Week 4: It Comes from the Hart Pt 1

HARTLAND PART ONE! This week was insane! I spent Monday through Thursday at Hartland Christian Camp, just down the hill from Hume. It was a really physically challenging week. We were there to help out with any projects they needed down around camp. I spent a majority of my time with a rake and raked everything from dirt to piles of wood and don’t even get me started on the plants in the forest! It’s not called “mountain misery” for nothing! The first day I started out cleaning up some trails by raking debris and such off them. The next day I spent half the day pulling logs out of the creek and picking up branches from the side of the road. The second half of Tuesday and all of Thursday I got to spend actually building a trail, which was super neat! Friday I was stacking wood in the wood pits and then cleaning up all the girls’ dorms and the gym before we went home.

Although it was really hard work, building the trail was really fun with Kelsey and Stephen around. They are just such hilarious people and being around then made the time fly by. I remember at one point I was between two groups on the trail so I was all by myself for about an hour and I kept thinking “Why am I doing this? This is stupid. I don’t want to be here…” But as soon as I caught up with Stephen & Kelsey, my attitude totally changed. I realized it wasn’t so bad and the hard work was doing me some good. Also, that morning I was just in a funk and not in a great mood but when we went to work, Matt P. said something hilarious (I can’t remember what exactly he said) but it made me laugh and I realized that was the first time I had smiled all day. Such little things can totally change your attitude towards the day. God really was testing me with some of the people I had to work with, though. It’s so hard to stay calm when someone is being stubborn and I found myself getting so frustrated with them. I think that was my challenge this week, working with people who just don’t click with me. I’m still working on it.

I think one of the coolest parts about Hartland was when we finished our work on Wednesday and were walking back on the trail we had built. I kept thinking “when does this trail end?!” We had created about a half mile of trail in only 1 and a half days! It felt so good to see all our hard work. Erik (our boss) said that we get to be a part of people’s walk with God when they’re reflecting on that trail. It’s an awesome feeling.

This weekend I was in Dinning Staff in Ponderosa. Four weeks straight in the kitchen! I really like being in Pondy, although I think I prefer being in the kitchen as a cook than serving as a hostess. It was another women’s conference this week but everything went way smoother than last week. I did pancake breakfast Saturday which meant getting up at 5am and walking in the dark down to the kitchen. I did get to drive the van though, which was fun! Stephen thought I was going to kill him. There was an older lady at breakfast who I helped get up on a step so she could take a picture of us making the food. I helped her down which was awkward and funny and we started dancing together! She was so cute and funny. I saw her again at breakfast on Sunday and she said “When I see you, I am blessed.” And that made me feel so great! Another lady really appreciated my service and gave me a necklace pendent on Saturday at lunch and I wore it all day Sunday. I was really surprised at how thankful these women were for all of us dinning staff. It made me feel incredible, even though my job mostly consisted of collecting dirty dishes! I also got to serve for the band that was up here for the weekend. They were super cool and even gave me a round of a applause and cheered my name on Sunday! It was funny and there were awesome guys. Everyone agreed that the drummer totally looked like Julian in a few years (except with a less impressive mustache)!

I worked about 26 hours this weekend and boy was I tired when I got off of work on Sunday at 3. I was going to go back to the building and take a nap but I decided to stop by my pause parent’s house first and ended up spending the rest of the day with them. They totally welcomed me into their home and I felt so comfortable being there. We talked and I helped Dayton with his homework a bit and Dylan showed me his awesome drawings of animals. They took me down to dinner at Pondy and it was Ballpark night so we had hot dogs with nacho cheese and chili. It was so good! I sat with them in church and they kindly gave me a ride back to the building. They are such a neat family and I’m so fortunate to have them as part of my pause family. I also got to meet the Webbs who are our new catalysis family, so I’m really looking forward to getting to know them. I also get to see my family and my best friend next weekend, so looking forward to that!!