One down, Ten to Go!!! Leggo!

Hello Blog readers!!!

How are you? Well, week 1 is complete! I cannot believe it. One of the strange things about camp is that the days are long but the week is short. Like I cannot believe that I am down to 10 weeks left of camp. What a week it has been! There are so many things running through my head, that if I told you all of it, this blog would turn into a book longer than the Harry Potter Series.
First, a nice pleasant surprise was how much fun it was to recognize families. My first summer I was so overwhelmed I didn’t remember any of the families when I returned my second year, but here at my third it was so much fun to jump on opening day and recognize the families driving up. It was so much fun to get to see them and spend time with them, it makes me look forward to the rest of this summer for sure.
Second, I LOVE working with my brother. I cannot tell you what a blessing and how fun it is to work with him. It has been such a privilege to sit back and watch him with families. So many people came up and told me how blessed I was to have him for a brother, and I couldn’t agree more. Thankfully I only name dropped him once, but the kids weren’t even paying attention so it was all good.
Third, this is going to be quite a summer… Last year our camp director asked us what was one word that we would use to things we want to work on. And I may have mentioned it before but my words for this summer are “dependence” and “confidence/comfortable”. Dependence because I need to be more dependent on the Lord, and other people. I love being and independent young woman. And if you were to ask me if I need anyone I probably say no… my family is about the only thing that I need. But the Lord has slowly begun to show me the wonderful benefits of living in community and being vulnerable with other believers. And to be totally dependent on Him. Its kinda funny, because I am exhausted. Like, the thought of doing this for 10 more weeks is slightly overwhelming. I keep thinking to myself “I can’t do it, I can’t do it” and all the while I hear the Lord saying, “of course you can’t. Rely on me”. Its crazy how this year I have to rely on the Lord not only for physical endurance, but a lot of my job requires a lot of grace. Something I find in short supply when I try and do things on my own. Its crazy that there are things that happen and suddenly people look to me to respond it a way that is appropriate and wise. It is in these moments that I recognize that I cannot do this job without the grace and working of the Lord through me. I’ll be honest. The though of being so dependent is scary. I find myself naturally thinking that I can do it on my own and I would rather not rely on anyone, not even the Lord. But I know He is faithful and I’ve asked Him to break me of it, no matter how terrified I am.
One thing I hope is that the lessons I learn will transfer to my life away from camp. I love working at Pine Cove because it is an environment in which I am surrounded my peers who are striving to be more like Christ along with me. The result is that we encourage each other and hold each other up when we’re tired. But the true test is being able to continue this pattern outside of camp. A pattern that I did not continue last year, but I desire to continue this year.
In my word “confidence/comfort” is the desire to be confident in who I am and comfortable with who God made me to be. I firmly believe this is something the Lord wants me to learn because before I left for camp my dad encouraged me to meditate and firmly believe the truth written in Psalm 139 and this week alone I’ve had 2 other people at random remind me and encourage me to read Psalm 139. This is great for me, but so hard. In a way, I know who I am, but there are several areas where I am not confident and I’m unsure in myself and those are the areas of guys and leadership. And the Lord is making me deal with both. The hardest is trying to figure out who I am, and trying to lead out of who I am. The example I have to follow for my position was such a great example, and he had a great many traditions that I enjoyed, but I’m trying to learn how to be myself and not a carbon copy of him. Because the Lord blessed him with special gifts and the Lord has blessed me with special, yet different gifts and I need to learn to accept them and be proud and content with them. Know that I say all this to you because I recognize my need for it, but I’m having trouble carrying it out in actions and believing it for myself. But the Lord has brought TONS of encouragement my way.
Well, I should run. Thanks for reading and I’ll try and write more later.
Learning lots...
Raychel

Week 1 is upon us!!

