I’m back!!!

Well, well, well…I never intended to let six weeks go by without posting. Drat! Where does time go? I’ve been in PA for nearly 3 months now and it hardly feels like it’s been a month. It’s been quite the journey with twists and turns, ups and downs. All in all, I’ve had a wonderful summer and I look forward to finding out what the fall holds for me.

I don’t like to measure ministry by numbers. Numbers don’t really tell you much at all about the “success” of a ministry. However, they can be a starting point for reflecting on what a ministry has consisted of. As I look back over the summer, it’s amazing to me that we had over 900 campers here. In order to serve all of them effectively, we had 70+ staff who served throughout the summer. God was at work this summer and it was so cool to watch Him transform lives. He used the staff here to draw kids to Himself, some for the first time while others made other decisions.

The leadership team was incredible. Despite the many ways that I let them down by not being a strong leader, they pushed through and were able to serve with faithfulness and grace. I enjoyed watching God at work in each of them growing them where they needed to be pushed. These past few days I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on the summer and its strengths and weaknesses. It’s been interesting to just sit back and think about what happened. I’ve also read a ton of evaluations – from parents, campers and staff. Today I’m going to be writing my own evaluation of the summer which will summarize the data I’ve been reading and processing through. My hope is that I can use this information to grow as a leader and I pray that next year won’t be so tough, especially for the leadership team.

I’m a legal Pennsylvanian now! I got my driver’s license, insurance and license plates on Thursday. I even registered to vote and got a local cell phone number. All in all, it took me 8 hours and $700 to accomplish all that. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated! PA requires an inspection of your car. I failed the inspection and had to get some repairs done in order to pass the test and be able to legally drive my car in PA. It’s all done now so I’m good for another year though I certainly hope that I won’t have to go through this next year in order to pass the inspection.