June 25 - July 20, 2006

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Had the BEST Wildwood ever this year! Hooray for rejuvenated family relationships and wonderful times with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and of course my good ol' mom, dad & li'l' bro. P.S. For those who don't know, Wildwood is a little place on the New Jersey shore, where the Lordeman family has gone for summer vacation for 50 years now. It is a tradition I treasure. My favorite pic from the trip: This is a re-creation of a photo taken many many years ago. That's me and my bro with my cousins Tim, Craig and Julie.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

God always gets His way. It's because His way is better. He really knows what we need and what's best for us, even if it isn't what we want initially. Had a very humbling yet encouraging week at MDA camp. My feelings and attitude about MDA camp have changed quite a bit. I didn't really want to go back this year but boy did I ever need a week of caring for a disabled 16-year-old with a bunch of VERY southern and in some cases not so "sophisticated" people to realize how much sin is really in me and how desperately I need God's mercy and grace. It was an overwhelming dose of reality - a good hard look at how filthy I really am. Praise God that He alone makes me pure and has conquered all of that sin - regardless of how grueling the process of removing it all may be. I can't believe how proud I had become... how self-centered... unloving... I found myself, however, ending the week feeling very encouraged. I was humbled and honored to receive the female "Counselor of the Year" award along with my fellow counselor Kelly who also took care of Patricia with me. It was encouraging to see that those people - as distant as I feel from them at times - valued me as a counselor, in spite of my own personal opinion that I could've done the job a lot better than I did. It's always humbling and encouraging at the same time to receive some sort of honor you feel you didn't deserve. (I also got a very nice Eddie Bauer sleeping bag as a prize! Quite convenient! ) People were also sooooooooo supportive of us this year. Kelly and I shared a lot of laughs, even through the not-so-fun stuff. Patricia had the best night of her life Friday night at the dance and talked about it afterward until she feel asleep. She was so beautiful. I want pictures. And as much as I thought for sure that this would be my last year at MDA camp, I left knowing in my heart that I really wanted to come back. I feel like I'm really a part of it all, and it seems that God has broken through my stubborn pride enough for me to be able to see how I can really glorify Him at MDA camp. Perhaps the most encouraging thing was to observe the contrast between my outlook on Patricia's situation and that of the other counselors and staff. To them it's all hopeless, and they basically hate Patricia's mom and blame all the difficulties in Patricia's life on her, and they just can't wait to get away from it, though they do feel really bad for Patricia. But somehow I really believe there's hope for this family. Patricia's life is worth something in the Kingdom - it's worth a lot, and I really think this is just the beginning of a glorious journey with God that this family will embark on someday, hopefully soon. Maybe it's already begun. I guess we'll see. In other news, I saw the movie Cars tonight and I definitely approve. What a great story, with a great message behind it! I really needed that tonight. I also need sleep. And a shower. And a glorious Sunday morning with my Savior tomorrow. Good night...