It's September!

Hey ya'll! I hope your return to school has been... well... as good as it can be! I started back yesterday - it is odd not being the oldest in my class any more, in fact, I appear to be right in the middle. In seminary there are people from everywhere!! There are so many accents in my class - it's really cool!

Anyways... I am writing to let you know that I will be mailing out Winter CLTD brochures to those of you that didn't get them at camp soon. Hopefully you'll have them in your hot little hands by next week! The dates for Winter CLTD are: 

• October 22-24
• November 12-14
• January 28-30
• February 25-27
• March 25-27
• April 29 - May 1

For the month of September we are planning a get together with all three groups on September 19th 3pm - 7:30 for a hot dog roast. Let me know if you'll be joining us by Sept. 15th.

If you have thoughts or pictures you'd like to post here for all to read pop me an email and I'll get it on here for you. 

Stay in touch and I'll see you real soon!!

Blessings all,

- shelley

Another Invite

Hey all!
Frank asked me to let you know that we have a FINAL final program that you and your parents are invited to come to if you desire. It is a chance for us to talk about how the summer went and share stories that took place. It is only about 2 hours in length. It will be taking place at 3pm on Sunday, August 29.
I hope all is well, friends!!

- shelley

Finally, a word!!

Hello friends!

COME TO TEENS CAMP!!!

Alright!! Now that I have that out there I want to invite you all to come and be a kid at camp again. No set-up, no dishes, no seaweed - just good ole camp C fun!! Also I want to encourage you to 

BRING YOUR FRIENDS!

This is a chance to bring those friends who may or may not be believers and show them the camp you go on and on about!! It runs August 22-27. I expect to see you there!


As you can well imagine, camp life is unbelievably busy!! May begins and I am off and running with a to-do list a mile long and as much as it torments me to have it happen, there are some things that fall to the wayside and this blog is one of those things. Now, I am also aware that many of you are running all over the place as well!! Dylan and Brianna have been here all summer and I get to see so many of your shining (yet tired) faces daily!! 


I would like to welcome the new crew to this blog as well!! Shout out to the new Sojourn crew! This is an awesome bunch and I have little doubt you will be overjoyed to get to know them at Winter CLTD. I am excited to meet the next group on Sunday - I have little doubt they will be as great as the one that is here now (watching Quest to be exact!)


Finally I wanted to let you know the dates of Winter CLTD. We will be having camps on the following weekends for the 2010/2011 season: 

• October 22-24
• November 12-14
• January 28-30
• February 25-27
• March 25-27
• April 29 - May 1

I am looking forward to journeying the winter with you!! I hope your summer has been a gooder!

Blessings all!

-shelley

A New Day

Hey hey, my little ones!!
It feels really odd to not have a camp this weekend! I feel like it has been a lifetime since I saw all of you :(
BUT camp starts in one month! WOW!! Time is a crazy thing :O
SO... we are heading into a new summer and I would like to let you in on who your leaders will be this year! Introducing your new CLTD leadership team:


I would like you to welcome back for her encore performance:

EMMA!!

Working along side Emma, a gal we got to know during winter CLTD:

NIKKI!!

Nikki gets 2 pics because I couldn't choose between the strange face one or one from a million years ago at a 'Gilligan's Island Christmas' banquet ;)

And heading up our guy's side we welcome

Jeremy!!

I hope you are all as excited as I am to have these amazing people to work with this summer! I can not wait to getting this team underway! Please keep us all in your prayers as we join with God's Spirit to build this summer's CLTD program! I think it is going to be an amazing summer!!

Stay in touch all and I hope to hear from you all soon!!

- shelley

You Are An Original Masterpiece

A few years ago I was on tour with Rosebud and it was a particularly hard tour. I was in a place of transition and it hurt like hell. I had an amazing friend who was a great support. She wrote me a note and sent it on the road with me. In it she quoted something she read in a book. Unfortunately I am not sure when the note is and so I am going to attempt to paraphrase what I remember.

We are like a cottage that God moves into. It is a good cottage and God loves it very much. He loves it so much He wants it to grow and so He begins to work on it and renovate it. He will tear down a wall here and add a room there. He cleans it up and makes it bigger. It is hard work and some jobs can take a long time. It can be painful and sometimes some renovations won't seem to make sense. But in the end that little cottage is a shining mansion that can open up and serve others. God's handiwork can then shine through. The little cottage is better and more beautiful.


