You Make Beautiful Things (Week 3)

I'm switching up this week a little bit - instead of just giving you a day-by-day play of my week, I'm going to give you some highs, lows, and things that have been on my heart this week, okay? (It's kind of a long post be warned!)

 
First off, I love being a day camp counselor at the YMCA of the Rockies. This week I was in Outpost with a group of 5th-8th graders. In Outpost you cook lunch over a fire everyday, do high and low ropes with the group, and have a camp out on Thursday night with skits, swimming, and smores. My kids are seriously the best. They're so funny, they all get along really well, and they make my job so easy (and enjoyable). Kids like these are the reason I love being a camp counselor.

Monday

This week in Outpost we had 7 kids - a brother and sister who like to talk in British accents, two sassy cousins, a die hard UT fan, a trivia/camp song master, and a girl who has read more books than I have (probably). We played get to know you games with them, then moved on to the Bibbity Bop Bop Bop, Camouflage, and Gaga Ball. GAGA BALL IS SO MUCH FUN. If you haven't played you're missing out. All the kids stand in this low wooden circle and you pass the ball around, trying not to let it touch your feet. Last year I saw kids play it here at the YMCA and thought it was a giant fighting ring because of all the screaming the kids were doing. I also won a few rounds which is extra fun ;)

Tuesday

Tuesday we did the high ropes course with the kids, made mini pizzas for lunch (which was a big hit), went to archery and then did this cool thing called Star Lab. Star Lab is this big inflatable planetarium like thing that everyone gets inside and then a light in the middle shines stars all around. It's the coolest.

After work some friends and I played games in Rustic (I learned how to play yahtzee and got double yahtzee!!) and then we went to the LT service at 9pm. LT is a leadership training program here at the YMCA. College kids from all over the country come with their church groups and go to services on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as bible study groups throughout the week. They also have a thing called a project group where they are divided into small groups and spend one of their off-work days doing a hike, a service project, or just hanging out. The LT service was SO good. I loved worshiping with some new and old friends, singing I'll Stand and this gorgeous song You Make Beautiful Things.

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

Wednesday

We hiked to Sprague Lake on Wednesday. It was overcast and slightly drizzly, which is kind of nice to hike in but not great for pictures. All the kids had a great time - we played more bibbity bop bop bop with them at the lake and when we got back we played more Gaga ball. (Also, side note, I still can't get over the fact that I'm being paid to hike AND hang out with kids. I'm dreaming.)

Wednesday night was a giant staff Kickball game! This was great because I met so many more of the staff and also had fun playing with day camp people. I even caught a few outfield balls and the guys were like "we have our magical outfielder Rachel out there!" Hahaha then we played daycamp versus other staff and sang our camp songs obnoxiously while we were batting (sorry other staff). After the game we played Apples to Apples inside Admin and I met more staff from Colombia!

Thursday

Because I'm in Outpost, I got to sleep in Thursday and didn't have to go into work until 4pm, when my campers came for their campout.

As most of you know, I'm going to China in August to teach for a year. It was nice to have the morning off to work on some of things on my China to-do list. Honestly, this week has been challenging for me because of playing catch up in Colorado. When I first came here, I was definitely so happy to be back in Estes Park, but also worried about being away from home the summer before I leave for a year. My spring semester was a cycle of praying and thinking and praying and talking to friends and family about working in Colorado instead of staying in Texas. I felt God moving me in the direction of Colorado and took a leap with it. I knew there would be obstacles in the way - being away from family, trying to fundraise for China while working, not to mention lesson planning, language practicing, obtaining a Chinese visa and whatever else popped up. China is a decision I whole-heartedly committed to and want to pursue, and I didn't want to become so distracted (or better word, busy) in Colorado that I felt unprepared when I left for China.

I'm so glad I went to LT this week because it helped re-focus my purpose. I can handle all things through Christ who strengthens me, and being in the mountains for a summer gives me an opportunity to stretch myself and grow spiritually in ways that staying home might not have allowed. Just in the last three weeks I've met so many inspiring and beautiful people, learned more about the world and myself and what I want to do. God moves in these mountains, and I'm so excited to see the other ways He shakes things up. I'm learning to trust and fully rely on Him better, to be still and know He is there. It's difficult to feel like you aren't in control of things - today I woke up and found out my Chinese school requires us to have Chest X-Rays done ASAP. So this is definitely a minor thing in the grand scheme of life, but it just meant more creative planning and work on my part. Going to doctors out of state is not a fun process, especially with no car, and I'm so grateful the timing worked out with me being off Thursday morning to figure things out.

