill me up. I want to be overcome with renewed passion and once again to be able to tap into the immense creativity I know God has placed in me. I want to refocus my life and take home a renewed spirit. 

I know God can do these things, and I believe that God will. I'm here, Lord.