So the first two sessions of camp have come and gone. Not without its challenges, as assimilitating diverse groups 15 of teenage girls into the fast-paced life of camp can certainly come with its trying moments. But also not without its funny moments, insightful cabin chats before bed, moments of bravery, and true teamwork.

I have one more session in the Bear cabin with my team, and then everyone switches to different cabins. So after next week, I’ll be working with different people and perhaps a different age group. I really like my team so I’m going to be cherishing this week especially. 

Aside from the busyness of camp life Josh and I have kept ourselves occupied with some extensive reading. We’re studying the book of Acts together and using 3 commentaries to do so. I’m currently reading the classic ‘Why Revival Tarries’ by Leonard Ravenhill, and doing some devotional reading with Mother Teresa’s ‘No Greater Love.’

I feel that my enjoyment and love for animals is increasing all the more as I take care of the 14 bunnies and 8 guinea pigs who live in the barn. Being crazy busy is just the way of life here at the ranch, but small animal enrichment continues to be a main priority for me. It means a lot to me that the critters get to play outside in the garden during the day, receive different types of fruit and veggies to eat, and have toys in their cages to play with.

                As camp continues, my prayer continues to be that God would delight in using us to show His love for the people here , and that we would be bold and uncompromising in that love.

 It's easy to love and be compassionate when people are kind and appreciative. It takes almost no effort to love with those types of people. But when people aren't easy to be around and especially to love, it is the supernatural grace of God that we draw from. I believe He is our only hope for loving those who seem 'unlovable'. On our own, we could try to express the most amazing love and kindness, but it all remains a shallow visage without the supernatural power of God working in us to love to such an extreme. He is Christ in us the hope of glory!

After three weeks of staff training and a relaxing couple of days off, Session One officially begins  kicking off the start of our summer camp. We're all pretty excited that the kids arrive tomorrow. All of the staff is divided up into cabins which are created by gender and age group. I’m in the Bear Cabin which is the 15-16 year old girls. Josh is in the Beaver Cabin which is the 15-16 year old boys. So we’re both with the oldest kids at camp, and then we switch cabins half way through the summer. I started out my last two summers as a Bear and I’m happy to keep up the tradition since I really enjoy being with the older girls.

I’m working with 8 other girls in the Bear Cabin and I’m truly looking forward to experiencing camp with each one of them as we sing and dance at campfires, plan and rehearse our talent show acts, watch The Dive Show at Great Escape and ride The Blizzard, play board games and paint nails in our Getaway room, and spend our days with campers who will inspire, invigorate, and challenge us. When I’m in the Bear Cabin, the girliest themes and movies seem to invade my mind like The Babysitters Club, Ramona and Beezus, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and other movies and book series that are surely out of date to the campers coming.

Soon I’ll be spending my day in the barn facilitating the petting program with the rabbits and guinea pigs, and hosting ridiculous Free Choice activities like fashion shows and guinea pig races. I’ll be with the rest of the barn girls as we listen to our country music, wear our jeans and t-shirts (and cowboy boots for some of us) and enter into the dining hall together smelling like animal, hay and manure as we charge to the salad bar. It’ll be good times. It always is.

The day that Josh introduced me to Google Reader was a good one. I used to not look at blogs too often, nonetheless follow them, but the blogs that I’ve discovered have become irresistible to me. They have inspired me in my cooking, my work with children, and in my writing, just to name a few. There are more than just these 5 blogs on my Google Reader but these are the ones that I really look forward to and check out the most.

31 Bits

31bits is an organization that sells beautiful, stylish jewelry made by Ugandan women. This organization is run by a group of girls, and has developed into programs for the Ugandan women as well which include vocational training, and health care. My sister introduced me to this organization and bought me a 31bits bracelet for my birthday and it is so cute and colourful. I’ve been wearing it a lot and getting lots of compliments. Seriously, I bet if I had a 31bits party here at camp, I’d sell quite a bit!

How Sweet It Is

I like reading recipes as it is, but add in beautiful, vibrant photos, and clever writing and you’ve got me hooked! Jessica’s realness is refreshing as she talks candidly about her quirky self and her husband, through all her cooking adventures and mishaps. I like how sometimes she’ll even post about a dish that didn’t work out just for a laugh.  She also responds to a lot of comments which I think is pretty cool.

