Finally....pictures!

I promised pictures and so here they are. The first ones are of us hanging at the pool and the hot tub, which is where we spend a good majority of our time. Hope is such a little fish and is swimming all over the place. She would spend every spare minute here if she could, but we make her get out occasionally to eat and sleep. For the first week and a half, Bella pretty much stayed on the top step except when she was heavily coerced to leave in the arms of someone who could touch the bottom. And this is with floaties on and a death grip on whomever took her into the deeper waters. All of the sudden, today, she was all over the place (due, I think, in part to a visit from a younger friend who was swimming all over the place...there's nothing like a little peer pressure...thanks Becky, Paige, and Brooke for coming to visit!). She even asked me to take her floaties off so she could jump to me and go underwater. She was so brave and I think it's here to stay. She was loving life away from the top step.



These pictures are from Western Night...which, is affectionately called, the Night that Never Ends. It begins with a tableau (think, a live photograph...everyone working at camp is dressed in western gear and is frozen in various western scenes, a gun goes off and the picture comes to life, another gunshot and they are frozen again), then dinner, a carnival, a square dance (yes...high schoolers square dance and they LOVE it!), the opera (a forty minute show that ties up all the various storylines throughout the week), an all camp dance party, and free time until midnight. Whew! It's a lot of work for Loren, but it is so fun for us to be a part of and the girls have enjoyed it both weeks and have gone to bed exhausted but with smiles on their faces.




It really is like an alternate universe here...especially for the girls. It's a lot of work, but I am excited to see it all through their eyes and to get to talk with them, often, about why we do all of this. I am amazed to see Hope's heart begin to be filled with compassion for those who don't know Jesus. It's something that we pray for all the time and seeing the fruits of that is an unbelievable blessing.

We are halfway to the end of this assignment and, even though it's been great, I feel like the real richness of it all, for us, it yet to come. Please continue to pray for us as we struggle though all the demands that come with it. And, as always, keep the students in your prayers as they hear about Christ.