Friday, June 22, 2012

some days stay gold forever

It happened, it rocked, it's over. It was the best one of all time.


This was my eighteenth church family camp. 

There've been years where I stay on the teeter-totter as much as possible, years where I destroy myself playing tag every single day, years where I run around being a maniac and eating red vines and avoiding banana slugs, and years that are rough and all over the place. This year was the year of taking photos and loud singing and clamorous late-night talks and inane 2am basketball games and learning and appreciating and getting to know people a lot better.

 
I have it so good--with this crazy, amazing church family, and sometimes I don't remember that. 

This year it was literally impossible to forget. 



There are a lot of awesome people in the world, and God put a bunch of them in my life. Community is one of the best. things. ever. And family camp is like, community on steroids.


Everything that I'd prayed the week would be-- awesome and full of craziness (which it always is) but also encouraging and inspiring and sharpening--it was all that. 



This year, Jesus took us by storm.



There was sunlight all over the place, late night talks about deep stuff and weird stuff and real stuff, and lots of campfire-smoked clothes and sandy feet.



I took photos, kind of continuously.


And got lots of advice & inspiration from Miwaza and Peter














yes, this is a gratuitous picture of Ben's tricep.





pre-dance pushup contest. ;)
we danced to Chasing the Sun which was kind-of-really amazing.


Ben looked up a video montage of Sean Bean's thirty death scenes because he's helpful like that.





Bethany loves to have her picture taken. ;)



















The speakers this year were especially awesome."FIGHT DRAGONS" was all over the place. Thank you, Pastor Sumpter, for a whole lot of convicting, inspiring, and shivers-inducing words, and thank you, Long Livefor being even more applicable than ever. :)


"Fight dragons.
Kill 'em.
Play with 'em
Tame 'em.
Take on sin, stare it down; chase it.
And if you die fighting a dragon, good for you...
Jesus did too.
And you know God will raise you back up.
You have endless life in Him.
What's the worst thing that's gonna happen?
You'll die.
It's gonna happen to us anyways.
You have nothing to be afraid of.
You belong to Jesus and you're a child of God,
And God has promised to raise you up on the last day.
You are invincible.
Fight dragons.
Confess your sin, fearlessly"
- Toby Sumpter










white pants. yess.







this is Daniel, who slept on the floor amidst end-of-camp slideshow madness.


This week in June is always a life-changer & perspective-shifter, and this year was no different. There's the high you get, and there is the letdown after--but despite the depressing fact that it's over, really, I'm excited about everything.

I love these people, I love this life, I love this Jesus who is the source and reason and purpose of everything.


"We're standing in a light that won't fade,
Tomorrow's coming but this won't change,
Cause some days stay gold forever."
The Wanted

31 comments:

  1. Your shots are amazing, that little girl's face is adorable! Glad that you had fun, can't wait until the next family church camp! xx

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  2. these. pictures. are. amazing. my gosh. they are so good. you make me want to go to church camp now...very jealous. maybe I should just crash your church camp one year and say, "hey! soooo, she (pointing at you accusingly) said that your church camp is like, ah-mazing. so here I am! to see if she's right."
    ok? ok. good. ;-)

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    Replies
    1. you seriously should--all my blogging friends are totally invited. :)

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    2. :D I agree - I'd love to come one year!! It looks so awesome!

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  3. Love these! Looks like a great time :D

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  4. Oh. My. Goodness. I feel like I could just look at these pictures/this post again, and again, and again, despite not knowing the people. This probably sounds weird… But this is the kind of posts that inspires characters to form in my little ol’ writers mind. I’m so glad you had a good time.
    ~Aidyl

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  5. You captured camp so wonderfully...and I wasn't even there! :) Makes me wish I was though.
    I loved seeing all of them on FB and being able to comment and like my particular favorites...so I think I'm off to do that, now... :)

    <3

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  6. looks like a ton of fun! :) and i love the wanted! :)

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  7. Beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, inspiring photos! I mean it, what a great post. I'm so happy that you got to experience this. There is truly nothing like it. =)

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  8. These are all so beautiful! Looks like so much fun! :)

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  9. This looks AWESOME girl!!! I totally wish I was able to come to your church =) =) Plus then I would have to pick your brain about improving my photography skills ;) That would make me insanely happy!!
    Much Love,
    L

    allglorious-within.blogspot.com

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  10. Looks amazing!! I miss going to church camp... our church used to do it yearly every June also and it was such fun. I made so many sweet memories there!! :-) Lovely photos. Oregon is such a beautiful state.

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  11. Looks like you had so much fun! Your photos are amazing! I always enjoy going to my church's summer camp too! It's such a blessing and a blast!

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  12. You have some wonderful pics catching people jumping in the air! Wow!! Great job. I love the photo where you show the sunset through the camera lens. Great job..Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Um, can I come to church camp?! lol. Seriously, Susannah, this looked amazing. Your posts are always perfect, dear!

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  14. Wow that looks amazingly fun!!

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  15. Wow, that looks like a blast!! Campfires are the best, aren't they? :)

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  16. Wow! This trip looks awesome! Your pictures are beautiful. So crisp and refreshing. Totally made me want to step into them. I'd love to know more about how your church goes about planning this trip. Sounds like something my church would love to do.

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  17. Toby Sumpter quote: Amazing. I totally cried. So happy!!

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  18. BEAUTIFUL!! Looks like SO much fun!!:)

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  19. I can never decide if you just have an amazing camera, have an amazing way of capturing people or live in a colony of models.
    Loved all the life and energy in these photos.
    Also I must now look up that montage of Bean scenes. Poor, poor man.

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  20. LOVELY Pictures, as always!!! It looks like it was such fun!!!!!!

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  21. This is beautiful and I am inspired all so much thank you!!!!

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  23. Random question, but is the guy with the green shirt on in the very first picture of they guys do gymnastics??

    And if you're wondering how I know that, I'm a gymnast too. lol

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