I think you are all caught up, so now I will just tell you about the joys of camplife! We had a dance party/ bingo night last night. I cannot dance! But we had lots of fun running around in circles, doing the conga, the twist, and so on. We were all so exhausted! My cabin girls were fast asleep in no time. I love it when they all fall asleep because every night when they fall asleep, all the cabin leaders sneak out and go to the lodge to have tons of fun! And to write.
     Here is a typical camp day for my group:
1. Get up at an ungodly hour so I can wake girls up for showers.
2. Make sure they don't go back to sleep.
3. Walk down Mt. Olympus for breakfast. (The camp is set in a mountainy are, and it is a pretty steep hike to walk up and down.)
4. Go to a staff meeting while the girls clean the cabins. (It's a competition for cleanest cabin. My cabin won yesterday! And they had the best cabin today too, but they wanted to spread the winning around.)
5. Go to morning chapel. Keep the girls awake!
6. Begin morning rotations with a Bible study in the chapel.
7. Walk down the mountain to the fellowship hall to listen to Mrs. Denise (a missionary to Bahrain).
8. Walk back up the mountain to the education building to listen to Ms. Debbie (a missionary to Azerbaijan).
9. Lunch Time!!
10. Rest for a bit.
11. Swim for an hour.
12. Eat some snacks.
13. Go to crafts
14. Recreation
15. Dinner!
16. Evening chapel. Again, try to keep girls awake.
17. Night time fun. (This is some sort of night time activity. Last night was a dance party. Tonight was supposed to be an outdoor movie, but it rained.)
18. Lead a small devotion in the cabin
19. Get everyone who wants evening showers taken care of.
20. Lights out!
21. Wait for the snoring.
22. Grab my computer and sneak out.
23. Go write, eat snacks, and stay up way too late.
24. Sneak back into bed.
25. Sleep for about four hours.
26. Repeat.
     It has been quite an interesting few days. But I have really enjoyed it!
In Him,
Brooke

Best cabin leader ever? I think Yes!

     Our next stop took us to a little town called Mt. Rainier. We were literally two blocks away form the Washington D.C. line. Our task for the week was to help lead Backyard Bible Club and VBS at the church. I absolutely fell in love with this church and the people in it. They are a multi-cultural church, and their doors are open to any person forn every background. They had a mission house right beside the church that they had been fixing up so that they could house missionaries and other such guests. We were the first missionaries to stay there, and we absolutely loved staying there. It was an older house that needed a few fix ups, but taking cold showers was worth it!
     When we first arrived , we were exploring the house and organizing random things. When we opened the fridge, guess what we found? A package of raw pigs feet! We said to each other, "Is this a joke or something? Are we supposed to cook these for dinner?" Thankfully, the next morning we went shopping for groceries. The pig's feet was not a prank, just an odd thing that someone had forgotten to take out of the fridge.
     We all had such an incredible time at Backyard Bible and VBS. We grew so close to the people there, and they all welcomed us and treated us like we were family. Our theme for VBS was Big Apple Adventure! The kids learned about faith, love, and trust and how they connect those things in their every day life. They also learned about inner-city missionaries and the ministries they help with. Mt. Rainier was a very difficult good-bye.
     Camp Counselor day two: not too shabby!! Our cabin won cleanest cabin award. I have to brag on my girls. When we got back to our cabin after a very long day, the girls took showers and got ready for bed. I told them that I was going to take a shower and that they would have some free time for a little while before lights out. While I was in the shower, I heard them scrambling around making lots of noise. I was a bit concerned at this point. When I opened the door, every girl was in her bed, they were quiet, and the lights were out! I was so proud of them! I said, "You guys are awesome!" Then they said, "We know!" I love my girls.
     I have to share another sweet moment. I have a girl in my cabin that had a bike wreck and scraped her leg up pretty badly. Another girl in the cabin said, "I'll pray for your boo-boo." That just made my day! I hope it made yours too.

