Dog Tired

Well, another year of camp has come and gone. And I'm beat. No doubt about it.

Funny enough, though, I think I got more sleep this year than I ever had. Was in bed around midnight just about every night except at the beginning and the end. I was up until 2 a.m. packing on Thursday evening/Friday morning, so perhaps that's why.

Leah came down with fever, chills and general "malaise" on Thursday. She was devastated that she had to leave camp. And it broke my heart. This was her first year as an official camper. At least it was at the end and she didn't miss much.

One thing did happen that struck me as awesome that I have to share with you guys. On Friday, after all the campers depart for home, we go to the office to pay our tab with the FFA camp staff, and load up cars and trucks with all the equipment and stuff in our entourage. I had cleaned out the office and ran over to my room to load up my luggage, and then I'd be heading out.

As soon as I came out of Pulliam with my luggage, it had started to rain. I mean BIG rain. Those huge drops that smack the pavement like little dive bombers. I threw my bag in and hopped in the car, then drove up to the 7th grade girls cabin at the top of the hill to get a good cell signal and make sure our friend was able to pickup Leah's stuff (thanks Rebekah for packing and Connie for transporting ... my lifesavers!)

It was still raining like crazy. The road I was on is like a huge loop around camp ... kinda like the FFA 285. So I continued to drive it all the way around camp, the rain beating down. I was passing cabins where I have been a counselor on the guys side, and all the other places where I've created memories for the past 10 years.

But once I passed through the main camp gate to leave, the rain started to ease up. By the time I got to the end of FFA Road at the highway, the rain had stopped. And that's when it hit me.

I could not help but think that God was washing camp.

Kids left behind junk this week. Stuff. Things that Satan had been coating them, suffocating them, and sliming them down with. They left it all behind. And now God was washing it away in the rain. Just there in camp. Cleaning it up for the next group.

You know ... when we were in the Prayer Room on Sunday before the campers arrived, many prayed for God to show up. But I am of the belief that God never leaves camp. He's always there. Waiting for us. Longing for us. Wishing that we would take Him with us when we leave camp and to share Him back at home. At work. At school. It doesn't take camp to have Him in our presence and our daily lives. The camp experience can be year-round.

But even when we fail Him ... year after year, He's there at camp. Just waiting. With a cleaned slate ... a fresh year of camp ... ready to wash us with His presence and His love.

Let it rain. Let it rain. Open the floodgates of Heaven. Thanks be to God.