Madison Here! Oh yeah!!!

from tuesday night to friday afternoon last week I was at a church retreat called connection.
it was in dallas, and we stayed at the mariot hotel, except in an actual house!!!! i was with 5 other girls(one of them was from our school-caroline s) and one leader. we rode in awesome party vans, and planning for day camp the next day kept us up at the church till midnight every night. we were at upendo baptist church, which is a church for kenyan refugees(i know, who thought refugees would go to DALLAS?) we made a day camp for them from 830-1230 except it usually ran an hour over. the kids were from 2yrs to 13 yrs. i taught oldest girls bible study, which was 5grade+ girls. two of them were older than me!!! one just got up and left in the middle. omg we had to give so many piggy backs! after the first night of camp, we got to go to SIX FLAGS!!!!! omg it was sooooooooo much fun!!! then we planned some more, and went to sleep. we had to wake up at 7. 6 hours of sleep made it hard to be peppy, but we did it. it was another day of camp, and this time we brought a slip n slide! i felt like i was really starting to connect with two 12 year olds and three 6 year olds. i gave the younger ones piggybacks and shoulder rides(that was hard) the two older girls were really nice-their names were hazel and salma. we called each other bffs! seriously! that afternoon, when the slip n slide came out, this girl named Nimoh didnt want to get her clothes wet, so i hung with her, then let her spray the hose. then we did a sevice project for 4 hours. then we went to....DAVE AND BUSTERS!!! omg it was sooooooo much fun!!! the next morning, i was so sleep deprived, i had a huge cup of coffee. the caffeine held me over until 3rd game, when i literally crashed. but before that, my 2 12year old bffs wanted me to give them piggybacks. lets just say they weighed about 30 pounds more than me, but i gave them each 6(yes i did count!). then, there was this one boy named parfal who wasnt having a good time. we were kind of supposed to be hanging out with our color groups(mine was oldest girls) so i gave him to Zander, who had boys his age. he ended up having a great time! thanks Zander!! then, yet again, it was slip n slide time. then it was the end of day camp. my 2 12 year old bffs were literally crying when they left because we had connected so much. it was so sad!!! then, after another service project(sorting and hanging second/third hand clothes in a pile up to my chest) we all got together and talked. the theme of this connection was "spend yourself". that means pushing yourself beyond your limits and giving all of yourself to help these kids have some fun. what i got out of this is how awesome it is to be loved like that. lets face it:our camp, in theory, should have been horrible. all we had was some guitars, skits we used every year, cheap crafts, and some games we had just made up. but get this:the kids thought it was incredible! your average parkie kid who i babysit throws a fit if theyre not having fun for two seconds. they would have no fun at a camp like that! but these kids were so grateful! it was amazing!!
so remember everyone:spend yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mcom out!