Hello Friends and Family!
How is it going? Orientation is officially over. Week 1 starts today… I can’t believe we are here. The past two weeks has flown by, yet it has gone by really slow.
I love family camp for many reasons, its great to see all kinds of families come through camp. Its is humbling and honoring to watch the Lord work through this camp to restore broken families, and it is an encouragement to serve alongside my peers who desire to follow the Lord passionately. But one thing I really love about family camp is how it renews my passion and desire to raise a godly family. This week alone I believe we’ve heard anywhere from 3-5 talks on marriage and the family. One of the speakers told us, “the best time to work on your marriage is now, before you’re married”. I believe that’s true. I don’t take for granted the fact that I have been blessed with the opportunity to sit under some great people and watch their marriages.
My parents celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary yesterday. I must say, out of all the marriages, theirs is the one I desire to imitate the most. Not only are they a great representation of Christ and His bride. But they are a great example of how the Lord can use just two people to change a generation. I was talking to some fellow staff members yesterday about how watching my parents marriage, and hearing on these marriage talks makes me excited for marriage and motherhood. It is not something I look on with dread, or resignation that it’ll probably happen one day, but it is something that I have been praying for since I was younger. If you’re married right now and reading this recognize the incredible position the Lord has put you in. Our director “Hip Shot” said it yesterday, but marriage is a reflection of the Gospel. When husbands love their wives like Christ loved the church and wives submit to their husbands as the church is to submit to Christ they are painting a picture. What an opportunity!
And moms… what greater a blessing than to get to shepherd the next generation. I feel like being a camp I see it more clearly how the enemy has really attacked the family. Not only has he gotten us through divorce, but he has made mothers feel insignificant. I believe there is no greater job than being a parent, and motherhood is the highest calling a woman can have in life. You have the opportunity to raise your children in the Lord, to show them real life examples of Christ. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman. She is the bombdotcom. And can I take this moment to say. My mom is that woman. Not perfectly, but she is a great example of what a Proverbs 31 woman looks like.
So, can I say how much I LOVE working with my brother at camp. Above is a picture of us at starbucks yesterday waiting to do laundry and get some internet. Its been cool to watch my brother with other people. He is definitely outgoing, and the life of the party. I have had so many proud older sister moments. Ross is definitely a gentleman and loves the Lord, and its been neat to sit back and watch him as his sister take care of his other sisters in Christ. Ross got a camp name last week, and while it doesn’t have the name ‘Smacks’ anywhere its still pretty cool. His name is “Trifecta”. And of course he thinks it’s the coolest thing ever.
I tell you what. this week has been encouraging. Several people have randomly encouraged me and instilled confidence in me about my job. The theme in a lot of the talks this week has not only been marriage, but being confident that the Lord supplies what He demands, and that He will call you AND equip you. While I still have moments where I’m really insecure about my job, I’m trying to focus on pleasing the Lord and not people.
Well, thanks for sticking it out this long, I will stop talking and let you get back to the real world. I would humbly ask for your prayers though (and letters too if you want to send some).
Specifically, if you could continue to pray that I would rely on the Lord, and that He would cause me to depend totally on Him and look only to Him for approval. Pray for the families that will be arriving in a few hours. Some are in a great place, others are really hurting and broken, but all are needing to be refreshed. Pray for the staff that we would continue to deepen our unity and that we would love each other unconditionally. Also, this may sound silly, but pray that the scary animals /bugs would stay away. We have had 2 scorpion stings, several yellow jacket stings, and seen multiple huge spiders. Now I recognize we’re at camp, and I don’t mind seeing these things, but I woke up several times last night worried that I might wake up with a scorpion in my bed…
Well, I’m gonna go. Have a wonderful week and I will attempt to write after week 1. God bless!
In Him,
Raychel

