And realizing that one of my major Christian influences was camp even though I was surrounded by Christianity all the time. In the later years camp was a good kick in the pants, but in the earlier years it was a place that showed me that Christians could be cool people too. Dahlen Barkman being one of my influences in the earlier years with Andrew, Evan, and other people I cant remember names being there later on. And now Earl and Ramona have been influential and its not necessarily anything they've done, I've been more passionate in my prayer life because I've had something that really mattered to me to pray for, and it has gotten me to pray with friends not something that I used to do out of church. Family has been a influence to me, my brother Kurtis and my dearest big cousin Dayna have been a encouragement me.
And lots of other things have influenced me like music, friends, and I'd say the internet too.
paul epp has been a great role model for me too!
I look at how camp has influenced me (as I write this I have my staff application next to me and have started filling it out), and it drives my choice of being staff at camp this year. Part of me is questioning my intentions both of doing 5 weeks( I don't want to do it if the reason I'm doing it is to seem like I have my act together, and to try to earn respect) and my intentions of just counseling at camp (part of me just sees it as a good time) so pray that I can come to a conclusion so I can best serve the camp.
And for those who want to know I will be sharing my testimony on Sunday April 29th and will be baptized on may 27th at Morrow gospel church and our service starts at 10:45
can't wait... see you tomorrow morning (and all summer at camp! can't wait for that either!)
ReplyDeletei also just want to say that i love what you wrote about earl and ramona. i completely agree with and understand what you mean when you say that you've been more passionate in your prayer life b/c you've had something that really mattered to you to pray for. i fell the same way. i've had big things to pray about before, but not like this....
ReplyDeletethanks for putting into words what's in my heart. i even tried to write something like that in a comment to them once, but i couldn't figure out how to word it...
love you!
dayna