Phase 1: complete!

Well, the HS phase of Thailand '09 is officially done! This morning after chapel the 350+ campers loaded up on a multitude of songtaews and waved their last goodbyes to us tired and sweaty Hume Lakers on the steps. It all happened so fast. I wish we had at LEAST a full week to keep getting to know these kids, hearing their stories, their hopes and dreams, what God is doing in their lives. Wish I could have talked with some kids more. Oh-so-thankful for the wonderful things that are Facebook and Skype for keeping in touch despite the distance that will soon once again separate us. But let me tell you, being here with these kids again was FANTASTIC.

These kids are ones who will change the world. They've lived everywhere, experienced so much, seen God work in some amazing ways. So many of them have a wisdom that is beyond their 17 years. How amazing to be even a small part of God shaping them and preparing them for lives of service that are so outside of my comfortable little box. Amazing to get little notes saying that my brief e-mails and chats both here and there in the last two years have been big encouragements to them, that I'm like an older sister. Blows me away that God would use insecure and shy me for that. To God be the glory!

So thrilled to be here again, to see God at work this time around. Today is our day of rest, and Thai massages and the night bazaar are going to be AMAZING. But then tomorrow, it starts again. Give or take 150 jr. highers will roll in, and Rich and Chris and the band and all the rest of us will do it all over again. And I can't wait.