Bluffs Blog #3

Hello Friends!
I hope this blog finds you well and excited for summer. I myself am quite excited to be back at Pine Cove. We just finished our first week of training, which is where all the specialty training goes on. Our lifeguards are trained, our ropes people are trained, our boat drivers are trained, and then people come to help set up camp. This week was good, it had some rough moments, I won't lie, but over all it was wonderful.
I am so excited to be surrounded by people who are willing to serve the Lord for a summer and sacrifice so much, it truly makes me excited for heaven when I'm here.
Well, about halfway through this week our camp director asked the leadership team what we are most nervous about this summer. My answer was failing. The thing that has plagued me the most is feeling like I'm inadequate, that I will do a horrible job as program director this summer and that the people I with will regret hiring me. Now I recognize that some of that is just Satan trying to distract me and get me to focus on things other than my main purpose for being here. But let me show you the amount of sin wrapped up in that statement that the Lord has revealed to me over the past couple of days.
1) Pride. That is one of the sins I struggle with the most. I like to thing I can do it all myself. Even this week I had a moment when I was overwhelmed and not having fun, and I thought to myself "I should ask for help on this project" my initial reaction was "no I got this. I can do it by myself", but the Lord reminded me of all the great things He did when I laid down my pride last summer. So I asked for help and the result was better than anything I could have imagined.
2)Idolatry. Idolatry is when you put anything before or higher than God. Can you see the idolatry in the statement I made about my biggest fear? It is my fear of man. I am so afraid of letting people down, and of them being disappointed or not liking me. Many times I'm more worried about what they think than what the Lord thinks. I quickly find myself doing things to please man and make him happy, rather than pleasing the Lord and trying to make HIM happy.
3) Dependence on myself (I'm not sure what you call that... Pride maybe?) I laugh when I find myself thinking that things are not going to go well if I don't do it. Somehow I got into this mentality that I have to do everything, and do it perfect, otherwise it won't work at all. But if there is one thing I remember from my past summers is that the Lord doesn't need me. He chooses to work through me, but He could do it on His own. And that He uses the lowly and humble. His grace is made perfect in my weakness, and it is sufficient for when I can't do it on my own.
My prayer the past couple of days has been that the Lord would step in and use me. That Raychel McKelvy would step out of the way, and allow the Spirit of the Lord to work through here. I was to be a vessel emptied out for His use this summer.
Please know that I am SUPER excited for this summer, but the Lord is faithful to grow those who ask to be grown, and He is faithful to complete the good work He began in me.

So, for those of you who don't know, this summer my job is going to be program director for our camp the "Bluffs". This means anything program wise, I am overseeing it. I have a right-hand man Take Out who is going to help set up and his job is to oversee/ minister to all of the sections outside of the programs. I am excited for my job because it allows me to do the things I love: hanging and talking with people and acting and being on stage. I am also nervous because it is quite a big responsibility and again, I don't feel equipped to lead a bunch of people. But the Lord has brought nothing but encouragement my way since I've been here, and the amount of people that have confidence in me being in this position is heartening.

Ok. I will sign off, but I have a couple of request for you my reader.
1)Prayer. Just prayers for the things I mentioned above, and that I would stay focused on the things the Lord has placed in front of me and not worry about things outside my control.
2) Letters. I love receiving hand-written letters, and I've decided this summer to beg for them. So if you think about it, I would love to hear from y'all this summer in letter form. So you can write to me:
Raychel "Reba Smackentire" McKelvy
Pine Cove Bluffs Camp
P.O. Box 9055
Tyler, TX 75711-9055

Have a wonderful summer!!
In Him,
Raychel

Bluffs Blog 2!

So, we made it to Texas. In record time. Google maps told us it would take us 11 hours and 14 minutes and we did it in 10 hours exactly. Before you get yourself in a tizzy, just know that we never went more than 7 miles over the speed limit. But we only stopped 3 times and our stops were never longer than 10 minutes.
It was so much fun to ride in the car with Kirstyn and Ross. First of all, it’s probably the most Ross and I have spoken to each other since he left for Moody Bible Institute in August. Let me tell you what. The Lord has done some amazing work in my brother’s life. His desires and passions and the amount of focus he has now is incredible. There were moments of listening to him talk that I wanted to either laugh or cry because the change in him is so amazing.
So, after we grabbed out much needed Starbucks coffee, we drove (or rather Kirstyn drove) and Ross and I dominated the conversation for the next 2 hours. We then got into interesting conversations such as physical and personality turn offs and turn ons of the opposite sex, top five favorite movies (where we found out that if a chick flick is in your top five you lose the respect of Ross).
We arrived at our friends the Fitzsimmons’ lake house around 5pm that evening and they have treated us like royalty since. They gave us a phenomenal dinner of steak, potatoes, green beans, salad, coke salad, Texas sheet cake, and Blue Bell ice cream. This morning we were treated to a wonderful breakfast of Belgium waffles, fruit, and bacon, along with the most wonderful coffee follow it all down.
Today has been a wonderful morning of relaxing, fellowshipping, and enjoying God’s creation. The picture above is the view of the lake we have from the porch at the lake house. We are currently packing up our stuff so we can drop off our rental car and head to camp!
I am SO excited right now, and I will probably write again next week. Please pray for Ross, Kirstyn, and I as we go through a week of intense training. Ross has to get 40 hours of swimming in, Kirstyn 40 hours of ropes training in, and my self I have to get a lot of the details planned for the summer.
I am SUPER excited to see what God is going to do this summer. We have had a lot of obstacles and problems just trying to get to camp, and we know that we have an enemy trying to keep us from serving whole-heartedly this summer. So we would covet your prayers for us as a Pine Cove staff and for the families and children that will be coming to camp this summer.
Until next week!!
In Him,
Smacks