Joy the Baker

And talk about funny! Joy gets me laughing so much. I like this whole idea of writing about much more than just the recipe that’s being featured. She has this way of rambling in an artfully, structured kind of way that just makes me want to continue reading. Joy is certainly a gifted writer and photographer. Her pretty, vintage dishes are a favourite of mine too. I can spend a long time just digging through the recipe index which includes lots of whole wheat dishes.

Messy Kids

This blog gets me inspired! The staff at the daycare would nod in agreement and maybe cry a little if you asked them how much I enjoy messy play. And now I have a blog that is encouraging me! I know there’s quite a bit of blogs out there that feature crafts and messy play, but the ideas on this one have caught my interest like no other one has so far. A few days ago I was looking at post called ‘Toilet Art’ in which the kids were using plungers, scrub pads, and toilet brushes to paint. That post made me want to be right back at the daycare so I could do that with my kids. But maybe it’s better for the sanity of my former staff that I’m over here!

Good Life Eats

I like hearing from a Mom. There’s something about reading recipes from a frugal mom that just brings rightness and balance to my recipe blog reading. Katie has a great recipe index that includes healthy recipes from a variety of cuisines. I follow a few recipe blogs that are dedicated mostly to baking, and their mostly just for entertainment purposes for me. The reason being is that on a special occasion I may decide to bake something outrageous which involves cream cheese, all-purpose flour and crushed up Oreo cookies (and even then I’d probably be trying to make healthy substitutes!), but during everyday life what I really want is those healthy, inexpensive recipes and ‘Good Life Eats’ has got ‘em for me!

Here at Double H Ranch, we just finished ‘Camp Inspiration’ which is a special week of camp for ventilator-assisted children and their families. Since the medical needs of these children would be too intense for them to attend our regular camp (which starts at the end of this month) this week is just for them. To make Camp Inspiration possible, we have our doctor and team of nurses on site along with another doctor, lots of volunteer nurses and team of respiratory therapists.

It is certainly the most medically-intense week of camp. Even as I spend time with these kids, it’s hard for me to really grasp that they are on life support and receive oxygen 24/7. I don’t believe I’ve ever even seen a tracheotomy until Camp Inspiration, so it’s been a very special experience for me.

We had about 14 campers and their families. In between running the small animal petting program at the barn, I got to spend time with my camper and her parents, and meet the other campers as well. I had met quite a few of the campers a few years ago at Camp Inspiration, and it was really special to hang out with them and their families again.

There is one certain family that inspires me so much, and I imagine there isn’t a person here who isn’t touched by the awesome life they lead. There are 7 people in this family: the parents and their son who is ventilator-assisted, the husband’s brother who has special needs, and then 4 other people who have special needs and have been adopted into the family. I wish I could find the right words to tell you how extraordinary the husband and wife are and how their love for God is being lived out in their lives to such a degree that it just leaves us awe-struck. I think they should write a book, or a blog, or something! They would have much to teach us. Hands down, one of my favourite things about Camp Inspiration is getting to spend time with this incredible family.

With the end of Camp Inspiration, we’re on break for a couple of days. Tomorrow afternoon the rest of the counselors arrive and then we merge into some all staff training. 

Click here to read an article from the Post-Star about Camp Inspiration

One of the books on my reading list for the summer is ‘No Greater Love’ by Mother Teresa. This is a book that I’ve gotten out from the library quite a few times and have read over and over. It is one of my absolutely favourite books. For me, Mother Teresa’s words are full of passion and conviction. Mother Teresa certainly isn’t known for writing theology, she is known for her life of service to the poor and radical dedication to Jesus. Knowing that these words spring from such a life, make them all the more precious and meaningful to me. This book is a great one for me to read at camp. Mother Teresa speaks over and over about being selfless service, prayer, falling in love with Jesus, and seeing Jesus in the least likely places and the least likely people.

Right now I’m just a few chapters in. Since I enjoy quotes so much and I’ve been making tons of underlines in my Kindle as I’ve been reading, I thought I’d post some quotes that have stood out to me so far:

The fruit of love is service.

Were I to think about crowds, I would never begin anything. It is the person that matters. I believe in person-to-person encounters.

If we don’t pray, our presence will have no power; our words will have no power.

Tomorrow if He finds somebody more helpless, more hopeless, I think He will do still greater things with her and through her.

