August 3rd, Driving to Portland

Today was rough and good of course. We had breakfast with the campers at Royal Ridges and then met with Ron the Director of Royal Ridges. He told us about the camp and about DJ, Germaine, and Jared. Germaine and Jared are in the Transitional Youth videos. (Check the website). I really like them. They are all really sweet. :) DJ can make a really good Chewbaca sound and Jared can make a good Chewbaca drowning sound. haha.

Anyways, Ron needed us to cut out Tanzi flowers from the side of this field/hill thing. It was so pretty in the morning with the clouds and stuff. The work was not fun, especially when the sun came out. We just had to cut Tanzi flowers off the stem and throw them into big trash bags. The problem was the 4ft tall grass/marsh that is home to many spiders, bees, and other fun bugs that I don't want on me. And don't forget the ants that were prone to crawling up my pants and biting me. Oh and the two ft deep holes that were covered by grass until I stepped in them.

Needless to say, it was not the funnest thing I've ever done. But now the staff doesn't have to do as much at all. It was a challenge to all I said in the last journal entry. But, I'm really glad we did it.

After 12 we ate lunch then went back out. And at 3 we stopped for good. We then went and got ice cream from the camp snack shop. Then we played on their giant swing. It was fun. After that we played on this huge wooden teter totter and tried to balance different people on it using different strategies. It was good, but I need to work on not always being a leader. It's so easy for me to step into that role. But, hopefully it will be easier to step back when I won't be able to talk for the team building games we're gonna play. We'll see how it goes.

This has definitely pushed me. I need to remember to keep in constant communication with God. I didn't do that today and it totally affected me.

Now we're driving to Portland. I don't know what we'll be doing. We weren't allowed to clean up though.

Dear Jesus, please capture our hearts on this trip and help us to keep our focus on you. We want to serve you with everything.