We met
I decided to work at Camp Tejas, a Christian summer camp/retreat center, the summer of 2008. I had been going to Camp Tejas for a weekend every summer since I was 3. I always thought of it as my fun place not a work place. So the decision to work at Tejas was definitely a God thing. At that point of my life I was very fearful of anything new and working at a summer camp where everything I would be doing would be new, including the place I would live, was way out of my comfort zone. I felt strongly that God told me, "Some things will be hard, other things will be easy, but it will all be good!" That gave me the courage to go work at Camp Tejas and be assured that it was going to be good for me even if there was a lot of learning and difficult things that came along with it.
Sam had recently moved back to the US after being a missionary kid in Kenya for 6 years. He had gone to college for a semester or so and decided it wasn't for him. His parents were still missionaries in Kenya, so he didn't exactly have anywhere to go for the summer. Someone he met when he lived in Kenya was now working at Camp Tejas full time and told him it would be a great place to work and live for the summer. He decided sure, why not.
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| The day we met and our first picture together! (Look for the non-green shirts) |
So we met in May of 2008 when we were both 19, but other than maybe a couple of small, pretty much meaningless, conversations (because neither of us can remember them) and becoming Facebook friends, we barely noticed each other. I always thought Sam was funny and Sam always thought I was pretty, but nothing even close to love at first sight. (which neither of us believe in anyway) We both a great time working at Tejas, but totally missed out on getting to know each other that summer. That was about it for our first summer of working together. Very uneventful. We were both distracted by other people that summer, but nothing came of it.
Summer Camp season ended in August and we went back to our regular lives. I went back home to my parent's house and worked as shelving clerk at my local library (a job I still look back on with fondness, maybe one day I will get to work at a library again.) Sam went to Dallas (his hometown) and lived with his older brother.
We became friends
I wasn't sure if I was going back to Tejas to work the summer of 2009. I loved my library job and it was a job that I interviewed twice for and was hard to get. If I left now I probably wouldn't get to work at a library again for a long time, if at all. I got a call from my boss at Tejas asking me to come back as a supervisor for the 2009 summer. After much thought and prayer I decided Tejas was more important to me than my library job.
Sam began to feel like the life he had been living in Dallas didn't have a future and wasn't very meaningful. He started working at Tejas again in March during the retreat season as an intern and continued to work for the summer of 2009.
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| Working together and starting to be friends |
So here we were back together again at Tejas and now I was Sam's boss. :D During the 2008 summer I was a regular SMT(Summer Ministry Team worker) and I worked as a lifeguard and in recreation, Sam was a Team Leader and mostly worked in the kitchen and and some recreation. So he was an expert in the kitchen and I was supposed to supervise the kitchen now with never having worked in it before... I was very intimidated. I worked in the kitchen on a few retreats before the summer started and because Sam was there as an intern I learned from him and he taught me the ways of the kitchen. The first week of the summer I was assigned to supervise the kitchen, Sam and his team were assigned to work the kitchen along with another team. Their team colors were Green and Purple. We called ourselves team Barney. :) The Food Service manager of the camp said we were the best combination of people to work the kitchen. All of us loved working together. You can tell!
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| Good times!! |
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| Green and Purple teams, AKA Team Barney!! |
Sam was so nice to me during that time. He kept me sane with his knowledge of the kitchen and random funniness. But I still didn't think of him in a romantic way at all. He was just a friend. He felt the same way about me. It had taken us a year after we met to become friends, but it finally happened!
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| Working the top of the wall together |
The summer of 2009 was one of the greatest times of my life. Such an awesome group of people. So much fun was had! Many friends were made that I still have to this day. I thought to myself why would I want to leave?? I didn't have a job or school to go back to, so why not!? So I decided to be an intern during the retreat season. Sam didn't have anything that he would rather do at the time, so he stayed on as an intern after the summer as well.
Being an intern during retreat season is pretty different than working the summer. During the summer you are working with about 60+ other people split up into about 10 teams, all rotating jobs through the summer. There is only one team during retreat season, the interns. There were 5 of us in the fall and we worked all the jobs and we did it together. You basically have no choice, but to get to know each other pretty well.
