My summer, part 2

   So horse camp... I went to horse camp for 2 weeks and I was in a Servant And Leadership Training program. (I was a SALT.) And I went with my best friend. These 2 weeks were not so much fun, as they were a learning experience. The whole week the one verse I had stuck in my head was Collossians 3:23, which is: "Whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for men." I tried my very best to live out that verse daily.
   But then I got sick. I absolutely hate being a burden to people, so my first instinct was to ignore the fact that I felt terrible, and go about my assigned tasks as rigorously as ever. Which I did.
   Finally on one day I asked if I could lay down for a little while during a time when they didn't really need me. My incredibly sweet and concerned counselor gave me permission and told me to tell her if there was anything I needed. So I got a couple hours of rest, which helped a lot. Then the next day I pushed myself again, and by the afternoon I felt so terrible I was close to tears. I was also incredibly frustrated because I couldn't give 100%. So before I broke down crying, I went to my counselor, and she gave me a few hours off again.
   The next morning I woke up after 6 hours of sleep (as usual) and immediately was overcome with weakness and fatigue. I actually fell down when I got off my top bunk. But I ignored that, and again, feeling like a let down, I had to hold back tears as I pulled on jeans, a sweatshirt, and my boots. I started walking up the path to the bathroom to brush my teeth (pretty much the only thing I had time for) and was realizing I couldn't make it through the day like this. So I walked to my counselor's cabin instead. My poor counselor awoke to me crying next to her bunk and saying "Mela? Mela? I think I need to go home." She let me cry for a little bit, then told me to go back to bed and stay there. I stayed there all day, and she brought me a little bit of food for breakfast and lunch since I didn't think I could keep anything down. By free time I felt a lot better and my cabin was way too hot for me to be comfortable in anyways, so I took a cool shower and walked down to the air-conditioned dining hall and read a book and drank an iced coffee.
   I was so overwhelmed with my counselor's kindness and desire to help me and baffled by the fact that she didn't just send me home, but instead took it upon herself to take care of me. And I was very humbled since I had to let others serve me and make up for my absence. So the 2 main things I learned at camp were humility, and doing everything whole-heartedly.


~Melody