Living Out Memories

I’m at camp for orientation. I got back from the Ukraine very early on Wednesday morning (after a free international ride in first class and then a very frustrating cancellation with my domestic flight.)

On Wednesday I took a bath (with warm water!), answered a few emails, and then headed for camp orientation. During training I had to mountain board—skateboarding on a mountain—and mountain bike—I literally biked over a pile of logs, rocks, and a teeter-totter. It was intense.
I spent the night and left to be home for H.S. graduation and then the funeral on Friday. It was a wonderful remembrance of my grandma. She was celebrated but the focus was still on her focus: Christ.

Then on Saturday I came back to camp and have been here since. A lot of this has been hard for me to have happen at the same time, but I know that the this is the right place for me to be right now.

For my last Ukraine entry, I thought I’d put what I wrote in my journal after we said goodbye in Vasilcov:

“We just left the orphanage.
Ruth started to pray on the bus and it was really powerful.

I just love these kids. A phrase I’ve heard a lot on this trip is to ‘love on.’ That idea is so awesome. It was so fulfilling to ‘love on’ these kids.
I don’t know quite what to do now. I feel called to love on kids for a lifetime, but where do I start? How do I sustain?

I can picture their faces; I can see them now. In a month will I be able to? In a year?
How can we live a memory?

God has opened my eyes to the world this week.
But now that they’re open, I have to start deciding where to walk.

Everything seems so big and so little at the same time."