Camp Tallowood.

Let's start with sixth grade. Here is the only picture of me at camp in sixth grade to my knowledge. I'm wearing an aqua color shirt, but don't try to find me. I'm about the size of a neutron. Or try to find me. It's your call really. Most of camp that year was a blur. I don't really remember much, but I do remember somethings.

1. A guy with red hair (possibly one of the Heflin brothers) took me and some other girls in my cabin to the senior-sixth grade breakfast. I straitened my hair that morning.

2. Kathryn and I convinced our leader(whoever that was) that we were triplets and that Elise was the third. (We explained her red hair by saying it was from our mothers side).

3. The girl on the top bunk in our cabin above Emily threw up(from the top bunk) while we were in mid-prayer one night. Our cabin smelled for the rest of the week.

4. The Players did an interp to Here is Our King and I knew from that moment on that I wanted to be a Player one day.

5. I saw who Jesus really was for the first time that week and my life has never been the same. I came home wanting to do nothing but read my Bible, because finally everything in it made sense.

7th grade. So that year, I apparently didn't know what sunscreen was and thought sunglasses made me look like a cool high schooler. My favorite camp t-shirt was also from this year (it was ligh blue, my favorite color). We studied Genesis that year and I don't remember exactly what the Lord taught me, but I remember sitting in worship every night blown away at how big of a God I served.

8th grade. That year at camp was especially fun for me. I had befriended a senior in our youth group named Mallory the past spring and getting to say hi to her at camp was the most exciting thing in the world. It was the first year my birthday fell on the week of camp and Mallory gave me a small travel sized bible for my birthday since I had been complaining about carrying my huge one around for weeks. My parents even came to camp that year as sponsors. And my father, bless his heart, managed to break his knee and cut his head open in less than three days. It's ok though, he made new friends at the hospital. People at camp kept telling us we should wrap him in bubble wrap. We probably should have.

In our tribal shout, I had to play some sort of egyptian princess and Ryan was Pharaoh, which explains the funny makeup in the above picture. We took a hike as a whole camp that year to a place where they had built a mock temple. We saw our pastor who acted as the high priest sit down to symbolize how his job was finished because Jesus died on the cross. Now, all could come into the presence of God.

Freshman year. That was a big one. I remember being ready for the Lord that year at camp. I was thirsty for Him. The man who was supposed to come and be our camp pastor had broke his back the week before camp and was unable to come. So some leaders in our church and youth group preached in place of him that week. On tuesday night, our youth secretary Rebecca spoke. The Lord spoke in powerful ways through her and by the end of the night I found myself up at the front just saying "Yes, Lord" in response over and over again. I got baptized that year. I remember coming up out of the water thinking about the last line of a Chris Tomlin song that said "But God who called me here below will be forever mine." God was forever mine and He always will be.

Sophomore year. Well, Margaret finally decided to come to camp. My sunday school teacher and I schemed all year long to get Sarge to camp and came out victorious. Also, a few of my friends and I made a camp promo video called Camp Tallowood throwdown. It was a take off of the hoedown throw-down from Hannah Montana. We now have 603 views on youtube. Yup, we're cool. My camp book that year is stuffed with notes from the service each night. I remember running out of room while my hand cramped as I tried to catch everything the pastor was saying.

Junior year. That year was special in a bunch of ways. I got to perform with players for the first time at camp. And Kelly was a sixth grader at camp, which made me nostalgic. I was blessed to have Carolyn as my leader again that year. One of my friends and I prayed for brokenness in the weeks prior to camp. We prayed that the Lord would rebuild our hearts again, and that the Lord would make us whole in Him. That week at camp was the beginning of an almost year long process of healing.

So I get the privilege of leaving in a mere six days for my senior year at Camp Tallowood. At camp over the years, I have been exiled, I have wandered like the Israelites, I have seen Jesus crucified, Isaac almost sacrificed, and the temple destroyed. Lord only knows what's in store this year. But I'm going to sing, and dance, and listen, and break, and be renewed one last time. Camp Tallowood, it's go time.