One thing got in the way of me thinking of Sam as anything other than a friend at the beginning of our internship was that I had my first boyfriend right after the summer of 2009 was over. He had worked at the Camp the last two summers as well. It didn't last long. After about a month we realized we weren't right for each other and broke up. It took me a couple months to feel over it. Not because I was heart broken or wanted to get back together or anything, but because it felt like such a failure to me. I guess I really wanted/expected my first relationship to be the one that worked. I was not one to rush into a relationship or did I think lightly of it. I mean I was 20 before I had my first boyfriend. God was good to protect me and kept my heart fully in tact.
One day, I read some passages that reminded me that God wanted to romance me. Specifically Zephaniah 3:17. As soon as I finished reading, I looked down and there was a beautiful lone flower right in front of me. I needed that. I thought "Ok God, I hear you. I will focus on you." That was just the beginning of many beautiful flowers and sunsets that I felt were meant for me. I had always wanted to get married, but I at times I had let it become more important than my relationship with God.
Once I saw the break up as helping me understand better what I wanted/needed in a guy and that it allowed me to deepen my relationship with God, I didn't see it as a failure anymore and was able to move on completely. Now refocused with God as my most important relationship, I didn't even feel the need to look at guys in a romantic way at all. I thought, "This will be the year of no boyfriends and not even any "crushes". I'm not going to let guys distract me! I mean there's only two guys my age here and I know I won't date either of them. They're my friends and that's all." God's like "Ok, now let me surprise you!"
Being an intern during retreat season is pretty different than working the summer. During the summer you are working with about 60+ other people split up into about 10 teams, all rotating jobs through the summer. There is only one team during retreat season, the interns. There were 5 of us in the fall and we worked all the jobs and we did it together. You basically have no choice, but to get to know each other pretty well.
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| Remodeling a conference room |
One thing got in the way of me thinking of Sam as anything other than a friend at the beginning of our internship was that I had my first boyfriend right after the summer of 2009 was over. He had worked at the Camp the last two summers as well. It didn't last long. After about a month we realized we weren't right for each other and broke up. It took me a couple months to feel over it. Not because I was heart broken or wanted to get back together or anything, but because it felt like such a failure to me. I guess I really wanted/expected my first relationship to be the one that worked. I was not one to rush into a relationship or did I think lightly of it. I mean I was 20 before I had my first boyfriend. God was good to protect me and kept my heart fully in tact.
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| God sees me, God knows me, God loves me. |
One day, I read some passages that reminded me that God wanted to romance me. Specifically Zephaniah 3:17. As soon as I finished reading, I looked down and there was a beautiful lone flower right in front of me. I needed that. I thought "Ok God, I hear you. I will focus on you." That was just the beginning of many beautiful flowers and sunsets that I felt were meant for me. I had always wanted to get married, but I at times I had let it become more important than my relationship with God.
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| SOOO many beautiful sunsets. |
Once I saw the break up as helping me understand better what I wanted/needed in a guy and that it allowed me to deepen my relationship with God, I didn't see it as a failure anymore and was able to move on completely. Now refocused with God as my most important relationship, I didn't even feel the need to look at guys in a romantic way at all. I thought, "This will be the year of no boyfriends and not even any "crushes". I'm not going to let guys distract me! I mean there's only two guys my age here and I know I won't date either of them. They're my friends and that's all." God's like "Ok, now let me surprise you!"
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| Random beaver we found under a dock and named Doug |
No one can convince me that God doesn't have a sense of humor. I remember there was this one time while I was still dating my first boyfriend, the interns and some weekend workers were sitting in the dinning hall talking after dinner. I was texting my boyfriend and he asked what we were doing. I texted "Oh Sam is just making everyone laugh like always." He responded with "Don't let him steal your heart!" I said "Haha! Very funny! You don't have to worry about that." Little did I know...
To be continued...
Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
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