What i wrote for youth group about Alaska

As I was in Alaska for two weeks it was really cool to see how God really worked in my cabin and in my life the week I was a counselor. I had the privilege of being able to have 5 girls in my cabin. They were 11 or 12 years old, and all unsaved. God really softened my heart toward one of my girls in particular. Her name was Mikayla. when I first saw her I was amazed because she looked so tough. I had never seen a girl look so angry and just sort of an attitude of “I don’t need you, so stay away.” I was really wondering how the rest of the week would go when I saw her and the other girls. All I could think was “I wonder how or if the Lord will use Veronica and I to reach them.” (Veronica was my Co-counselor.)
I was having a really tough time until about Wednesday because I felt like I couldn’t get through to my girls. They wouldn’t really pay attention to devotions at night and when I did devotions on Tuesday I felt like I did a horrible job at talking about Rahab to them. I felt very hopeless because I wanted to just help the girls but I couldn’t, and they didn’t act like they needed any help either. On Wednesday it was Veronica’s turn to do devotions and she decided to tell her testimony. She had an amazing testimony. As she was telling it I was just as enraptured to what she was saying as the kids were because God had put her and her family through so much. She had very abusive parents, alcohol, drug, emotional, and sexual abuse had all happened to her for pretty much her life. As she was telling the kids her story I could see that they could relate to what she said which was so sad because they were so young. They are so little and yet they have gone through so much. For the first time though we had there attention and that was wonderful to see because I could tell God was just preparing me for that night when we would finally start to reach the girls.
After she told her testimony the girls all clamored around me and asked me to tell them my story. My mind started racing because I had no idea what to say all of the sudden, especially after what Veronica had said. I was raised in a Christian home and saved at an early age…I’m thinking “how could my life possibly relate to them??” As I started telling them about how I became saved the Lord laid it on my heart to tell them about something that happened when I was 13 that I don’t talk about very often, but I knew the Lord wanted me to tell them. I also told them about when I rededicated my life to the Lord. It was so cool because they had so many questions. They were so open to the Lord and to knowing more about Him and they had such an innocent curiosity about Him. I just couldn’t stop praising God that they finally felt open enough to talk to us and to ask us questions. That’s when it got hard though because then we started finding out about there own lives. That’s when I heard about the girls and how there dad’s would beat there mom’s when they were drunk, they had been sexually abused when they were 4 or 8, already tried drugs, felt guilty about things they did in the village..Etc etc..and it was heartbreaking. It was so hard to hear. Because for me its been one thing if they happen to me or someone my age because we are older but to hear little, little girls talk about all of these hard things, that they said so “matter of factly,” it was really hard. Needless to say that was a late night, but the next day was really cool.
All of the girls were much more open on Thursday, and Mikayla was the first one to break down and want to talk to Veronica about being saved. That happened in the afternoon then at 12:30 at night all of the other girls decided that they wanted to believe in Jesus. On Friday when I looked back on the week I just was amazed by how blessed I was by God and how he wanted to use Veronica and I. I am so happy that God had those girls for me and he just really showed me how no matter what I am doing He has a plan and He is in charge, not me.

Deet may protect you from mosquito's but we all learned it also can remove your nail polish! Isn't that wonderful???

I am sorry for it taking so long for me to write about Alaska. It's taken me about a week to fully think about everything that happened those 2 weeks, and i have finally figured out how to write it all out. I wanted to thank everyone again for all the prayer and money support. I really saw God a lot while i was there, and i saw Him the most the 2nd week we all were there.

It was good to be there for 2 weeks because the first week God blessed the camp by being "over staffed." The whole team arrived in Kako after flying from Seattle to Anchorage, Anchorage to Bethel, and then a 45 minute flight to Kako on a small little Cessna. It was quite the trip, and i was very happy to finally get there. I think we all were very happy to finally get to the camp, and the Lord knew that we all needed some rest so everything that needed to be getting done at camp was being accomplished by others. I didn't know quite what to expect the camp to look like but there was a lodge and many little 2 story houses that everyone else lived in all year round. Lacey, Sheila, and I all stayed in the basement of one house on 2 twin beds that were put together to be around king sized. Christen and Meagan stayed in another room in the basement, and we all had a fun time hanging out with each other at nights. All of us in the (beige) house were on staff the first week. Basically our jobs were to wash dishes, and clean anything that was dirty. =] It was really nice to see how the camp ran, and how the counselors worked with the children. I will have to write more later but thank you everyone who is reading this!