EXCURSION!!!

While out at camp, I got to experience "Excursion" for the first time. Typically I am not with a cabin who can do excursion because you have to be old enough and mature enough to do it. Hence, Term 7 isn't quite the time for my typical Cabin to participate.

I had always heard about Excursion, as other people I know have done it, and I had heard both good and bad things about it. And, I will be honest, when I heard that we got it, my stomach turned.

Excursion is where you leave the comforts of camp (Activities in the A/C, toilets, sleeping indoors, etc) and go into an area in the woods on camp property and actually experience what real camping is like. Now for some of you, that's right up your alley, but for me, it's not! I'm more of an indoor kind of girl.

I will admit, out at camp I am outdoors more just because of activities and such, but the main difference between Excursion and camp is that you're outside the whole time. I mean, food is cooked over a fire, and you gotta squat to pee!

I was dreading it mainly because of the heat. It was hot and muggy and the idea of sweating ALL day and evening bummed me out. (I'm such a girl!) However, I will admit, it was better than I expected it to be.

First off, it started raining the morning we were supposed to leave for the campsite. (The campsite was about 5 minutes from the main camp area.) I was happy about that for two reasons. First of all, it delayed our time outside in the heat. We wound up staying in the Silver Lining until the storm just about ended. Secondly. it cooled down the temperature out at the campsite. While I still sweated quite a bit, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected! That was COOL!

The tough part (and the reason I gave it a "B" on FB) was because of the walk out to the campsite. Everywhere else out at camp there are paved pathways to walk on. However, on the walk to the campsite it is not paved, and was INCREDIBLY hard to walk on. I found myself having the think ahead on EVERY step to get out there. That honestly wore me out! I had never really thought about how much I think about my walking until that day. After that, I noticed that I think about it a lot, just because God didn't give me the best balance skills. So, in a case like the campsite, I was looking down (something I don't usually do) and concentrating on EVERY step. It wore me out!

We wound up doing dinner out at the site, and coming back into camp because the dance was that night. We also stayed for Wrap-Up (Which was my favorite part of the day because Justin played his guitar!). After Wrap-Up, the girls went back out to the campsite. I opted out. I could have gone back out for the evening snack and to sleep outside, but I was so wiped that I wanted A/C and quiet time to get rest. Everyone was fine with it, and in fact they stated that Cabin Moms and Dads don't typically sleep out at Excursion. Hum...I hope whoever I marry is okay with me preferring to sleep in A/C. (Ha!)

I learned a lot through the Excursion Experience. First off, my walking made me think about my walk with the Lord. I was working harder at my walking skills on that trail than I have been in the past few months with the Lord. That REALLY challenged me to start putting God FIRST again, and how HE should be guiding my every step.

I also learned that not everyone enjoys Excursion. Several of the teens didn't want to sleep out there, while is understandable. They were told they were sleeping in Air Conditioned Cabins, so they weren't in the mindset of roughing it! I also think that God didn't wire all of us to enjoy that. Devin, our AMAZING Excursion Leader, LOVED doing Excursion. Being outside is her thing. That rocks! I'm just not wired that way.

Finally, I learned that even though I didn't like walking out there, I could do it. I also learned that with the Lord, I can truly do anything!

I went back out the next morning to join the group for Breakfast. On my walk out there, I told God that I couldn't help Torrey back to camp because it was SO HARD for me to walk on the trail, I didn't want to be responsible for Torrey. And of course, that's what I was asked to do on the way back! Lauren turned to me and said, "If you'll walk with Torrey, I'll carry the stuff." In my head, I was telling the Lord we really should have talked more about that, but instead I knew that I was supposed to walk with Torrey. I prayed in my head the whole way back, and we did just fine. As we walked up to the cabin, I heard that still, small voice, say, "See, I know you could do it. You just didn't know it!" *grin*

Life.
Is.
Good.