Continued....

Sunday May 20th. 180 students arrived. So neat, mostly because it was a full session!  That seldom happens for the first session . The two weeks flew by and it went well. That seems solo long ago, it is hard to remember all that happened. 

Fast forward two weeks. June 3rd . Another full session . Again great session. I still miss my small group girls. 

Jump forward again  . June 17,2012   The start of what we all thought was another normal full session. A great fun student body. Lots of energy but attentive , well behaved group.  Wonderful first week , many good speakers. Normal daily life for staff. Until Saturday .      .      .    .      .  . . . ........... 1:00 pm. We saw smoke coming from the mountain top a ways away. 2:30 pm. We see billows of more smoke. Go to sports time and park cookout. 6:30 return from park . 8:00 Staff meeting about smoke/fire. 9:00 Serious staff meeting about potential evacuation plan. During the course of the meeting we got the call that we were no longer in danger so we could either quite the meeting or proceed and talk it all out anyways. We did the later. (good idea always.) little did we know.......

Midnight. Myself and other staff are outside watching the smokiness and fireishness . (it was on the other side of the mtn so it was hard to see) . Suddenly the wind is in our face, 5 min later we see billowing flames coming over the mountain towards us! Sudden decision to go to bed.

1:09 am Sunday, June 10th . The  evacuation call came. Chaos? Nope. Literally cool, calm ,collected leaders guided us , and in turn we the staff guided the students safely to the buses.

Within forty-five min we had every student , every staff, every faculty member , guests and all. 300 young people onto the buses with their overnight bag . Amazing. 

Even more amazing, was the fact that Mountain Springs church welcomed us at 3AM with open arms....and sleeping bags......and pillows....and 50 air mattresses ...and water... And smiles! Crazy. We ended up staying there for an entire week. Mind blown. Who knew that the body of Christ still exists in that loving of a way . Wow. God is amazing. Life is crazy. 

Alive and well

Whoops, I have a blog. Thanks to my coworker for reminding me.
I am still in CO and loving it! I want to tell you all about my summer so I will just do many post in a row.

May- headed out on the 13 hr trip to Manitou Springs. Myself , 6 other girls and 3 guys opened the hotel after it had been closed for the entire winter.  We painted over 30 rooms, took apart , moved, then reassembled 60 bunk beds, ripped up carpet after carpet, and just scrubbed and cleaned until this place shinned. Hard . Rewarding. Work.
Next up staff training! When 35 more staffers arrived ! Wahoo!  It felt like the best family reunion ever. So many good friends , so much joy.
Staff training was incredible. Dr Jeff Meyers and Mr. Stonestreet did the majority of it. We had lessons on being good mentors to the students and a session on the vision of Summit. Wow. I wanted to listen all day for a week. It was that good. Hearing about their personal passion to see lives changed for Christ and me being part of that was amazing. Realizing how much influence we have . For good or for bad. The getting the understanding behind it all and being able to put it to good use....just three days later when the students would arrive.Next post....