Camp

Life has made a full circle for me, it would seem. I still remember, so many years ago, my very first week at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp. For me it was actually a mixed experience...while I had tons of fun I was also very homesick and didn't make many friends. My counselor, although not the best that I recall, did do one thing right...she pointed me to the One who would never leave me and I made the step to entrust my life into God's keeping.

That first time didn't keep me from coming back and over the years LLBC has come to mean a great deal to me. It is one of my very favorite places to be. This week we dropped off Hannah for her first week at camp.

It is hard to imagine that I am old enough to have a daughter who can now start having her own camp experiences. I'm so excited for her and I know that the things she'll learn and the friendships she'll make will impact who she becomes as a young woman someday.

This has been so encouraging for me in a different way, as well. Since Hannah had never been to LLBC before and the friend she had hoped to take could no longer make it, we were concerned that she'd show up Day 1 with no friends and no knowledge of camp and have a bad first experience. I made a few connections for her beforehand within our homeschool community, but ultimately we decided to attend Family Camp the weekend before her camp began so that she'd at least be familiar with the facilities.

I've never regretted our decision to homeschool, but watching her this past weekend was an affirmation to me that we made the right decision. When we sent Hannah to kindergarten we watched our social, confident little girl turn into a child who was regularly excluded by her peers and who often wondered why one child was her friend one day and not the next...her "social" experiences were not good and she had a hard time with friendships.

Over the last two years we've worked hard to establish relationships within our homeschool community and so I've seen Hannah (and our other kids, too) build good relationships. But those were kids that I've arranged for her to play with and have time to make friendships with. This past weekend, all on her own, I watched Hannah go and meet kids and make her own friendships. Socialization? Not a problem.

When I left Hannah yesterday she was, by God's grace, in a cabin with three other homeschooled kids she knew (something that I couldn't have controlled but God provided for her), ready to rock her first week at camp. I'm guessing her first experience will not be as lonely as mine. And I can't wait to her all about her own experiences!