What up friends!!!? I hope all is well. I hope you did not miss my obsessive blogging this past month. I was volunteering on Summer Staff at Young Life's Saranac Village. I was a landscaper for the month, well that was my day job, in the evenings all the SS folks helped out with the various activities that were going down. It was an amazing month and I wanted to share some highlights with y'all. (I am now almost an official southern boy.) I could go on and on about my experience but I will try to keep it under 10 pages.
1. Lake Saranac is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is in the Adirondack Mountains near Lake Placid, NY. Simply beautiful. Looking out on the lake each day reminded me how great of an artist our God is.
2. I met some amazing folks. I have heard stories from other friends that not all of the Summer Staffers that they served with on various different experiences seemed to love the Lord. So I was cautious with my expectations of the folks. But all 42 of us or how ever many there was, were simply awesome. We seemed to all be there for the same reason, to serve God. We were a very energetic and goofy group as well. I have never laughed so much in my life. And although we enjoyed to goof around and have fun we knew when it was time to do work and be serious. We would often choose to spend time in deep prayer or worship instead of goofing around in free time. That, I feel, is unusual for a group of college kids. But it was not uncommon to find a group of us praying in the Granite room on any given night. The people I served alongside with have become dear friends of mine. I can honestly say that I love each and everyone of them and each and everyone of them helped me grow in some aspect. I cannot wait to figure out how to see them all again because I desperately miss them. :(
3. Work can be fun. I pretty much worked from 8 am to sometimes 10 at night if not later. 8-5 I was landscaping which is quite a bit of work. But Walker and I (the other SS on landscaping) made it fun. We got our work done but made it entertaining. Our intern Eric was amazing and allowed us to be our goofy selves. We drove the Kubota (Gretchen) around, often checked the water temp of the lake and the carbonation levels of the pop machine at the snack bar. (we did do some legit work as well) As a SS group in the evenings we made our work fun. We would literally sprint while cleaning up the county fair on Tuesdays, got it all cleaned up in 5 minutes and 51 seconds. LIKE A BOSS
4. God is GREAT. The Lord did work this month. He is the only reason that we kept working and enjoying the month. Without Him we would not have been able to keep our bodies going. To see about 250 kids or something like that stand up this month and say they accepting Jesus into their lives... AWESOME! He gives life! To see how he impacted my life this month... AWESOME! I have never cried so much but that month the Lord just was heavy on my heart. Everything from the landscape to the small miracles he did in lives. He was everywhere.
I could go on and on and on but I will stop there. Feel free to ask me more about the month, I am itching to share. I have some great "Opher" stories as well as some great "God being God" stories. So hit me up. But I leave you with our memory passage for the month. It is reminder of how we should live our lives.
John 15:1-13
Love Y'all!
Opher
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