So often we want God to play Santa Clause or a rescue worker. We pray to Him when we want something or when life is hard and then are disappointed when He doesn't seem to show up right away. I've done it too. 
But, when I stop and think about it do I treat other people I am in relationship that way? Do I only talk to them when I want something? Do I only call them when I am in trouble or when life is hard? No, I don't.
So why do I do that with God? We need to build into our relationships with God. We need to stay in touch with Him. Sometimes that is hard, but if we really want Him in our lives we need to put the effort into the relationship. The thing is, once we are truly seeking Him, He will want to change us and make us better. He wants us to be the best version of us we can be! He wants us to be doing what we were made for. But it will not always be easy. God will not just make you better. He will teach you to be better. If you ask for patience, God will teach you how to be patient. Sometimes the lessons can be hard and sometimes we will fall on our faces, but we have to remember that God is there with us.
I have seen situations where people allow themselves to get deep into situations that they know can lead to demise; that are potentially very dangerous. They follow down paths that they know lead away from anything God wants for them. God does go with them and I believe if these people were to look back over that journey they would see places where God tried to call them out of it; where He warned them of the dangers. 
And yet, they continued on and along the way they got hurt. Sometimes by others, sometimes by the things they did to others and sometimes what they did to themselves. The pain is often very deep and can take a long time to recover from, if they recover at all. I have seen people in these situations then turn to God in anger and insist that He wasn't there to protect them, that He let them down and allowed the pain to take place. They come to me and demand to know where God is in such situations.
I know where God is. He is standing beside them wanting them to turn to Him and ask for forgiveness and ask to be made whole again. It is hard to ask and it is hard to do the work that it will take, but God wants that for us. He won't say, "I told you so." or suggest that you got what you deserved. He will just take you and walk through the pain with you - however long - as long as you want Him there.
God is a gentleman. He does not force His way on us. He grants us freewill and won't take that away. If He demanded that we follow His way we would rebel and be furious about it, yet we are furious when He doesn't step in and take control of the bad situations. It we step into the lion's den we need to be ready to face a lion. If we step up the the fire we need to be ready to be burned. When we step through the doorway of sin into a world God weeps to see us enter we need to be ready to deal with the consequences. I have a friend who used to say, "God is not required to save me from my own stupidity!" But God is there with each of us. I can't imagine how He breaks when we run away from Him into danger - it breaks my heart to see you guys do that, I can't even bear to think of how it must hurt Him. For every we tear we cry He must cry a million more. He feels all our pain. How heavy that burden must be to carry.

I want to urge you, friends, when you ask God to build you into His masterpiece, allow Him to change you. Be strong because He is your strength. Stay with the pain until you get to the other side where you will be better and stronger and a portrait of His handiwork. That is what a real relationship with God looks like - a life changed by Him to be all that it can be!

I have a video for you to watch. It is just over 9 minutes but is really worth the watch and considerations. You may have seen it before, but even if you have allow it to speak something new to you today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhfUzodLRvk&feature=related
(Image found at: http://ArcZero.deviantart.com/art/Hold-On-to-Jesus-24078808)
I love you all.

-  shelley

I found this image at:

http://elcrazy.deviantart.com/art/Jesus-Is-Real-110888293

Wanna Get Your Hands Dirty?

Hey all!

On Saturday May 29 the camp will be hosting a work day to do things like paint the lodge, fix the firepit walls and 10 other projects to make the camp beautiful before the summer!! Wanna come help? We'll give you lunch! And as you, my fine dish-doing, seaweed-raking friends know when your at camp even the dirty jobs can be fun!
If you wanna swing in for awhile on that day please just let me know by the Tuesday before it either by email, text, phone, fax or carrier pigeon!
I hope all is well!

-shelley

ps GET YOUR APPLICATIONS IN!

More Reading

Hey Peeps!!
This past weekend Casii asked if she could read to you from Eldon's blog, but since we didn't do that I thought I would encourage you to do it yourselves: http://eldonsproule.blogspot.com/2010/04/farmer-fran.html It's a good read - check it out!
Also I thought I might also connect you to another friend of mine. Her name is Nora. She used to lead CLTDs back in the day as well as lived with me for just over a year. She is a part of this cool group that some of you might like: thisislegacyone.blogspot.com


Blessings to you all! I hope May treats you well!
-shelley