This weekend I went along with Meg for Jr. High girl's camp. We went to a place called Glen Oak, or Oak Glen...something like that. The trees were all changing, it was so beautiful- and this is apple country, lots of apple farms...just something we don't see any of in So. California. I drove my van, bringing along 4 other girls and one other chaperon. With traffic it took us about 3 hrs. on our way up, the way home is was a little over 1 hr. (lovely, lovely So. Ca traffic!)
Jr. High really is a rough age. I know that, and yet it caught me by surprise. The whole experience was one of shifting from one extreme to the other end of the spectrum. The girls would sometimes take my breath away with their brashness, rudeness and general lack of care that an adult was present....and then the next moment dazzle me as 5 girls in a van pull out their hymnals spontaneously and spend 40 minutes singing their favorite hymns. While I would sit pondering and marveling at the drastic extremes of light and shadow in them, smiling at the "light", I would have to roll my eyes heavenward as they launched into 20 minutes of "highschool musical" songs.
It was a good experience, I was very blessed to see more than 100 young girls lifting up song to the Lord, praying out loud and sharing their enjoyment of His word. I was blessed to see the teaching and testimony being poured out into these girls' hearts by the serving ones. I was blessed to pray for them, and blessed to see what hymns they loved to sing, blessed to ponder why- and to reflect on what I was like at that age. And yet it was very hard. My goodness, I don't like to be uncomfortable, and I hate being cold, and I like my routine and comfortable bed and shower...it was definitely an uncomfortable breaking of my soul-life.
One of the speakers stopped to talk to me at the dining hall, commenting on how good it was to see some of the "moms" at the camp. He asked if I would come again.
I think my face started twitching.