Day One here at One Week 2008-Collide. It was a pretty good day that just got better and better as it went, once we were out here. If I were a little less tired, this would be where I would compare it to a movie that was just okay but with an awesome ending. I'm still trying to think of something, so if I do as I continue to type this blog entry, I will let you know. By the way, before I get into anything specific, I am currently typing this at 12:56 AM 6/11/2008 in good ol' Notepad. I'm not sure if I will actually be able to post this on to Blogger. We do indeed have Wireless internet, however it seems to go in and out.

Starting this out like a normal blog entry, I had a really hard time sleeping last night. Tiffany says it's because I was excited for camp, but I beg to differ. You see, I was (and am) still very excited for camp, however I believe it was the freaking splitting headache I had all night that woke me up at 4:00 am and made me want to die. Okay, so it wasn't that serious, but it did irritate the crap out of me and hurt really badly. So, I'm very tired, especially after an equally tiring day at work, which was full of monotony and headaches. Yes, by the way, I did take medicine, but for some reason it didn't work too well. Caveat: I'm dozing in and out in the recliner in our room at camp as I type this, so if the last part of this post is something like hhfasjklkvjaikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk, you'll know what happened.

So we get off work and head to camp. We're running a little late, and if any of you know Tiffany or myself, that drives us crazy. But we actually get here right on time for a counselors/staff meeting.

Okay, sorry again for being totally and completely all over the place, but I wanted to put this in here. I know that my faith isn't something that I go into detail about very often, but I'm not letting anything hold me back here. If you respect or like me any less for what I'm writing or my views, that's your problem and maybe we should talk about it, but honestly if you fall into this category you should just stop reading now and check back on my blog entry after I get back from camp or something. Anywho, now that that's out of the way...

The meeting was cool. One thing I thought was very cool was that we started out by praying. Now, this isn't necessarily something crazy, but we all stood up and joined hands and took turns praying. It went on for a while, but a lot of great things were prayed about and for. The meeting, with the prayer and everything, really made me realize how committed everyone here is to make this camp something special, and how it's all for God first, and the kids second. They mentioned how the past week (the first camp) had some really cool things going on. In a camp where there were a little over 100 kids, they had 30 people give their lives to God. How awesome is that? That is an incredible number of lives that have been changed just due to camp and all of the awesome speakers and staff.

So after the staff meeting was dinner, which was surprisingly good. After the meal was service. What a way to start camp. Pastor Marty (the youth pastor from Tiffany and I's church, Christian Life Fellowship) is the speaker for this camp, and he gave a little bit of his testimony. Before that was Praise & Worship led by Marty's cousin Zac(k? h? -?), who rocked the party. Marty has gone through some crazy things in his life, and God spoke through him in a very special way today. He talked about how even though he went through all of these crazy stupid things in his life, if it weren't for some of those things he wouldn't be here today. He gave the opportunity for the kids to come up to the alter if they have anything holding them back from getting help, such as abuse, drug/alcohol problems, etc, and a shocking number (15-20, I'd say) stood at the altar while Marty, his wife Cherie, and a ton of other counselors and other kids prayed over them. It was an incredible experience. I know of at least one person who gave their life to God, and just seeing that is an awesome thing. This isn't the first time I've seen that happen or been present, but every time it happens it's a special thing, obviously.

To be completely honest, I was having a little bit of an internal problem myself. I had felt a stirring (deep within me... could it be my time has come....anyway, I'll stop typing song lyrics maybe) all night in my spirit that something incredible was going to happen. When Marty called the kids to the altar, I felt like God was really calling me to pray for someone in particular, but for the life of me I could not tell who it was or what I was supposed to pray for. It was killing me. I went up and started praying for everyone at first, but then I could tell that there was someone specific up there I was supposed to pray for. Then I started thinking that even if I could figure out who it was, I didn't know what I was supposed to pray for. So after a while of pacing back and forth and praying for God to show me who it was and tell me what to pray for, I started getting frustrated. Then I hated that feeling, but that's beside the point. Now, to set the record straight, I'm not saying I was frustrated at God but frustrated at myself for not being able to tell who it was. I'm sure I was being told, I just didn't know how to interpret it or something. I don't know, it bugged me for a while, but then, like Tiffany said, sometimes you just gotta pray, so I did, and it stopped bugging me.

Man, that service was really something else. Marty took something like an hour or more after service was over to pray specifically for/with every single kid who went up to the altar. And the longer this happened, more kids started showing up at the altar to be prayed for. It was just a really cool experience, something that I can tell is going to help me grow as a Chrstian in the future. I can really tell that God is doing something special with this group of people (not just the kids and not just the staff bug everyone). It's an amazing thing to be a part of, and I can't wait to tell you all about it as it happens. I'm going to bed now as I am DEAD tired and have to wake up early in the morning to get ready for some awesome activities. Thanks so much for reading, especially if you made it this far in this retardedly unfocused entry. And thanks to Christian for inspiring me to blog about camp in detail. I hope you all have enjoyed and learned or found something that you'll take with you or something. I don't know what I'm trying to say. It's becoming more and more evident that it's bedtime. COMMENT and we'll be home soon.

*My name is Ryan J. Schwimmer, and myself and the rest of Schwimmerville approve this spectacular blog entry.*