Summertime with Smacks!

Hello Friends!

So I’ve decided to try to blog about this summer. I’ve had several people ask me to keep them updated, and while I’d love to contact each and everyone of you, I know it will be virtually impossible, so I figured this is the best way.
So, today is the eve of our trip to TX. We are actually arriving at a lakehouse owned by some friends of ours right outside of Athens, TX. And Sunday afternoon we will head to Pine Cove. Myself, my brother Ross, and my friend Kirstyn will be driving in a rented car tomorrow.
This is going to be a bit short because I’ve still got to keep packing and go to bed and get ready to help drive tomorrow. But just know that this summer is the most conflicted I’ve felt out of any summer I’ve gone to Pine Cove.
On one hand I am SUPER excited to go to camp. I love being at Pine Cove and serving the families and staff that come every week. But on the other hand I want to stay in Nashville. I realized that this will most likely be the last summer I spend living in Nashville, and there will also be a lot of fun things happening in Nashville too. Also, this summer I feel more connected to a larger group of people, and I know that a lot of things change in 3 months and there is a part of me that wants to be here to experience those changes.
I know the Lord is going to some great things this summer. I know He is always working in my life, and Pine Cove is a way He works in concentrated doses.
So, I will try to write a blog while on the road to give you more information, but I thought I’d at least let you know that I’m going to try to write on here every weekend. Have a wonderful summer! Pine Cove Bluffs Summer 2011!!
In Him,
Reba Smackentire

All the Single Ladies (and Men)

