Alright.
Where did we leave off? Oh. . . right. Another Best Week of My Life.
So, an interesting lead-in to this particular highlight of this journey:
Lydia, one of the other BJHS YL leaders, and I were walking around SharpTop Cove at some point during camp last summer when we sauntered past some Adult Guests. (AGs are, well, adults, who are typically visiting a YL camp to experience the heart of our mission. They can be anyone! Committee members, parents of YL kids, parents of YL staff people, potential donors, etc. And, in all honesty, they are typically in the 40 and above age range.) I made some comment about how, someday, when I was older, I was going to be an Adult Guest.
These people have it made! They get to walk around camp and do absolutely nothing. . . except be awesome. While I absolutely love being a leader at camp, and would seriously never trade that experience for anything, I would also like to find myself able to attend a week of YL camp with no obligations and plenty of sleep on a bed that is not made of plastic in a room where at least 10 suitcases are exploding at any given time. These are some of the sentiments that I made known to Lydia at that exact moment at SharpTop.
Well, wouldn't you know it, but not even two days after returning from a week full of laughter, tears, memories & adventure, I was on the phone with Paul, the Placement Director with Young Life International. And the news he had for me? Well, Thor & Kate Odland, the amazing couple doing YL in Norway, wanted to invite me to visit Lake Champion, one of the YL properties in New York, for the week while they were at camp. . . as an Adult Guest! I find God's sense of timing in answering prayers rather hilarious.
Two weeks after returning from SharpTop Cove in Georgia I was on a plane to Lake Champion in New York. So surreal. So crazy. So awesome.
I arrived at Lake Champion in a dreamlike state, not knowing quite what to expect, and really, not knowing what I was going to do with myself for a week at YL camp, where I didn't have to serve as Work Crew in the kitchen, or follow my leader around all day asking, "What's next? What's going on tonight? I know you know!! Why won't you tell us??" or feign naivety as the recipient of those questions. I was walking into unknown territory, and I was thrilled.
Within the first 30 minutes, I met Thor, Kate, Sindre, Pål, David, Kristin, Liv Hilde, Tønnes, Inge Morten, Sven, Betty, Kristine, Peter, Vegard, Vegard, Nina, Miriam & more, as I was shuffled around the Leader's Lounge, shaking hands and desperately trying to remember names (and how to pronounce them!) I was promptly given a purple YL Norge shirt, emblazoned with a big polar bear (turns out Pål loves polar bears), and told to make myself at home.
I honestly don't know how to describe the following few days in a manner that will do them justice, but you can be sure they were filled with laughter, black coffee (a Norwegian specialty that I have been assured I will grow a liking to), many a confusion on what was actually being discussed in a conversation, receiving & accepting the title of 'Dancing Queen,' hilarious pictures (all the handy-work of Kristin), and growing to love and respect these phenomenal Norwegians who had travelled thousands of miles to experience the Best Week of Their Lives.
Now, the culmination of not only this week, but my entire journey thus far, and still to this day, happened over the last 24 hours I spent in & around the state of New York.
I found myself in my room on the last night of camp, crouching over my Bible & my journal on my giant Adult Guest bed, praying earnestly to God to show me his desires for my life and my heart. You see, I had not only been given the task of praying about being placed on International Staff in Norway, but also possibly in Brussels, London or with MCYM (the military branch of YL Int'l, serving on a military base somewhere in Europe or Asia). I never felt called to Brussels or London, but I had been fervently praying over Norway (for reasons explored in the previous post) and MCYM, since I had experience growing up in a military family, and I knew the great need those teenagers have while their parents are deployed, while they're constantly being uprooted and asked to start new after only being in one place anywhere from three months to two years, and while their world is one of unending change and duty.
There I sat, with my journal in my lap, turned to a page with two giant sticky notes adorned with NORWAY, and MCYM written with a Sharpie. I began to pray specifically over each location, asking God, "Do You want me to go to Norway? [long pause] Do You want me to go with MCYM?" As many times as I asked those two questions, I never heard anything. I never felt a tinge over either location. I was so frustrated with God!! "Dude, I'm asking you a specific question here, and You're giving me nothing!" How on earth was I supposed to follow Christ's lead if He wasn't even going to show me which way to go??
It was time for me to make an executive decision. And that decision was to go with my heart. And my heart screamed 'Norway!' I knew that God would align my desires with His, so I trusted that if He didn't want me going to Norway, He would close doors and make it quite clear I wasn't supposed to venture to Scandinavia.
Just when I thought I had God all figured out, and I thought I knew exactly how He speaks to us and guides us and confirms our paths, He went and busted out of that tiny box in which I was trying so desperately to squeeze Him.
Intrigued? I hope so.
Stay tuned.
Until next time,
Keep on loving. Keep on living.
