Work, Work, and Play!

Alright, I've caught an hour to update you all. I want to give you some more detail on what it is exactly that I'm doing here. 

I am currently living and spending life consistently with 30 other people that are all around the same age as me (except for the few in charge). Our group makes up the "Work Staff" for the camp. Basically any manual labor or activity needed, that is us. We prepare, clean, and set up the camp before the military kids arrive - which includes setting up 100 tents (not a highlight). During camp we set up the dining room, cook two meals a day (for 450+), serve the food family style, tear down the dining room and clean. We then are responsible for hand washing all the dishes, usually takes anywhere from 2-3 1/2 hours. We set up and tear down any type of event the camp puts on for the kids such as ---- the Carnival, skits, painball, honky tonk night (square dancing), Birthday night, and the BBQ on the beach. Plus other random tasks such as cleaning bathrooms, picking up and taking out trash, our laundry, etc... Our days usually start at 7 a.m. and end around 11 - 12 p.m.

The camp last about 5 days and is a LOT of work. Ironically, I am having an amazing time. Everyone is so joyful in the Lord, that our work is done joyfully together. We want these military kids to know Jesus and this is the way we serve for that to take place. These people working alongside me are so captured by the love of Christ, that we've all payed money to come to this camp. We've all payed a lot of money in fact to come work our butts off. That right there is proof to the character of Christ that we all eagerly and humbly serve. 

Now there are two weeks when kids are here. The first week are high school kids and the second week are middle school kids. We just finished the week with the high schoolers and have had a 3 day break to travel and see some of Italy.......

This is me in Pisa holding up the leaning tower!

This is me in rural Tuscany -- we had the opportunity to meet a Christian Italian family that has a vineyard, have a real Italian meal, and have a tour of there vineyard.

This is the real Italian meal --- best thing I've eaten in a long time!

This is the first night after camp, the work staff was taken out to dinner in Pisa!

We got to go to an island for the day called Elba. Good times!