Best Friends

YL Work Crew

You've probably heard me talk about and seen my posts about YoungLife before. It's a group that Scott and I volunteer for each week helping to introduce high school friends to the Love of Jesus. Both of us went to Winter Camp with about 160 high school friends in January and this time I was able to attend Weekend Work Crew. This is where our high school friends pay to go to camp, but not as campers this time. This trip they're their to work! They give up their weekend, their time with friends, their time to sleep in order serve other campers and give them the same AWESOME weekend they got to experience. I had never done a work crew weekend and they aren't kidding, it's WORK! It is EXHAUSTING! The kids are divided up into different "teams" and they each have tasks for the weekend. The AM cook crew gets up at 4am in order to cook breakfast for all the campers, staff and work crew. One morning they made over 1000 pancakes, all from scratch! They prepare lunch and prep a few things for dinner, but after that their day ends- about 2pm. The PM cook crew takes over at 2pm and prepares dinner as well as any prep for the next day. The Bakers spend 8am-6pm baking. They make BIG cookies, bread loaves, sugar cookies, and pancake mix. I was astounded at the size of the mixer and the fact they use 22 pounds of chocolate chips in the cookie mix!!! Snack Girls run the snack bar and get to make smoothies, ice cream and other assorted treats for all the campers during their free time. PITS...aka dishwashers. They probably have the hardest job. They literally wash dishes all day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, they wash the dishes. And the dishes never seem to stop coming. This is usually a close group of guys and although the work is long and tiring, I know they have fun doing it. The servers are the largest group of kids. They serve the food each meal AND (much to their surprise) they also bus all the tables!!! And to make it all the more entertaining, this wasn't a normal week- it was a Youth Camp week, so they were bussing tables for 3rd-5th graders. I'm not sure high schoolers knew that 3rd-5th graders love to play with their food. They were so disgusted the days we had ranch dressing or syrup because it was often poured all over everything! YUCK The Outdoor Crew (ODC) spends all their time outside raking, trimming, oh and making 3000 WATER balloons. I didn't really get a pic of them because, well, they were outside the whole time. I was so proud of all of our high school friends. They really exemplified the scripture that says those who are Last are First and that Jesus came not to be served but to serve! The mom.

NCO Competition

Scott was selected to compete for his unit in the NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) of the Year board. He won for his area and went to Fort Stewart near Savannah, GA to represent his area in the State Competition. He did physical fitness tests, ruck marches, land navigation, written essays, weapons drills, and other mini-competitions all culminating with the "Board" where he sits in front of high ranking soldiers and answers questions they ask him about current events, army history, politics, etc. The competition lasted 3 days and midway through, he told me we were invited to join them for the Awards Banquet Saturday night. Harbin and Catherine had games that morning, but we sped out of the park and made record time to Fort Stewart where we changed into "fancy" clothes in the elementary school parking lot before meeting up with Scott on base. The kids were quite adorable at this function and it was a great lesson in manners and etiquette at an important formal function. And to top it off, SCOTT WON!!! I mean, the kids were like, "we knew daddy would win," so we should have known they were right, but we were so excited to know that he'd competed so well and earned this great honor of representing the State of GA at the Regional level of competition. We were also proud of his fellow soldier, Benjamin Lacrosse, who was awarded the Soldier of the Year and would be accompanying Scott at the regional competition. Oh yeah, and we got to stay in a hotel that night, which is always an added "cool factor" for the kids when we go somewhere. Congrats DADDY! We're proud of you! The mom.