Week #2 Pre-Timber Wolf Lake

Its Not All Fun and Games

As I get ready for my summer staff journey at Timber Wolf, I have such high expectations. I’m excited to learn, share, and bond with people from all over the country. I hear amazing stories from past summer staff volunteers, and Young Life leaders that I have encountered in college. Yet, I understand that there are going to be some times where everything isn’t fun and amazing, I’m still going to be put to work! I also know that the purpose of me being at camp is to give campers the best week of their life, and if that means waking up early, putting in long hours in the sun/heat, and having a curfew, I accept that. I’m going to have to preserve through these times to experience the great ones that everyone raves about. Its not always going to be easy, but it will always be worth it. I’m here to serve God and I couldn’t be more excited for this experience.

(It’s the best week of the camper’s lives, and I’m lucky enough to help make that happen through my work on the Timber Karts!)

In order to continue to prepare for this month on summer staff I think I need to work on my conflict avoidance. I know that there is a possibility of working with people I don’t get along with, there will be times where I feel exhausted or overwhelmed, and I’m sure conflict will arise eventually. I have a great ability to hold my tongue and I usually am pretty level headed about seeing both sides of the situation. Unfortunately, I sometimes struggle by avoiding the whole conflict in general because I don’t want to cause any hard feelings. What I mean by that is I tend to bottle things up and then later I’ll be able to think through them to calm down. Once I think through the conflict I am ready to get back at the task or friendship with a good attitude. I believe I need some improvement on talking out problems with the other person instead of just myself because I think a better understanding could be reached if I had the opportunity to hear what the other person has to say. I know that this will be easier for me to do as I become more comfortable around strangers and I find more confidence to confront others. Luckily, throughout college I have had many opportunities to start this self-improvement and I feel as if I can handle conflicting situations much better than I have in the past.

I think the biggest challenge that I will face on summer staff is having patience as the summer staff crew bonds. I know how excited I am to meet everyone that I will be serving with, and I have a feeling that I will be a bit disappointed that I won’t be best-friends with everyone over night. Or, for that matter, even know everyone’s names. It will take time, maybe even the entire month, to build a true connection with each of the workers. Until then, patience is a virtue that I’m going to have to practice!

~Timber Kart Summer Staff,

McKenna Mathis

Week #1 Pre-Timber Wolf Lake

For the next few weeks I will be preparing to work as Timber Wolf Lake, which is a Christain camp for teens. During this time I will be living at the camp and volunteering my time at the ‘Timber-Carts.‘ Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some questions and answers to help prepare my for this amazing journey! 

What will be your personal strategy for prayer and spending time in Scripture between now and your assignment?

I connected to the story provided in the week one study about James and his journey. James, who likes to pray while cycling, will no longer have his cycle with him while he serves at camp. I feel as if I may come across the same struggle of finding a new way spend time with the Lord in my time of service. I enjoy cross-country running and during those miles, twists of the trails, and noises of nature I am able to think, reflect, and listen to God. As I make my way to camp this summer I do not know if I will have this reflecting opportunity and even if I do, I will not be able to run miles away from Timber Wolf Lake into seclusion to spend time with God. From now until I leave in a couple of weeks, I am determined to find an alternative way to spend quality time in prayer.

My personal strategy for praying and spending time in Scripture between now and my assignment will to be by having an accountability partner and an accountability plan. Coming home from Central Michigan University for the summer I found that I’m leaving an amazing backbone of my faith. I made friends and relationships with many people and leaders of my church, became very involved in building the community of my church, and even went on a mission trip over spring break. Now that I left, I feel like a piece is missing, and its only been a few days! Since the dynamic of Christian community is changing for the summer, and the way I spend time with God (aka running) will also change in a few weeks, I’m in a bit of a tizzy. For these reasons, I decided to seek out an accountability partner and I was lucky enough to find Callie. She is a senior at CMU, a life group leader at my church and she was thrilled to by my mentor! I have her and her family praying for me as I embark on my way to Timber Wolf, but until then I get to stay in contact with her to answer any questions I have, concerns I need to talk about, and encouragement through the summer. In addition to having an accountability partner, I have also decided to create a bit of a plan to stay strong in Scripture. I have a devotional book (a wonderful gift after my very recent baptism) that I plan to read every morning. This way, I have a bit of quiet time to start my day with God. I also have a scripture-reading guide, provided by my church before I left college, to read each night before I go to sleep. With this plan in place I will be able to start and end my days with God, fill the middles with speaking to Callie, and hopefully squeeze in some running too.

The next few weeks leading up to my departure to Timber Wolf will be full of excitement, apprehension, and challenge. I hope that with these new tactics, I will be able to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepare myself for my month of service to kids who are trying to find Jesus. I cannot wait to get to camp and start building another Christian community with people from all over the country!