Oakbridge.

The last eight weeks or so of my life have been sheer madness. Not in a bad way, just in an “I’m so busy I’m have to stop doing some of the things I would normally do” way. Blogging happened to be one of them. Hence, my long drawn out absence. I had been getting so good at posting once a week, too! Oh, well. But please allow me to use these next few posts to tell you what I’ve been up to.

At the end of February, I spent a weekend in the mountains near Ramona. I am a leader for Wyldlife, a middle school ministry, and there was winter camp that weekend. We left Friday afternoon and drove the two hours there.

I was in charge of three, sixth-grade girls, and they were so great. As crazy as they can be, it really is a fun age to be around.

At our first leader meeting, we went around and said where we were from. Afterward, one of the other leaders from NorCal came up to me and asked where in Minnesota I was from. When I told him the Duluth area, he asked where exactly. Not expecting him to know my town, I was shocked when I said I live in Cloquet, and he knew where I was talking about! As it turns out, he spends a month in Minnesota every summer. His grandma lives in Ely, which is about two hours north of me. I then went on to learn that he knows someone I went to high school with! I can’t believe what a small world it is.

On Saturday night, a crazy thing happened—it snowed! And I’m not just talking about a light dusting; the snow was pouring down. I felt right at home. The students were so excited, and I couldn’t believe how many of them had never seen snow before. I even heard a guy say, “It feels so weird under your shoes!” I wanted to laugh out loud. I might have done so, actually.

My favorite part of the weekend, though, was just my interactions with my girls. We had “club” four times during the weekend, and right afterward we would go have cabin time and talk about what had been discussed. The club talks walked through a salvation message—sin/separation from God, the cross, and redemption. Even for myself, it was a beautiful reminder of the story of the cross. I think there are times in our lives when we need to go back and be reminded of it.

Also, I love the profound, insightful things that come out of the mouths of twelve year olds. For example, one of my girls said, “I always figure that God is going to make me as beautiful as He wants me to be, so that’s why I don’t really like to wear make-up and stuff.”

It really was a great weekend. Please enjoy some of my favorite photos from it:

These were my girls!

It rained, and then it turned into hail!

Before the snow.

After the snow.

The snow poured down.

Please just take in this lighting.

This lighting, too.

Oh, and this one.

Dylan, a fellow leader.

The light hit the house perfectly. It was beautiful.

Not exactly useful.

Can we have a moment of silence for these trees?

Not exactly ideal basketball conditions.

Our group!

Things had already melted a lot before we left.