This is a SCRABBIT

While Thursday morning was rough, Thursday evening was AMAZING. After our staff meeting at 3:30, our Outpost kids came at 4pm and we headed down to Outpost to cook dinner and work on our skit for the evening. I was so close to crying from laughing so hard, those kids were so funny. They wrote in words to the song See You Again and had a little section they sang about each counselor. We also sang In The Jungle but changed it to In the Outpost and everyone had a little solo introducing themselves. We performed for their parents and they loved it.

Gaga ball all day everyday

After the skit we played Gaga ball for an hour then went swimming (and we had the whole pool to ourselves!) It rained on some of our stuff outside so walking back to outpost with wet things was an adventure. We couldn't make a fire so we had dry smores and went bed slightly wet, very tired, but so happy.

Friday

We woke up around 7:30 to start cleaning up and cooking breakfast (choco chip pancakes and bacon). Then was the part I had been dreading: saying goodbye to my kiddos. Because we can't work more than 40 hours a week, we have to clock out Friday morning and support staff takes over. I'll always remember my sweet week one Outpost babies.

It was really nice having the rest of the day off though. I took the Estes Park taxi into town because all of my friends were at work still and I needed to get my chest x-ray done. The driver's name was Jonas and he was so friendly. He asked about myself, where I worked, if I was okay since I was going to the medical center. He then told me about himself, how he loved playing the Christian radio station while driving, and about a church retreat he was going on in a few weeks. I told him about my trip to China and the ministry I would be doing and he was SO excited to hear about it. It was so encouraging.

After my chest x-ray (which was surprisingly a quick and painless process), I hung out in downtown Estes Park until 4pm, just wandering in an out of stores. Estes is such a fun little town to just walk around in - it's fun with friends, but there's also something so sweet and simple about spending the day by yourself. I'm an extrovert, but I've found I really love my alone time. I got new hiking socks, spent an hour in a bookstore, and then finished the day at Starbucks, where I ran into another teen counselor who got off early because of the rafting trip she took with the Adventurer group (she was so sweet and gave me a ride back to the YMCA).

God is amazing. There were so many things I was worried about this week  - like going to the doctors, getting a ride in and out of town - that worked out so perfectly. God's hand was orchestrating it all, like He always is. Big or small, it's taken care of.

Friday night we ate at Penelope's in town and then drove up Trail Ridge Road (the highest road in America!) and watched the sunset. It. was. BEAUTIFUL. (And we got some sweet silhouette pics.)

Saturday

Saturday afternoon Abby and I went canoeing at Lake Estes - we wanted to go last year but ran out of time so it was fun to finally try it! Even though a storm rolled in and we were only out there for half an hour, it was still a great experience and I'd love to do it again.

That night we caught a movie in town (half price with YMCA ID) It was the Melissa McCarthy movie Spy and it was surprisingly really great and hilarious.

Sunday

I honestly thought Sunday would be a short wrap up for the week, but I'm really sorry this hike called BALANCING ROCK happened and I have to share.

We originally planned on doing a hike in the morning, but decided to just sleep in and figure out a new plan at lunch.  We all agreed we didn't want a crazy long hike and decided to do Bridal Veil Falls, a 6 mile relatively flat hike. The trailhead parking was completely full though, so we decided to go to the Lumpy Ridge trailhead and see what else we could hike in the area. Gem Lake was just 1.8 miles up, and there was a place called Balancing Rock 2.1 miles after that so we decided to try it.

Gem Lake in itself is kind of tough lil hike, with almost 1,000 feet elevation gain and horrible giant steps at the end. The view from the top is fantastic, however, so that's what pushed me and we made it in exactly an hour. At the top we took a short break then continued the next 2.1 miles to Balancing Rock.

 I was in a grumpy hiking mood honestly, and hated that the trail just led us up and down and up and down with a few stretches of flat in between. I gave myself a little pep talk like, Rachel come on you get to see something new it will be worth it! We reached a junction in 20 minutes where we ran into a couple. We asked how Balancing Rock was and they said it "was kind of cool." That should have been a warning.

We kept going another 25 minutes and reached our destination. Uhhh...what? Slightly disappointed. Even the clouds were sad for us and started crying when we got there. We decided to turn around and get back before the rain got worse (but it did).

The rain came down harder and we reached the junction just in time for it to start pouring. We went a little farther when we heard thunder and saw lightning, two things you don't want to see/hear when you're high up. We didn't want to keep going back to Gem Lake, which was higher up than we were, so we decided to stay put in the trees. It was pretty miserable - tired, grumpy, wet, and disappointed about the destination aren't a great combo - but one really cool thing was the way we huddled together, praying and singing through the storm. Finally the storm passed and we were able to scramble back to Gem Lake and get down to the trailhead.

On our way down we saw the most beautiful rainbow, which made the whole ordeal much better.

Sorry for all of the word vomit and details, I just wanted to share all the wonderful and crazy things going on here. Even in the messy moments, God is present, making beautiful things.