Camp Meeting is over...sad!

So, this was definitely the weirdest year ever at Camp Meeting. Not to say it wasn't good, but it was just different. Maybe it was all the anticipation, build-up for thousands of people being there, too much going on and all the changes on the camp-grounds. Anyways, the following will be my account of camp this year along w/ some supplemental pictures.

I had to arrive the Wednesday before camp started for Mid-summer Concert practices, which was kind of weird since hardly anyone was there. Wednesday night was downright scary, because it was like a ghost town. On Thursday I found out that 4 people were coming from the Philippines and that totally made me happy. I got to go to the airport to pick them up on Friday morning. Saturday was interesting. Sherilyn, Shauna M., Matt, Jen and I went to the park and had an interesting time w/ a hammock ;)

Then we went to the mall where DJ, Matt and Jake had entirely too much fun w/ headless mannequins.

Camp Meeting started the following day and it was definitely pretty crowded. I got a little frustrated the first week because of all the practices for the Midsummer concert, services and the middle Saturday drama plus I was working in the restaurant to save some money. I didn't have much time to enjoy the prayer meetings and hanging out w/ people too much. I did have a great prayer meeting on the Wednesday night of the first week. I did go to Shari's on, I think it was, Friday night w/ people from Sacramento, Medford and Seattle. In fact, I think a good portion of us bloggers were there(Stacy, Zach, Mandy, Melina and Bry). For some reason Stacy had a lot of trouble understanding me that night, she thought that I said I was Korean when I had actually said I was praying about something. Lol...good times. By the time Saturday rolled around, I was pretty exhausted. When I got done playing in the orchestra for the dramas, I ran across the street to run the Virtual Virtuoso Conducting tent for a while and then played my clarinet for the music demonstration thingy they were doing. Once I was done w/ all that, I went and took a nap because I was hot, sweaty, tired and a little grumpy by that point. But I do have to say that my cousin, Catey, looked super adorable portraying Sis. Tillie Nelson.

That night our Philippines team, minus Bro. Bill, Sis. Lori and Erin, took the Filipinos out to Old Chicago for dinner.

The pic's a little dark, but starting from the left that's Florin, Jill, my head poking out by Jill, Jen, Angela, Tricia, Justin, Sis. Aida, Bro. Ely, Bro. Eman, Artie and John. The youth rally was pretty awesome. It was nice getting to hear music from the east coast. I was really glad that my plan to get Marletha Cooper to sing Mercy Said No worked(that was the last song done). I had talked to Sis. Janice who talked to Erik who talked to Marletha about it :D This camp meeting I hardly got to see Miss Jody Burton at all, which was sad because this was the first time in like 3 or 4 years that we didn't share a cabin :( Though my roomies this year were pretty great too(Jamie Burton, Kristina Shroeder, Angela Hiatt and Veronica Hinkle)

On the second Monday, a bunch of us went to the zoo. I don't think that I had been to the Portland zoo in nearly 18 years. It was a lot of fun though. I found a new boyfriend there, check him out...

We saw some monkies...

Safe to say, it was a pretty fun day.

The second week, in general, was more laid back and there were less people. On Wednesday night, I was excited to hear Bro. Bob Bishop, formerly of Tacoma and now the pastor in Yakima, preach. He gave a great sermon on hearing God's voice that I really needed to hear...both the sermon and God's voice. On Thursday Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kami showed up w/ my new cousin, Kaleb, who is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not exagerating in the least, see for yourselves!

Yep, that's a Monk, ain't he adorable? Unlike these familar faces in this pic:

I got sick on Thursday night w/ some kind of head cold or flu. It cleared up on Saturday morning, but it had been pretty miserable being cooped up in my cabin during services on Friday :( At the ordinance service, I washed feet w/ Angela Rudolph, then we skipped the baptismal to go to Pilgrim's and Christian Supply w/ Katie Okinasomethingorother from Dallas, who is an absolute sweetheart. I'm glad I got to know her this year. When I got back to the campgrounds, Bryan Hinkle asked me out and I just couldn't say no. We went to go see Superman Returns in the Imax theater at Omsi, then out to Chile's for dinner. For those of you who it may not be common knowledge to that the Monks, Meeds and Hinkles are all related, Bryan's my cousin, so it wasn't too much of a hot date, but it was a lot of fun. Sorry, Bry :( Now if Josh Groban had taken me out... After the singspiration, me and Melina went to Shari's again, this time w/ a whole new bunch of people. We had an interesting discussion on the word indubitably. Melina, I'm going to be using that word more often, just so I can get comfortable w/ it. Finally, it was the last Sunday, the saddest day of camp. Gary Riler gave a really good Sunday School lesson on the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Even though I have my baptism, I still learned a lot. The services that day went by way too fast. Right before the night service, I went to Red Robin w/ a bunch of Dallasites. My first and only time going to Red Robin all camp and I didn't even go to Applebee's once! I'm so proud. Bro. Christopher King from St. Thomas gave the final message and it was a great sermon. The Lord's spirit came down in a really strong way at the prayer meeting that night. It was hard to leave the tabernacle :( But we finally did and then went to have a kitchenette party. Here's some great pics from that:

So, all in all, it was a pretty good year. I think that I went away w/ what I needed from the Lord, as did many it seemed. I'm sad and glad at the same time to be home. Yesterday was a little depressing though. Bro. Bill had been taking the Filipinos on a tour of Washington and they stopped in Tacoma yesterday morning so that I could give them a tour of the church. Then I had to say my final good-byes to them, which was really tough. I was so thankful that they were able to come out, at least the four of them. Fifteen out there had attempted to get their visas to come for camp meeting, but our government and their government are full of a bunch of goobers, so unless obtained illegally, it is next to impossible to get a visa to come to America from the Philippines. But, as we all know, God is pretty amazing and he worked it out for a few of them. I was really happy, because I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to see any of them again on this side of Heaven. Well, I guess it's time to wrap this up. If anyone thinks of it, I could use some prayer. I'm on the hunt for a job, so Lord willing, I'll find one soon!