Volume 63: Rest in Improving

"What if we added a trivia class for morning activities!"

"We could make the experience better by adding soft serve to their schedule."

"It would be efficient to add more portable flicker-ball goals."

"Let's have our pstaff do top staff evals too!"

We spent the last week at camp, sitting in meeting after meeting, discussing very specific topics about how we can make things better at camp. From regulations on backpacks to implementing an international buddy system, Camp Ozark is never content on just keeping things as they are. In accordance with our mission, we are always working together to uphold our commitment to excellence. 

In this day of immediate satisfaction and cutting corners, it is very refreshing to work in an organization like Camp Ozark. Technically, we could keep everything just as it is and still operate successfully - our camper waitlists are a testament to that. However, our leadership is determined to always get better and never become complacent.

I am grateful to learn in this kind of environment. While there are still many moments that I would rather choose the easier path, I am challenged to push forward and not give up. 

As this year is coming to an end and a new one will soon begin, may I be just as diligent to think through my own life and spot areas in my life that could be improved - whether weaknesses that could be worked on or strengths that could be even more cultivated (Thanks, Andrew!). May I not become complacent in my faith or relationships or work. But rather, be proactive in always bettering myself, to look more and more like Jesus. 

This past week, I finished Henri Nouwen's book "The Way of the Heart," and he stated a quote from Mother Teresa:

"Spend one hour a day in adoration of your Lord and never do anything you know is wrong and you will be alright." 

And WHEW I have been repeating this one to myself daily. "Never do anything you know is wrong." It seems so simple, something we feel like we could quickly rebuke "I don't do anything wrong...." Yet, if I am honest with myself, I am acting on thoughts that are wrong daily. May I have greater discipline to stop my words and daily actions that are not glorifying God. 

HAPPY ADVENT!!!!! The season of WAITING (an unpluggers speciality!!!) May we diligently lean into this advent as we are in seasons of:

Waiting for baby Luke to come after the due date...

Waiting for your husband to find a job...

Waiting to feel God's comfort and presence and purpose in prayer...

Waiting to move back to America and finding a place to live...

Waiting for baby to come in January and job provision... 

Waiting for confidence in a decision about work... 

We are all currently in seasons of waiting - and ya know, as soon as these current ones are solved, we will most likely find ourselves in another circumstance that involves waiting....

To the world, it's an exhausting cycle. Yet, as Christians, may we find peace in the midst, as we remember that we are ultimately waiting for our permanent, forever home. And waiting for Jesus to return and restore the brokenness that surrounds us. 

For the second year in a row, Yellerton and I are reading Scott Erickson's book, Honest Advent, and it is SO GOOD! Once again, it is full of applicable truths, just at the right time. It seems as if everything I underlined and marked last year is exactly what I need again this time around. 

Some quotes that HIT CLOSE TO THE HEART from the week:

"The process of growth is always uneasy because growth never comes through ease. It comes through the stretching and expanding of one's own capacity to push on ahead." 

"The difficulty in letting God grow you is the trust that is asked of you when you aren't quite clear what the outcome looks like."

"It's for LOVE that you have been moved from what is known to what is unknown. It's for love that you have been moved from your comfortable perch so you can be enlarged by a different perspective." 

"May the unease of your stretching and expanding be the promise of divine love growing in you a new life of unforeseen possibility."

"May you find the Almighty waiting in the conversation you can have only by being in your current situation."

"May you awaken to the inseparable love of God by the very breathing that you are not in charge of."

"May all your impossibilities be the very starting point for divine possibility."

Us young, cool, fun assistant directors of Camp Ozark have asked each other the question, "If you could road trip cross country with any associate, which one would you choose?" 

Well of course my answer will always be, our very own, Debbie! 

And on Friday, I lived out the dream!!! From 6 AM in Mt. Ida to 3:30 PM in Chattanooga, we never once listened to a Podcast or music... Nor was there ever even a moment of silence... We talked and talked and talked some more! The time flew by, but I absorbed wisdom from life experience that I will always remember. So here's to Debbie and how lucky we all are to learn from her and gratitude for her heart to pour into the younger generation!