     After a very good week in Severn, we traveled to Frederick, Maryland to help promote and put on a pretty rockin outreach called Convoy of Hope (you should Google it, it's neat stuff). Convoy of Hope is supported almost entirely by the community hosting it. They provide for various needs such as medical exams, dental exams, family portraits, haircuts, shoes, groceries and a whole lot of Jesus! The exciting part is that the whole event is completely free for the guest.
     Over the course of the week, my teammates and I prepared for the event by passing out a ridiculous number of flyers to cars in parking lots, people on porches, and just about everybody in between. I think I walked more in those five days than I have in my entire life! Although it was time consuming and sweaty work, our efforts were worth it.
     On the night before the event we had a volunteer rally to get all the helpers ready for the next day. That night I witnessed something wonderful. It may seem mundane to some, but to me it was beautiful. I was able to listen to a man praying, crying out to our Heavenly Father in Spanish. This stood out to me, it even brought tears to my eyes. My Jesus isn't limited to one race or language, for He is the author of all languages. He hears every cry from every language. Even when spoken words cannot be formed, he hears the silent pleading of our hearts. We are not alone. There are Jesus followers everywhere, speaking every language. This is bigger than me and you. And it is so exciting!!
     On the day of the event more than 5,000 people came! Over 144 professions of faith were made, more than 1,200 pairs of shoes were given out, $35,000 were used for medical follow-ups, at least 400 family portraits and hair-cuts were also done. Overall the event was great! I was able to meet so many really neat people and just build good relationships.
     While I continue to catch you up on the past few weeks, I will also tell you about what is happening in the present. This week we are serving as camp counselors at Camp Wo-Me-To (Women and Men of Tomorrow). The camp is for young girls ages 8-14. I won't lie, I was super nervous at the thought of being in charge of nine young girls for the week. Children have always loved me. I'm like kid magnet. I just never know what to do with them. When I babysit, I love watching a kid that wants to read books and watch movies all day. How in the world can I deal with nine of them for a week?!
     Camp Counselor day 1= SUCCESS!! I love my girls, I cannot believe I was so nervous. A few of them were going to move cabins when they first got here so they could be with their friends, but after a little while they changed their mind. They wanted to stay in my cabin! That made me so excited! I'm looking forward to a fun week with my girls.
In Him,
Brooke

Hello again!
     I will continue where I last left off. In my last post I covered orientation in Ocean City. I'll try to put a few pictures up soon ( I'm not extremely computer savvy, so bear with me). Our second week started in Severn, Maryland. A family in the church was very gracious to open their home up to four teenage girls! The staff of the church were having their annual staff retreat for the first few days we were there, so we had a lot of free time to ourselves. On Monday, we were able to go into Washington D.C.. I had never been, so this made me super excited! I absolutely loved D.C.. We were only there for the day, so we did not get to see everything, but I really enjoyed it.
     Our host family took us somewhere a few days later. This place has become very dear to my heart. They are not very coomon down south, but they have them everywhere here! It's a little ice cream/ custard/ italian ice shop called Rita's. Someone needs to open one in Dickson for sure.
     Later on in the week when the staff came back, we helped to a good bit of office type work for them in preparation for their VBS. I hand-washed at least 100 baby food jars for the kids crafts. We did a bunch of nitty-gritty work that week, but we had lots of fun doing it. We had the opportunity to meet some super cool people and build neat friendships that I hope will last.
Thank you for your time
Brooke

And so the adventure begins!!

Hello there! First I would like to say that I am so glad to be able to share this experience with you! This has been an exciting adventure so far, and I trust that it will continue to be. For those of you who do not know me, let me fill you in. My name is Brooke Cole. I am seventeen. I love to read and sit by a bonfire with my wonderful family and friends. My favorite color is green, and I am a little bit addicted to Lipton green tea! I love adventure and I hope to live my life to the fullest. This summer I have been a part of a mission trip in Maryland and Delaware. I am on the state traveling team. We are currently on our fifth stop, but I will try and give a brief overview of the previous stops. I began my journey at 3:30 am on June 1. After a difficult goodbye, I left my home. I was the first of my teammates to land in Baltimore, so I got the privilege of waiting around for four hours for everyone else to land. First was Hannah, then Becca, then Brandy; and that became our team. From the airport we drove to Ocean City for summer missions orientation. We met the other missions team that would be staying in Ocean City all summer. In the three days that we were there, we all became very good friends. We were able to walk along the beach, invite foreign students to an outreach dinner, and go on a ridiculously silly scavenger hunt on the boardwalk! We all had so much fun and we grew closer as a team. I will try to continue writing every day. If not every day, then every other day. Check in tomorrow for news on our second stop!!