Hello everyone!
Sadly, the blog post that I wrote before was erased. I'll have to write a new one, I suppose.

Two weeks ago was the Senior High camp, which I counseled for. It was really challenging and really good.

The last night of camp we had a lot of campers who were really broken after the message. A lot of the girls were crying; walking through camp there was just sobbing everywhere. You wouldn't believe the sort of issues many of them are dealing with. One of the girls in our cabin decided to ask God to be her Savior, which was really exciting.

One thing to pray for though is the ministry for all the students after they leave camp. Juneau is pretty lacking in follow-up camp ministry, and really in all ministries.

I went into town last weekend and explored Juneau. It was great; we attended two different churches, and I learned a lot about Juneau culture. It's a little strange: the culture up here is way different from that in "the lower 48," even though it's still in the USA. Everything is very transient- people move around a lot, so they send all their mail to P.O. boxes. They typically often change churches, houses, and just don't commit to much for the long-term.

Anyway, last week I was on work-staff. I was "Laundry Queen," so I did almost every counselor's laundry. It was gross great. It was a small work-staff, so we were really busy. But, I still had time to learn to knit! And go on a great horse ride. (I'm knitting a pair of legwarmers. They're sweet.)

My mom also sent me an awesome package with Cheez-Its, Goldfish, and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies! MMMMM. You're great, ma! And not just because you send me delicious food.

Oh! Also, there is a young grizzly bear in camp. We saw it run through a few days ago past the Trading Post. Later we saw it on the beach. A guy went out with his shotgun to either kill it or scare it, but it swam across the river before he could. So we're all kind of on tiptoe when we walk around, especially at night. There are bear poop and tracks everywhere.

This week is the second Maverick camp (that's 12-13 year olds). I'm counseling again. It was my favorite age group last time, so we'll see how my cabin goes this time!

Counselors start leaving this week, which is really sad. The rest of us leave in 16 days. I wish we could stay at camp forever. I miss you guys too though!

Love you all so much.
Lauren

Sunday, July 17

Hi guys! This one will be kinda short, I have campers coming in the morning!

The past week was the second Bronco camp (ages 10-11). It was a challenging week. Usually, I have one or two campers who are troublemakers; this week I think I had five or six. Some were falling asleep during our discussions, two wouldn’t stop goofing off (even during prayer), and another two we suspected of coming from backgrounds of either abuse or neglect (they made some phone calls).

My co-counselor’s name was Tracy. She was fantastic, and as far as we were concerned, I feel like the week went well. The new theme was and is still Holidays. So of course, we dressed up! One day I was a reindeer, another we painted our faces to look like Easter eggs. It was great.

I do have to tell you what occurred over this week. On Tuesday night, my cabin and I were outside around 10:30 when Michael and his cabin ran by and pegged us with water balloons. There were only two: one hit me at almost point blank range in the face, and the other one burst on the wall behind me. The one that hit my face didn’t explode, so ironically we didn’t even get wet. Michael and his cabin ran away really fast after throwing them, so they didn’t see anything after that. I was dazed for a minute because I hadn’t even seen it coming. Then when we realized it was Michael, I was mad. So of course, I did what any good Christian camp counselor would do- I faked an injury to get them back.

After speaking with the camp nurse, we pretended that I had scratched my eye because it was open when the water balloon hit. I showed up to breakfast the next morning with a huge bandaid over my eye. Michael and Tyler (his co-counselor) felt awful. They apologized at least 10 times and Tyler even prayed for my eye during our staff devotions (I felt kinda guilty about that one!). Michael told me, though, that even though he felt awful, if he had the chance he would totally do it again. That sealed the deal!

That night, after lots of careful planning, we gave Michael and Tyler fake mail. (Everyone who receives mail has to dance to a song called “Grey Squirrel” in front of the dining hall to actually get it.) At the end of their dance, Tracy and I pie-ed both of them in the face with mashed potato pies. Then I triumphantly ripped off the bandaid and informed him that the entire injury was fake. I thought I had won! (And really, I did win regardless of what happened next.)

