First Week Perfections - by Joey Parkinson

Howdy!  My name is Joey Parkinson and I am the counselor of cabin 16. To start I just want to say that this week has been amazing in every way. At the beginning of this year I had no idea that I would be sitting here in the lodge at Camp Gilead writing to all of you about how God has been working this last week in my life and in the life of my campers.  Last Saturday, after all of the family campers had left, we as counselors were finally able to move into our own cabins for the summer.  It seemed like I had waited forever, when reality it had only been two weeks (staff training and family camp) before we could move into our cabins. As I opened that cabin door it finally hit me.  This was MY cabin in which God had given me and over the next six weeks of camp I would be the counselor of THIS cabin.

It may seem like a small deal but I began to realize that I would be the counselor instead of the camper. Instead of me looking to the counselor for strength and help, these campers would be looking to me for guidance and to be their moral compass for the week.  At this point I realized how unprepared I was for camp to start. After all of  staff training I still felt inadequate in what God had called me to be this summer. 

At the beginning of this week I had so many preconceived notions about how God was going to use me. Boy was I wrong!  This first week as a counselor has been amazing and God has blessed me with a great group of junior high kids.  But the story of this week seems to be that in my weakness, God is the almighty God of the universe who controls all things, knows all things, and who has a plan for everything. So instead of First Week Perfections, the main theme of this Blog should be "God is in Control".

As I look toward the rest of this summer, I wish that I could have a pause button so that I would be able to savor each moment in which God has worked through me throughout this first part of the week. I am really looking forward to seeing God’s perfection in my weakness and how he works in not only me but the rest of the staff this summer :)

To Him Who Controls All Things – Jeremiah 29:11

Joey Parkinson

Counselor - Cabin 16