Wow what a cool summer it's been so far. Here's an super reduced update of the life of a summer nomad named Katy.
Summer started off with a trip to Chapter Focus week in Cedarville Michigan at Cedar Campus with InterVarsity. This was a week of chapter bonding and time with the Lord in a beautiful campground on Lake Huron in the UP. I was in the group studying the book of Mark for the week, and it was a superb time! I was the only one from CSS and it was a bit strange....don't get me wrong, I absolutely love hanging with my UMD friends and the Staff workers, but I can't commit to the planning and vision for their campus when it's not my own. But I am pumped to see the good works the Lord is going to do there this next semester (and year through my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at UMD!)
Apart from being the only one from CSS, I came into the week in a funk. Having come off of finals, starting my job, and moving back home and tutoring an extra 6 hours a week, my brain was all over the place, and I was in need of gettaway with the Lord to be refreshed. With my growler of Arny Palmer, all 21 of us jammed into two cars and a 15 passenger van for our grand adventure to the great unknown of CFW. When we first got there we didn't have much planned for the night. We got to have a large group gathering of worship and some messages of what to expect for the week, and later some chapter time, but all in all it was a pretty chill evening. Already at that point I felt I needed to just get away from people for a bit and spend some time with the Lord one on one to get my heart set and some junk taken care of so I'd be ready to let Him work in me that week. I got the chance the next day when we had our retreat of silence ( a three hour time of quietness with the Lord and His word and a sack lunch!) I grabbed my journal, my Bible and my very full sack lunch (they feed you good in this place!) and sat in a ray of sunshine underneath some beautiful trees with a Caribbean-looking view of lake Huron (no joke, it was legit) and was refreshed.
For brevity's sake, here's how the rest of the week went. Studying Mark brought up a lot of stuff in me. 1.) I regained an appreciation of how magnificent His word is and just how much there is actually in there. 2.) I was reminded of how faithful God is in who He says He is and when we come across something in the Bible that seems out of His character, it's not Him, it's us! We need to study it more, and eventually it is evident that He is exactly who He promises to be, and it is our incomplete or misunderstanding of the passage that is causing the contradiction 3.) Jesus is calling me into deeper relationship with Him and I need to press in to find it.
What was unusual for me was I left camp with more questions that resolution. Instead of the "camp high" one normally gets at this place, I was left with a feeling of unfinishedness that ironically meant that I needed to press in (what I had learned in Mark).
I came back from my week of bliss to learn that my car Eunice, having gone under surgery number two with Dr. Alfred (aka my dad) to replace the plenum, she blew her oil pump and would not run with oil pressure. Again to make it quick here's what happened: My pastor's family had an extra car I was blessed with to use for the two weeks it took my dad to get Eunice up and runnin' again, and I didn't have to miss any work (either at CSS or tutoring) and she's alive and doing well still today! God is so faithful to provide in it all!
The day after I got back, I got to attend the lock-in with the youth center which is always a blast, and then a fine church service the next morning in Cotton. Since then I've been working at CSS, running around with many shenanigans with friends from Duluth and my cotton pals at the youth center!
Last week was my last week of work until August, which is a strange thought! I've also spent the last week at camp Sa-kee-sa, which I went to as a teen, and got to help out getting things ready for next week for all the kids to come to camp. I plan on writing a whole 'nother blog on this one to share some neat stories, but my time there has brought back some amazing memories and made some new ones (and some new friends :) ).
After this next week at Sa-kee-sa I have one more, where I get to be a cabin leader for some girls! Then a beautiful wedding to attend and then I'm off to IVLI!
IVLI is the InterVaristy Leadership Institute, a month long leadership camp and discipleship training for InterVaristy Students at Cedar Campus (the same place I was at for CFW) and I'm sooooo pumped about it!! Some had tried to recruit me to go last summer, and I had thought, no way, I need to work and this and that and blah blah blah. Well last summer that was true, but since the end of last summer, I knew God was calling me to spend this July with Him at Cedar Campus. I'm so excited to see what God is going to do with me and to see how He's going to meet me there. It's a bit of a bitter sweet feeling because I will greatly miss being back home and with the people I love here, but I also know this will be an absolutely amazing month I will never forget, and I will be changed and encounter God in a way I dont' think I'll ever have the chance to do again, and I know He's calling me there, so I must go.
I'd appreciate prayers as I go on this next month an a half or so! Prayers for the girls I"ll be with at Sa-kee-sa, that I may be His hands, feet, words, and presence to the younger girls in my cabin. That Jesus be meeting them and drawing them into sweet relationship with them and transforming hearts, releasing freedom, and captivating minds and lives into joyful obedience as a response to His unfailing and never ending love! That we see kids come to know Jesus for the first time, recommit to Him, and build friendships of accountability and encouragement. That Bob and Gale and the rest of us leaders have the wisdom, insight, and energy to faithful fulfill his calling in us this next week! Also prayers for my time at IVLI, that I be open and ready to experience what God has in store for me. That I be able to calm my heart and mind, and meet Him there and be comepletely surrendered for his plans to mold me while I'm there!!
Super excited!!
With love,
Katy
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