Pine Cove - Introduction

This summer I got the chance to work at Pine Cove Ranch Camp for 6 weeks. My entire college career I wanted to work at a camp, but chose to do some other things with my summers (youth internship, two oil internships). So, when I got my full time job offer in September to come work for Chevron I thought my chance to work at a camp was over, but Chevron let me tell them when I wanted to start work. This freed up my summer to apply for camps. I had a number of close friends that had worked at Pine Cove in Tyler, so I applied to work there not knowing fully what I was getting into.

The Sunday after I graduated from Texas A&M (Whoop!), I went for two weeks of training; ropes course and counselor training. I loved my two weeks at the Ranch living in community with about a hundred college kids. More than anything those two weeks got me excited to do ministry with 6^th and 7^th graders and prepared me (well, kinda) for what God was going to do in and through me.

I then went home for 5 weeks, while half of the Ranch staff stayed to do camp. I spent that time traversing back and forth across the southern part of our country. I got to do a whole lot including weddings, backpacking, kayaking, learning to knee board, camping, sipping coffee, reading, and hanging out. After all of that, I headed to camp not knowing what God had in store for me there. I was there for 6 weeks, had 5 cabins of 6^th and 7^th grade boys totaling 33 campers. I had a blast working the climbing wall and zip line everyday for 4 hours with 5 other amazing college kids. I learned as much from them and other counselors as I did from the kids themselves, not to mention the leadership. It was a beautiful summer filled with incredible highs and debilitating lows, but God was present in it all.

I am a slow processor, so I do not fully understand all that God did, but I do know some things that He taught me. I hope to describe these things here, but know that I will not be able to do it as well as I would like to. As I started writing these, I realized how long this would be. So instead of posting them all at once, I’ll post one them one at a time as I write them.