WEEK 1. God is good all the time, All the time God is good.

Chaotically...In between dinner and the Hoe Down Sundaes...here it is.
To describe the past week at Windy Gap...WOW! From learning to do laundry for 390 people...fitted sheets, flat sheets, towel exchange, kitchen rags, work crew and summer staff laundry- Yikes! You could actually fit inside the dryers (which at some point the girls and I will see how many times we can go around inside it! Although we are stuck inside the laundry room, we are finding amuzing ways to keep entertained. I experienced one of my hardest weeks here at camp. I wasn't thinking about Charleston and the move, but I was disappointed in the lack of time that I had to encourage my girls. Time to sit down and go deep. We are constantly up to our heads (I mean literally) with laundry! In the midst of the week, I strained my muscle in my fore arm (which causes pain when trying to pull wet clothes out of the machines, we had a girl fall out of the top bunk in the middle of the night-waking me up to crying, hearing life stories of the girls (pain 17 year olds shouldn't have to carry), we have 2 gimpy girls with hurt knees, one girl knocked her face on another girls head going down on the slide-- she is swollen like a chipmunk and now has an incredible black eye! Along with all the pain, it has been long days, early mornings, late nights and finding little time to be with the Lord.

Peace in the midst of the storm.
Melissa surprised me with a note from Windy Gap's office. She was planning to come up to visit for the weekend with Sarah! This couldn't have come at a more perfect time. It was something that the Lord knew that I needed. It was amazing to share how crazy it has been, have them come along and partner with us in the laundry room (Thanks, girls!!!), see who I get to partner in sharing the gospel with this session, and hear about life in Charleston. Young Life is such a small world. As campers are cleaning their cabins and leaders are bringing their dirty sheets to us, Melissa encountered this small world. One of her childhood friends from NY was here at Windy Gap with her high school friends. So neat to watch the excitement.

We had Capernaum group from Greenville, NC here this week. Although our interaction was limited...laundry girls had the pleasure/responsibility in washing any linens that were soiled, clothes that needed washed. With our job we get to touch every aspect of camp (every camper will sleep in a clean bed, use a clean towel). We got to pray over those same sheets and towels. To be able to see those kids stand up/ or be held up and proclaim Christ was the most beautiful picture of grace. We heard Coop's story of how the Lord redeemed him. With cerebral palsy he is limited to his wheelchair, but he RUNS with Jesus!! As a leader, his heart breaks for kids like him to know Jesus. He shared with us what his job would be if he wasn't on Young Life staff: the first sit-down comic or the first disabled stripper. He is so funny. To be able to hear his heart about what makes his life hard. You would think that it would be the very things that we take for granted, but it was the very thing that is hard for most people. He desires to be married and have kids (which he can do both). He wants to meet a girl. It was amazing to hear his desire and heart, one that I completely can sympathize with. I can guarantee you that Coop and I will be friends.

One of my favorite moments- overwhelmed by the Spirit of the Lord- was after the Cross Talk and the work crew/summer staff ended the campers 20 minutes alone in camp. As we were singing, "Amazing Love." campers began to walk toward us...50 or so...at this point our camp speaker, David Haskins, began our descent down the hill into camp. I felt surrounded by the Spirit, and almost overwhelmed by the power of His kingdom. My thought: One day we will be in that place where we will be worshipping our Lord, together. Not just with 75 people, but with the whole Kingdom.

As I continue to learn of God's goodness, I am made aware of how I doubt and believe that He is holding something back from me. I despise my unbelief. For I know that He is good and intends good for me. Even a midst of the craziness and hardness of the week, He has investing a lot into showing me Himself. In the prayers of my high school friends on work crew, in the boldness of the Capernaum kids embracing and loving camp and watching them for the first time not get ignored, in the beauty and majesty of this place, in the servant hearts of each of the assigned team/summer staff/work crew, in my much needed visit from Melissa and Sarah, in being reminded of who He is and how he thinks of me.

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." Psalm 84:11

Thoughts from the infamous "Slidewinder"

Slidewinder...a great nickname given to me by one of the guys on our assignment. A perfect description of who I feel I am now. Walking hand in hand down a hill with Wyatt Ogle (age 3) today at Dollywood, he started to sit down mid-stride. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, "I thought I could slide down!" Sometimes I feel as if I am sliding, sometimes I feel like I am winding...both courses have two emotions. I am either enjoying the lack of complexity they both behold (like Wyatt) or other times I am overwhelmed with the lack of control. I want to slide and wind into the hands of my Savior, the one that Wyatt sees and wants to say, "Come on, Carol Lee...of course you can slide down this concrete hill."

Winding through the mountains to Pigeon Forge with the Ogle's, trees on each side, gorgeous views, I was amazed at the beauty of it all! Heaven, or what I think my heaven is like! :) Sliding away from the business of the past few days in between Maryville, Lenior City and crossing the Battle of the Bridge (Loudon). Overwhelmed with the excitement of seeing what and where I am going to be a part of in this new adventure that I am about to embark on. Walking and praying around Loudon High School (population 700) and up the stairs we run into the LHS Cheerleading squad and coach. How incredible to see the need so deep and desire to become the fabric of these girl's lives! :) These past few days, I loved my time with my family: Grandad (who turned 87 this week), my Nana, Patricia (sister) and unexpected surprise, Andrew (brother). Great conversations, encouragement, excitement to be moving closer and priceless conversations. I was incredibly blessed to meet and be encouraged about the excitement of bringing me here on staff, by the Loudon County YL committee Tuesday night. Isaiah speaks about the year of the Lord's favor in chapter 61.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"...

I am expectant of great things! His favor is upon this adventure. There are so many broken hearts, pain, high school kids held captive to their darkness. I am expectant of the Lord to anoint this ministry, for every leader, staff, committee and for this entire community!

AS we slide from this into the next 3 weeks at Windy Gap on assignment, I am expectant of the Lord to do immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. As I fill the role of Work Crew (high school kids coming to serve) Boss, I look forward in encouraging deep relationships, depth with the Lord and serving this team in such a way that glorifies the Lord.

C. John Miller writes in the Heart of a Servant Leader, "What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old, old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive- the glory of Christ."

Whether you are sliding or winding...Your motive-the Glory of Christ! Or like Wyatt, just plain common sense (Duh!)

-"Slidewinder"

His buffer

So I am off tomorrow morning...driving from Charleston to Maryville, TN to spend some time with my grandparents, Loudon County YL committee and transitioning to Windy Gap to lead as one of the work crew bosses for 3 weeks. Transitional buffer. That is what I call this time. I am excited about the time in TN and then at camp. To help with the transition from Charleston to Tennessee, I am getting more excited about knowing that the Lord is preceding my steps and hemming me behind and before.

As the Young Adult class prayed over me on my last time at East Cooper, through tears (many many), I praise God for the relationships that I have built here. I appreciate every new stranger that became a friend. I love that they speak truth in my life. I love that accept me for who I am and see in me the Woman that God desires me to become. I know that the depth of these friendships will extend the 6 1/2 hour drive to Tennessee. :)

I am reminded of His promise.
"You hem me in-behind and before; you laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain...If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast...Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See, if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139: 5-6, 9-10, 23-24.

Lord, Liar or Lunatic?

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." 

C.S. Lewis from More Than a Carpenter