For Bronco camp, each week there is a fake crime and we have “Kangaroo Court,” where after hilarious imitation court proceedings, a few counselors or staff members are declared guilty and sentenced. Since everyone saw me pie Michael in the face and announce my faked injury, the staff decided that I was to be determined guilty of their fake crime. (I possibly should have reconsidered the fact that my retaliation made me a shoe-in for the guilty verdict.)

Anyway, I was found guilty along with another counselor and a member of a short-term ministry team. Usually, the sentence is buckets of water poured on your head. Not the most desirable, in 65 degree weather, but bearable. This week, they decided to amp it up a bit. In the end (after trying to escape a couple of times) they poured bottles of pancake syrup on our heads and then poured sand over top of it.

Now, you must remember that I have very long and thick curly hair. That was AWFUL. It took a 45 minute shower to get the majority of it out of my hair, and I still think I will have sand in my scalp for about six months.

So the moral of this story is: if you’re retaliating for a prank, don’t do it on a Bronco camp week. They might get you back. (Although, in Michael’s defense, he didn’t have anything to do with the syrup/sand fiasco.)

Oh, and I crocheted mittens! They’re kind of pot-holder-esque, but still. I learned to knit too, but crocheting is more fun.

In other news, I am counseling this week for senior high. My co-counselor’s name is Brittany. Please be in prayer for us this week. Senior High is kind of the the climax of the summer. It is a six-day camp so the kids will be here until Saturday. It’s always stressful for the program staff, but really great. (This is our second Senior High camp, and I did counsel for the last one too.)

Love you guys!

Lauren

PS: My mom is great! Love you mom! :o)

Sunday, July 10

Hello everyone! It’s been a nice week on work-staff for me; hope your holiday went well!
Last Sunday morning I played back-up guitar for chapel. It actually went really well, considering that except for the past couple weeks, I haven’t played guitar in a few years.

The parade on Monday morning was great. It was actually really cool, because we got to see how many people the camp has impacted. We had a little “float,” a trailer with a miniature cabin on it. All the counselors walked around it, sang camp songs, and handed out candy. Every so often, someone would get on the microphone and shout, “Who here has been to Echo Ranch?” It was really cool to see all the hands go up: adults, teenagers, kids. Sometimes you would have parents who had gone a long time ago who send their kids now. Even the Starbucks barista has gone. It’s awesome to know that I’m a part of the ministry that ensures that the greater part of Juneau has heard the gospel.

This week on work-staff was nice. It was a soccer camp, so there were only 40 campers. There were a lot of people not counseling which means a bigger work-staff, so we all had less stuff individually to do. We’ve been painting over the graffiti-covered bunks in the cabins. First we taped and primed each bunk, and then we’ve been painting them a dark reddish brown. I learned to drive the small tractor this week! It’s really fun; I love it. Our tractor is a stick-shift (I guess they all are?), and I’ve mastered everything except the fine art of reversing. I almost ran over my trailer while attempting to back up yesterday.

Also, possibly one of the best parts about camp, we went strawberry picking! There are strawberry plants that grow like weeds here, everywhere. The berries are finally ripe! They’re really small, not usually much bigger than a dime. Not all of the berries are red either; they’re usually a pinkish-red, but the white ones are still fine to eat. I have to tell you, I have never had better strawberries in my entire life. They are so sweet! Even the white ones are amazing. It’s so rewarding to crawl on your hands and knees to find berries growing near the ground, pick one, and then eat it! I got a Ziploc bag full of them. They usually grow most abundantly near piles of horse poo. We try not to think about that while eating them.

On Friday night, we went into town to see a Christian illusionist called “The MAZE.” It was really good. He’s got a great testimony, and he did some tricks that were amazing. It was really fun because we got to see some of our campers too.

Last night we went out to the wilderness camp to hang out around a campfire. Kern (my cousin) and some of the other guys fished at the river, and we watched them fillet the fish, and then cook them in the fire. I ate a piece of salmon that just hours before had been swimming happily in the river. (A little strange to think about that!) We also had s’mores and peanut butter.