What do roses, hearts, chocolate, and a four-letter word have in common? They’re all items used to celebrate the momentous holiday that is fast approaching us. Never have I met a holiday that evokes so many diverse emotions. I know people who LOVE Valentine’s Day, it the one holiday they look forward to the most. On the other end of the spectrum I know people who loathe Valentine’s Day; it is just a day that reminds them how single and un-loveable they are. Others think Valentine’s Day was created to elevate one’s stress level with all the worrying about getting the perfect gift. Some people forget about Valentine’s day, so for them, its just another occasion for their significant other to get upset with them.
But all of this emotion begs the question, what is Valentines’ Day? Why all the big fuss? According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary a Valentine is either “a sweetheart chosen or complimented on Valentine’s Day, or a gift or greeting sent or given especially to a sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, or something (as a movie or piece of writing) expressing uncritical praise or affection.”
I made a feeble attempt to look up the tradition of Valentine’s Day, but when I discovered the Wikipedia entry was over 4 pages long, I decided it wasn’t that important. I could harp on how society has turned a day about love into an opportunity to make more money, but that is what our society does. Get over it. But rather I’d like to address the issue near and dear to my heart: being single on Valentine’s Day. As a disclaimer these are my own feelings and musings expressed, and mainly I am asking questions in hopes that someone out there will identify with me.
I would like to start by saying what this blog is not. It is not an opportunity for me to gripe and say “woe is me”, nor am I trying to get a sympathy date. Rather, I am hoping to encourage my fellow siblings in Christ in validating their feelings and combating them with the truth of God’s Word.
I remember the first time I became aware of the fact that I didn’t have a “valentine”. It was during my freshman year of college. Suddenly all the girls I knew were stressing out over who would be their valentine that year. I am ashamed to admit that I was semi-caught up in that, mentally appraising boys, trying to “feel out the relationships”, and becoming more and more depressed the closer the day approached without a man in sight. After that year I decided to stop stressing about it. I must say, I have spent the past 21 years without a valentine (if you don’t count my family, that is), and I have enjoyed each one better than the last.
This year, however, I began to ponder what it means to be single. The more I enjoy my single life I begin to understand why Paul encouraged us to stay this way. While I do hope that this gift of singleness is only for a season, I continually am asking myself, why would Paul say that it is better to be single? First of all I have to remind myself, that while prompted by the Holy Spirit, this is Paul’s opinion about being single. But you have to admit, his reasons are good. He says that the appointed time is short and we are to live for Christ. 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 says, “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.” How can you argue with that reasoning? Yet while I wholeheartedly agree with Paul, my emotions and desires are saying something different, and a little holiday called Valentine’s Day does not help that situation.
So for those of you who are pining for a valentine of epic proportion, let me encourage you. We have been giving the best Valentine of all! Valentine’s Day is all about love, right? Well, we have the best love of all. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” If that’s the case than Jesus is the greatest love because he laid down His life for you and for me. His love is unconditional. He will never leave us, nor forsake us (Duet. 31:6,8; Heb. 13:5). His perfect love cast out all fear (1 John 4:18), so we don’t have to fear Him leaving us, hating us, getting annoyed with our imperfections, or hurting us in any way. His love is ultimate, and therefore we can hold our heads up high because we have the best love of all.
I know some of you are thinking that this is all well and good, but sometimes you want a tangible representation of love. Something/someone that you can hold, hug, and hear actual words from. Let me tell you, I’ve been there and I am there a lot. Something the Lord is teaching me, is to see Him in the little things. The Lord uses His people as a tangible representation of Himself. There are times when I get a hug from a friend, a smile, or encouraging word and I see the Lord in it. This did not just happen. It was a process of me asking the Lord to reveal Himself to me thru His people, and I still have to fight the voice in my head that likes to remind me that a person said something nice, not the Lord thru that person. Let me encourage you to do this, and even in your loneliest moments when you think that being single is a curse and Paul was smoking something when he wrote the verses in 1 Corinthians, you’ll begin to feel the love of the Lord surround you, and you’ll find your lonely moments becoming less and less.
I don’t know if any of this made any sense, or if you even care about what I said. But I would like to say that even if no one in the world loves you. You have a Man who loved you SO much He was willing to give up everything for you. So on this Valentine’s Day don’t get S.A.D (Singles Awareness Day), get L.O.V.E. (Loving Our Valentines Eternally) (I don’t know, I made that up on the spot).

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!

Is Beauty Really Only Skin Deep?

So... I wrote this a couple of days ago and I hesitated putting it up for everyone to see. Its slightly personal and I'm a little leery of putting such personal things online anymore. But I think its something to be said. And I really think I'm gonna start blogging again. Enjoy!

Do you think I’m beautiful?

I found myself writing those words during a class at MTSU this week. As soon as I wrote it I asked myself why. And I realized it’s a question that I have been asking a lot lately. Not out loud of course, but in my mind I find myself asking that question. Now there are certain people I know that think I’m beautiful. I know that my family thinks I’m beautiful, I know my close friends think I’m beautiful, and I know my Heavenly Father thinks I’m beautiful. Something that might strike people as strange is that I think I’m beautiful. I don’t mean to sound stuck up, but when I look in the mirror I love what I see. Of course I think there are things that could change, but they don’t worry me, I don’t obsess over them. I like the way I look. I like my smile, my nose, my eyes; I even like the mole on my cheek that people try to pick off J. When I look in the mirror I see a person who is fearfully and wonderfully made and the Lord didn’t make a mistake, His hand did not slip while forming my being. I do have moments when I am insecure and I nitpick over my face or body, but for the most part I am confident in my beauty. Yet with all this confidence why did I write that question and to whom was it directed? I’ll tell you.