I think that the person who is attached to riches, who lives with the worry of riches, is actually very poor. However, if such a person puts her money at the service of others, then she is rich, very rich.

Our works of charity are nothing but the overflow of our love of God from within.

From  the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If your heart is full of love, you will speak of love. I want you all to fill your hearts with great love. Don’t imagine that love, to be true and burning must be extraordinary. No; what we need in our love is the continuous desire to love the One we love.

We are called to love the world. And God loved the world so much that He gave Jesus. Today He loves the world so much that He gives you and me to be His love, His compassion, and His presence, through a life of prayer, of sacrifice, of surrender to God.

Often a deep and fervent look at Christ is the best prayer: I look at Him and He looks at me. When you come face to face with God, you cannot but know that you are nothing, that you have nothing.

On Saturday, Josh and I arrived at Double H Ranch, in Upstate New York, where we’ll be spending what’s sure to be an action-packed summer here at camp. Josh is going to be a full-time counselor and I’m doing my Small Animal Assistant gig in the barn. Right now training for program staff (which I am) is in process, and we’re also preparing for Camp Inspiration which is a special week of camp for children on ventilators who come with their family.

Josh and I get to have our own room, in a place called ‘Circle H’. Circle H is like a big log cabin with dorm rooms in it. It’s pretty cool for all. Like, I’ve said to a bunch of people here- camp is so far, my favourite place where Josh and I have lived together.

This afternoon me and the rest of the barn girls got to work. Josh helped me clean out the rabbit hutches and I gave all the critters some baby toys that had been given to me and that I collected from Value Village.
I'm already enjoying the camp food. They feed us good here! Today for lunch I had a veggie burger with sun-dried tomato hummus, and then chicken Parmesan for dinner.

I'm also enjoying the glorious air down here and the sights and smells of the wilderness. There is truly no place quite like camp, and I'm glad to have a whole new summer ahead of me.

Before traveling to Double H Ranch in Upstate New York, Josh and I had the opportunity to visit St.Catharines; the city where we met while attending Bible College- typical story (on the surface anyway!) We stayed with our friends Peter and Julie Karanfilis and their son Stephen.  We met Peter and Julie at Bible College and they are truly an awesome couple.  The reason we know about Double H, is through Julie who had been a counselor there herself.

We couldn’t be in St.Catharines without visiting our beloved people at Scott Street Manor. A few years ago, during and after Bible College Josh and I, Jessica and Colin and Josh Heymans started a church at this Manor. When I think about worthwhile and fun things that I’ve been a part of in my life, Scott Street Manor tops the list.

 Probably all of the residents at the manor are  clinically depressed along with other personality disorders and conditions that prevent them from living independently and functioning safely in society. We often said that Scott Street Manor wasn’t a church for the faint of heart. We’ve had some funny and interesting times to say the least, but the transformation we’ve seen in these people who the world has seem to forgotten about- has inspired me for life I feel. 

Scott Street Manor is the perfect place to go to just love on people, fully relying on God to give you the perseverance to just keep loving.

Josh and I felt like very much at home visiting with our manor people and catching up. We felt encouraged to learn that they have movie nights and an exercise program amongst a few other weekly activities. 

 We hope it’s not too long before we’re in St.Catharines again for another visit.

Last night I wasn’t feeling well. I drank half a cup of lemon ginger tea and fell fast asleep quickly. Sometime between the night and morning, I had a really strange but vivid dream.

Josh and I were making our way through a country field with our eyes fixed on the beautiful orange and pink sky in front of us. It appeared to be sunset and it was a gorgeous one. Other people were drawn to it too, and soon a little crowd formed around us as stopped and stared at the sky. Suddenly in the midst of the pink and orange cloud, stars began to twinkle. We collectively gasped in amazement at the magical beauty as we felt we were witnessing a phenomenon, but there was also very much eeriness to it.

Before our very eyes, the sky began to change rapidly. Royal blue and grey collided in and soon the bright sunset dissolved away, and a swirling night sky loomed over us. I remember feeling really nervous. I had a gut feeling that this weird sky meant something serious. And it turned out I was right. A figure that resembled a grim reaper type character lowered down from high in the sky toward the earth. In a shaky voice that contained both a sense of disbelief and knowing, Josh said, “Today is the day. This is the judgment day.” And I knew he was right without a doubt. As the strange figure descended onto the earth it was as if we and the crowd all understood this to be Satan and we turned around and started moving as fast as we in the other direction. I actually remember holding our hamster Sonnen in my hand as we hurried along the field, and she put her ears down and burrowed into my shoulder the way hamsters do when they’re nervous or upset.

