Every summer our church's youth group goes to Camp Caswell. It's probably the highlight of my summer; within one week I've grown so much closer to God and my youth group family, and have a ton of fun. Caswell is right on the beach and it takes us a couple of hours to get there. So super early on Monday morning, we all loaded up onto two buses and a few vans and were off.
I read and listened to music the majority of the ride there; but as soon as I saw the first signs of beach houses and the air changed to that unmistakable beach smell, Rachel and I were hyped up. When we finally got there, everyone poured out of the buses and we took a gigantic group photo (above) - I'm pretty sure there were 88 of us, that's just our high school youth group, not including the middle schoolers. We were the biggest church there. Others had just like 20 kids!
All of the girls stayed in one huge building, in one big room. It was crammed full of bunk beds and it was like a mad house as everyone claimed their space. Just another part of Caswell you grow to love. In a row at the top, there was Rachel and I, our best friend Amy, and our lovely friend Amber. We unpacked and then headed straight to the beach. Everyone spent their free time there and found it hilarious at how pale we were. Ha ha ha. I even managed not to get sunburned the entire week!! :) After eating dinner, it was time for worship service - one of my favorite things about Caswell. I know that while singing, it's not important how awesome the music/praise team is or how great the lighting effects are, what matters is that we're praising God - but can I just say that my favorite place to worship is at Caswell. It is...unbelievable! The praise team chooses great songs, has amazing talent, the lights are fantastic, 
and I experience God's presence in ways that I don't back at home. Our speaker was Adam Robinson, a very fast-talking and funny dude who touched some great topics throughout the week. He stirred up thoughts in my head and led I think over sixty people to Christ!! :DSo our schedule throughout the week was waking up at 7 a.m. (ahhhh!), doing a quiet time, breakfast, and having a morning celebration - everyone got together in the Hatch, where we have worship, and we sang and watched videos. Afterward, we split up into our small bible study groups, then had a big bible study with our speaker, and then had lunch. Half the time I don't even know what it was that they were feeding us... my one and only complaint about Caswell is the food! :P And it doesn't help that I'm a picky eater - maybe that's why I lost six pounds haha.
So after lunch, we had free time until 5:30, which was dinnertime. During free time, we did all sorts of things. We sometimes went to the beach, and other times explored the forts around the campus. It's awesome - there are forts there that soldiers used forever ago during wars, that we campers now get to adventure in. We also went to the gift shop, smoothie shop, played frisbee, watched Amber climb freakishly tall trees, and took walks. After dinner would be worship service, and then all of the churches would split up and have church devotions (another thing that I LOVE). Our youth group would come together as one and share things on our hearts, growing closer to one and another. A lot of people made some great decisions and commitments, including yours truly. :) I'm going to try to spend more time in the Word. The speaker, Adam, opened my eyes at how often we take the Bible for granted; many of us just have it sitting on our shelf collecting dust, while others across the country are dying to just have the privilege to read a couple of verses. So I'm going to try to read one chapter a day out of the New Testament, until it becomes a habit.The whole week was terrific - and that's a huge understatement. Words can't describe my love for Caswell and the great experiences we have there. I already miss it and can't wait for next year! :)
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