It was directed at you.

The person reading this blog that is not my family or a close friend. It is directed at every guy I come across in my lifetime. Do you want honest? When it comes to my looks, it took me a long time to be confident and like the way I look. Yet every insecurity I had comes flooding back to me every time I pass an unmarried man. It’s sad, I know, but I find myself wondering if guys think I’m beautiful. But its not just men, its women as well. When I’m at school I find myself wondering what the other girls at school think of me. Are they jealous of my looks? Do they think I’m uglier than they are? How do they think I compare to the girl I’m sitting next to?

Its interesting because a couple of weeks ago I saw 2 videos of dramatic readings of poems. Both were women, both were essentially talking about beauty. They were talking about how the American society has placed such a burden on women today to be beautiful by the media’s standards, to be beautiful as defined by men today; but if we as women are trying to measure up to that standard of beautiful we will always fall short. Its like (in a crude way) a sinful person trying to match up to the holiness of God. Its impossible. Yet we as women try to attain it. We try our best to be beautiful for the men in our lives, and sadly our family’s opinion doesn’t count. We try so hard to achieve the outer beauty so that a guy will talk to us, cherish us, and not look at any other women. We starve ourselves, hate ourselves, primp, squish, and go through rigorous unnatural treatment to make ourselves into something that the Bible calls “fleeting and vain”.

Why? Why do we worry? If it doesn’t last. If the person we want to affirm us has nothing to do with how we were made or what we’re worth. Why? I don’t know why. I don’t know why we care so much. Or let me rephrase that. I don’t know why I care so much. I guess its human nature. I guess because no matter how much I don’t want it to, the media has an influence on me. I remember not so long ago when I could identify with the Barlow Girl song “Mirror” the lyrics are “Mirror, mirror on the wall. Have I got it? ‘Cause mirror you’ve always told me, who I am. I finding its not easy, to be perfect” and I would stop there. Striving, always striving was my state. I hated myself, my weight, I hated that I didn’t look like the other girls I danced with. Several times I would pray for the Lord to perform a miracle and make me skinny (because that was my definition of beautiful). I can’t tell you when it changed… I think it was a slow process, but one day I realized that I like what I see in the mirror. Yes, I could stand to lose some weight; yes, I don’t look like the other girls I dance with, but it is not going to define my beauty and it was most certainly not going to determine whether or not I liked myself. Now I can proudly sing the rest of the song that goes, “(to the mirror) sorry, you don’t define me. Sorry you don’t own me. Who are you to tell me that I’m less than what I should be, who are you? I don’t need to listen to the list of things I should do, who are you? You don’t define me.” I know that I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 113:14). I know that charm is deceitful and beauty vain (Proverbs 31:30). And I know that I am to adorn myself with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:4).

These are the truths I hold close to and strive to be every day. Yet one of my favorite songs on the radio right now is the Bruno Mars song “Just the Way You Are”. Why? Because I imagine one day a guy singing that to me. Not my family, not my friends, not the Lord, but a boy. A sinful, human boy. Regardless of what I know and hold true in my heart about beauty, I still want it from another source. What does that mean? Does it mean that I have not truly accepted what the Lord says about my beauty? I mean, I know I can apply that song to Him or my family and it works, but I still have that longing.

I’m not really sure where this is headed, but I guess it’s a shout out to you ladies out there who are worried because a man outside your family hasn’t told you how beautiful you are yet. Don’t worry, I’m right there with you. And please know reader this is not something I wrote to make you feel sorry, or get more compliments on how good I look. I know I look good J I’m just confessing an area of weakness I sometimes have.

Know this. If anything I’ve said resonated with you let me remind you of a Man who loves you way more than you deserve or think. He was willing to die for you. He formed your innermost being, He knows your innermost thoughts, and He knows your innermost desires. And He whispers softly and sweetly to you, “You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” (Song of Solomon 4:7) Love and acceptance makes a person beautiful. So go be beautiful for the world to see because you have the greatest Love, the love of the King!