Suddenly it was daytime and people collected in coffee shops and restaurants, but no one was eating or drinking. There was no more work or school. From a TV in the coffee shop we listened to a lady speak who looked ordinarily human but we knew she was a heavenly-being. Some kind of little cards were handed out to everyone by some unknown person. Time dragged on painfully. I remember Josh saying, “Wow, Harold Camping wasn’t too far off.” I thought that perhaps it was a dream. I pinched myself multiple times and stepped on my one foot with the other but nothing happened. It wasn’t a stretch for me to believe that perhaps this was really happening. I began to accept that it wasn’t a dream.

What stands out to me most about the dream besides the way the sky looked, was the awful sense of terror that I felt. Assurance of salvation or not, there was an awesome dread that filled my body and made me dizzy. There was no rejoicing; no celebrating or singing. No excitement and joy that Jesus would soon take us up to Heaven, but just a feeling of intense nervousness and dread.

I don’t remember what else happened but I woke up, and was relieved but also in disbelief that it really was just a dream.

It’s a pretty big deal when the Brown family gets together.  My older brother Brian lives in Newfoundland, my twin sister Jessica and Colin are residing in London, Ontario and my Dad in good old Windsor, Ontario; and since when Josh and I aren’t traveling we’re in PEI, it’s a rare occasion when we could all get together. But thanks to determination and some Air Miles, we made it happen.

Yesterday morning Brian arrived and went out to eat at a little diner down the street and then spent the rest of the morning walking by the waterfront and downtown, with a much needed stop at Starbucks of course. Colin introduced Josh to a drink that I think I’ll be seeing a lot more of now- a Mocha Frappucino with two shots of espresso. 

Colin, Jessica, Josh and I went to Value Village because that’s just what we do, and I’m not sure that we’ll ever grow tired of it. I was really happy to find tons of baby toys to bring to my darling bunnies and guinea pigs at Double H Ranch, as well as some American Eagles jeans which are destined to get lots of love as I wear them in the barn this summer.

In the evening we went over to our Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mal’s for dinner. As I was pinning my hair back into a messy chignon, I was picturing a ‘please pass the potatoes’ kind of dinner, but little did we know that our loving, sneaky Dad planned us a birthday surprise. Some friends from church including Joanne Noble and her daughter Heather and the Nicholls family joined us as we indulged in some delicious chicken, hamburgers and salads. My favourite was the potato and egg salad. The weather was beautiful and it was sweet to chat and catch up with some new and old friends, and our family.

After dinner, Jessica, Brian and I blew out the candles of our shared birthday cake. It was a sweet touch to a lovely evening. 

Last night Jessica, Colin, Josh and I stayed up late talking and laughing over Scott Street Manor memories and a bunch of other things. This morning, Jessica and Colin headed back to London since they’re moving to another apartment today. I wished that I could put them in my pocket and take them to camp with us this summer. It’d be so much fun!

 On a whim, Brian decided to go with them to help, and then hitchhike back home. He insists it works, so let’s hope that it does! Today Josh and I are taking it easy today and are going to hang out with my dad this afternoon when he finishes his work.

Our next stop after Ottawa:  Toronto to visit our friends Shawn and Hayley Cuthill. Our friend Michelle introduced us to the Cuthills and so over the past few years we’ve been visiting each other, and Josh and I have gotten see some of the awesome work they’re doing in their city. 
I feel like being in a big city has been a great change of pace for me. I do enjoy Prince Edward Island, but I find that I’m longing for city life and the many opportunities that come along with it.

I enjoy being a part of the everyday life of the Cuthills as they care for their three children and do a whole lot of other great stuff at the same time. We were able to attend their organization’s appreciation dinner which was cool because we always get the invite for it on Facebook but usually we’re away and unable to attend. Eating tandoori chicken, a basmati rice salad and mint salad, while talking about the awesome stuff Jesus is doing in the city, is a pretty cool way to spend an evening.

And now as Josh says ‘like the Littlest Hobo’ (I’m too young to know this show) we jump on a bus and we’re off again. We are now currently in Windsor visiting with family. Yesterday we had a backyard birthday celebration, but you'll hear more about that soon!