After that we went star-tipping. It was so much fun. I’ll have to tell you about it (and how to do it) when I get home.

Today is a rest day, and then we start the second Bronco camp tomorrow! I am counseling for it, with a girl named Tracy. Broncos are 10-12 year olds.

Only one month and one week left before I come home. Not looking forward to school when I get back, but I miss you guys dearly so that will make up for it. Love you all!

In Christ,
Lauren

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well. I would love to hear from you about what's going on at home. I can't believe that it's already July. It feels like I just got here, and at the same time it feels like I've been here forever.

We are going into town this weekend for July 4 to see fireworks and participate in the parade! We will leave tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon and take a boat (and later a bus) to Juneau. It's still so light here that they can't do fireworks until around midnight, so the fireworks are always technically at 12:01am on July 4. Before the midnight firework show tomorrow, we'll split up into two groups. One will hike a nearby glacier, and another group will go shopping in downtown Juneau.

On Monday we will be in the parade through downtown Juneau, and then head back to camp. There are no main summer camps this week, although there is a soccer camp, a horse camp, and a few wilderness camps. I don't think I'll be counseling for anything this week, so it will be a nice break.

The past week has been really good. It was Maverick camp, which is 12-13 year olds. I like the age group a lot: the campers are old enough to understand the deep stuff and still young enough that they listen to us and look up to us.

My cabin (Discovery again) had 8 girls, plus my co-counselor Laurie and I. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of things that were similar to the Senior High camp. Our girls had a lot of fun with us, and more than one started crying on Friday when it was time to leave. It's been hard to send them back. I know that none of them this time have Christian households to return to. While I might shoot something if they stayed any longer, I still wish that I didn't have to let them leave.

There weren't any breakthroughs or really amazing things that happened, but I know camp still provided a safe place for these girls from rough homes to come hear about God and have fun. I hope that some seeds were planted that will sprout in the future!

I also have more Alaskan information for you, this time about plants! There is no poison ivy or poison oak here (at least, not that anyone knows about.) There are however two plants from which we keep our distance. The first is called Devil's Club (with good reason.) This particular plant grows all over the place, unfortunately. Most are 4 to 5 feet tall and grow on a thick stalk with huge leaves. The stalk and the bottom of the leaf are covered in thorns that break off on skin contact (and don't come out in the wash if they happen to attach themselves to your clothing.) Devil's Club gets its name because when hiking through the forest, if you step down on some or pull some back out of the way, it snaps back and can quite literally club the person behind you. The thorns are hard to get out, and most people are forced to just let them slowly work their way out over time. Sounds terrible right? Yeah, it is. I haven't gotten attacked by any yet (and I won't ever, hopefully.) I have seen bunches of the stuff though; it grows like a weed, everywhere it can.

The other plant that we avoid is not nearly as bad. It's called Indian Rhubarb. It isn't prickly or anything. The problem occurs if its stalk is broken open and some of the sap or juice gets on you. When that stuff is on your skin, it reacts to sunlight and causes pretty bad blisters for two or three weeks. The upside is that if you realize you got it, you can easily cover the area from the sun and go wash it off. If you do that, you'll be fine. This one also grows pretty tall, on a thickish stalk. It has a pretty white flower cluster at the top that looks a little like Baby's Breath, the tiny white stuff.

So, if you ever come to Alaska, get someone to point those two plants out to you and avoid them! Fortunately, they are easy to spot.

Miss you guys a lot! I'll be in town Sunday afternoon to Monday night, so if you want to call I would love it! Maybe I'll be able to answer. Keep in mind that I am 4 hours behind you.

Enjoy your holiday weekend! I hope that I'll get to talk to you all soon. Stay safe!

In Christ,
Lauren

One other thing:

Just wanted to let you know that while I'll keep updating this blog, I have another one with the exact same posts on it in a more streamlined format on leculp.tumblr.com if you would like to check it out. It's easier to read and easier for me to work with. It's just a different website, but all the same posts and updates. (The new blog also has pictures! I can't upload pictures to this one for some reason.)

Thanks for still reading all this stuff!