{"id":255,"date":"2014-01-25T21:12:40","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T21:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/?p=255"},"modified":"2014-01-25T21:12:40","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T21:12:40","slug":"athena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/?p=255","title":{"rendered":"Athena"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSCN2901\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Athena is a tough, fun, capable girl counselor. My boys love her because this girl knows how to wrestle. She picks them up and slings them around and isn’t the least bit ill-at-ease when three\u00a0fierce little\u00a0boys see her from across the room, grab up Nerf weapons, and run toward her screaming their battle cries. Most of my conversations with Athena have been quick exchanges in her classic gruff but loveable style.<\/p>\n

But I\u00a0had the rare opportunity\u00a0to talk with\u00a0her in depth\u00a0at the Summer Staff Winter Retreat. I love it when you get a glimpse\u00a0into someone’s heart and I was not disappointed with my\u00a0peek at the thoughtful girl who\u00a0lies beneath Athena’s fierce exterior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Athena\u00a0graduated last summer, served at camp, and moved out of state where she is working hard toward achieving\u00a0a lifelong dream of becoming a horse trainer. I asked her\u00a0how\u00a0her new job\u00a0was going. She sighed. \u201cI\u2019m beginning to see that the little things matter. In Pennsylvania I can\u2019t see the stars. When I came back to Washington for Christmas I discovered that I don\u2019t really belong here anymore. But then when I came up to camp, I realized that this was it, I had come home.\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew that Athena was a good counselor, a fun individual, and superb at\u00a0roughhousing. But I didn’t realize what Camas had become to her. I didn’t realize that it was her home.<\/p>\n

When Scruffy and I were called to camp we had an idea of what working at this ministry entailed. But God’s call is so amazing, it is more and less complicated then you think. It is many different things. It is my husband over in the kitchen doing dishes this weekend because we don’t have enough dishwashers. It is sitting with a lonely child in the meadow during summer camps. It is telling someone of God and the glories He has brought to your own messed up life. It is wrestling with the Director’s kids when their mom needs to run and grab them a change of clothes. It is loving the people that show up, whether they are campers or counselors, speakers or nurses or kitchen staff.\u00a0And sometimes it\u00a0is providing a place. A place that is safe, where you know that you will be loved,\u00a0somewhere to\u00a0come home to after\u00a0you grow up and have moved away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boo Boo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Athena is a tough, fun, capable girl counselor. My boys love her because this girl knows how to wrestle. She picks them up and slings them around and isn’t the least bit ill-at-ease when three\u00a0fierce little\u00a0boys see her from across … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecampfire.camasmeadows.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}