Ok, so it’s been about 2 weeks since I last posted…aka, about 2 weeks since I’ve sat down for more than 5 minutes to breathe!! It’s been intense and SO much has happened…so rather than one overwhelming post with ALL the stuff at once, I’m going to post several posts about each individual topic…hopefully I’ll be able to get through it all today, I feel like the longer I take the more I’ll forget. Just a few days ago I was working on the climbing tower with the boys campers and one of them was asking me if I knew his brother who was here at JV. I said I recognized the name but didn’t have a face since it’s been such a long time ago, “it was just last week!” the boy said, “I know” I said back, “but do you know just how long a week at camp really is!?” haha, so yes…here’s these last 2 weeks:
The last Wednesday of JV was my second day as kitch girl, which, as I’ve said before, means that I’m usually much busier than the rest of the girls, however, that day we had an unusually free afternoon, which meant that I was free at the same time as my Uncle Dave, which meant that we could finally go sailing!! So we hopped in a boat to took to the high seas of Farmers Lake.
It was a lovely day, the waters were calm, the sky was blue, a few other boats spotted the lake, both the brightly colored sailboats as well as a few scattered kayaks. Steve and Hilary were lounging in the P-boat (patrol boat), peacefully keeping an eye out for trouble.
It was a relaxing voyage, until we were met by two boys in kayaks, quickly paddling towards us. “hows it going?” Uncle Dave asked cheerfully of the boaters. “we just made Dan Martins kids cry because we told them we were pirates here to take over their ship.” They replied, “so we have to take over yours now.” Upon those words epic battle began.
This was no “splash, splash, haha you’re all wet” kind of battle, this was full out, tip over the boats, hitting and scratching fight with all you’ve got war! the boys names were Alex and Amos, Alex was a smart one, as captain of the pirate fleet he instructed Amos to assist him in stealing our rudder, attempting to cripple our ship as they tried to pull us off. At the same time Uncle Dave and I attempted and succeeded in tipping them out of their kayaks several times, as well as capture their paddles from them. However, they were always able to retip their boats and get back their paddles.
At one point, Amos had again taken hold of out rudder, but I grabbed for it to try to rescue it, I was clutching the actual rudder part, while he pulled the stick part used for steering. He was bracing himself against the side of our boat, I pulled and pulled, and finally let go when I felt the metal of the hinge dig into my pinky. Amos got away with our rudder and I examined my battle wound, it was a crescent shaped gouge with a large hunk of skin flapping off. As I was in the thick of battle, I couldn’t let it worry me right then, so I held the wound closed with my other fingers and continued to fight.
Meanwhile, Steve and Hilary had stayed within range, laughing at our antics. Steve radioed into the beach asking for permission to engage in battle, and it was granted. They motored over and Hilary grabbed the rudder back from Amos. Later she said she thinks she might have cut his finger in the process, but I told her it was ok, finger for a finger.
Finally, after about 15 minutes of intence battle, the pirates succeeded in pulling me and Uncle Dave out of our ship. I made a grab for the paddles and swam to the abandoned kayaks, while Uncle Dave worked on dropping the sail right on Alex’s head, after which he joined me in our escape, leaving the pirates with a crippled vessel.
Upon our return to land, we laughed and told all who would listen of our adventures on the highs seas of Farmers Lake, and warned all who ventured out to keep a wary eye out for the fierce pirates who patrol those waters.
Dancing in the Rain
That same night of the pirate attack, God sent us a massive rain storm, we were in the lodge with the JV campers, it was the night of the talent show. After the show, we raced to get the snacks we had brought for the campers packed and back in the kitch. There was so much laughing going on, and we were all sopping, but no one cared. I had to do kitch girl clean up but I just couldn’t stay inside, the rain was calling my name. I ran back to the dorm, using the excuse that I had to get my ipod, but really just wanting to be washing in the rain. When I got to the dorm, Brittany was outside “Ashley!” she cried, grabbing my hand, “run with me! I love running in the rain more that anything!” so, hand in hand we frolicked down the driveway outside the dorms and onto the street. It was pitch black, we literally couldn’t see a thing, just the lights of the dorm reflecting through the trees, but in front of us the road was nothing but black. As we gasped and ran, we talked about how life was like running in the rain down a dark street, we cant see anything, but we trust that God will lead us and wash us clean. Brittany being Brittany of course burst into random song “stand in the rain, stand your ground, stand up when it’s all crashing down, stand through the pain, you wont drown, and know that what's lost will be found, stand in the rain”. “Brittany!” I yelled as I grabbed for her other hand, “that’s one of the songs that’s gotten me through all the junk of my year!” I told her, excitedly jumping up and down. “really!?” she yelled back over the sound of the rain, “same for me!!” laughing we again began to run as fast as we dared, singing at that top of our lungs. As we rounded to corner we came onto the baseball field, and what did we see but 5 other staff girls dancing and twirling without a care in the world. Laughing, we joined them. For about 15 minutes we all danced, and jumped and ran our hearts out in the pouring rain. Our clothes and hair was soaked through and through, we were muddy from those times our spinning got the best of our feet, but we never stopped laughing. At random, one of us would shout out in song, and the rest would join in, singing every sing we could think of that praised God for His glory. We’d run up to one another and grab each others hands and exclaim a prayer of praise for Gods beauty and His rain. We ended at midnight, standing in a circle, each praising God.
Ok, so I know this probably sounds like we’ve gone insane and I'm sure many of you are wondering if we haven’t finally cracked up here in the UP, this is just one of those things that I cant even explain why we do it, but by doing it I know that God is smiling and laughing and dancing right along with us.
After I got back to the kitch, I dried off as well as I could and put on praise music and began to clean. It wasn’t too long before my kitch boy, John, and a few of the other guys came romping in. I could tell that they’d had an equally amazing time in the rain, they also seems overjoyed and high on life. they told me that they guys had all taken a run around the lake, barefoot, with no flashlights. They said that around the other side they’d also had a time of prayer and praised God. “I cant even explain how great tonight was! It blows my mind!” Tyler kept saying. It was a great night…something we all needed…praise the Lord for rain!!
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