Me with some work crew girls. 

Amy and I before we left for Champion 

Another week of camp done...whew! Time for some much needed rest and relaxation. About 90 kids became believers this week. We are excited. Don't we serve such a good God?

We are taking kids to the mall in Middletown, NY tonight. I am loving these girls and will have such a hard time leaving them. They are quality. In a way I have a big/little sister relationship with all of them. I am already dreading "good-bye."

I have to start posting pics of these kids online so you can see who I am talking about.:)

I now want to take this time to publicly thank Tammy for the funniest package I have ever received. She sent "herself" to me at camp. In a previous post I was talking about how sad I am that no friends or family will be visiting me. But Tammy made me a lifesize doll of herself and mailed it to me. I laughed so hard and felt really loved. Thanks Tammy for making my day!!!!

Have you ever smelled deer repellent? I never even knew that there was such a thing. But, it is, and they love to spray it around here. Let me tell you, it is not a pretty smell. I was told it is "elk." Whatever that means??? So it is pretty funny to see a bunch of people walking around either gagging or holding their noses. It makes me laugh...or at least chuckle while I am not gagging myself.:)

Campers left today. We just finished our first week of camp and it was great. There were 168 campers who gave their hearts to the Lord. Praise God!! This week we had about 480 campers. Altogether with the staff there were about 620. This week was the second largest week of YL camp, in YL camp history. (We were just 30 less then the most populated week of camp ever.) So needless to say it was large, but great!! The weather started off VERY warm and VERY humid but now it is cooler. I am wearing a sweater and jeans today so it is a nice change. It is really beautiful here. I even had a bald eagle fly right over my head. It was amazing!!

My work crew kids are so great. I am loving my time here. I am so blessed to have had two wonderful crews in a row. The girls and I are bonding and spending a lot of time together. They are like a bunch of little sisters. The boys are great too...but they thought it would be hilarious to pie me with leftover whipped cream...so now it is war...ha ha ha.;) But they make me laugh so I am always enjoying myself.

One of my girls who was on work crew last year came out and is spending the month here with me in New York. She is fun to have around. She came out early and I took her to NYC. She had never been to the EC before so it is fun being with her as she sees fun stuff like NYC for the first time.

I do have some prayer requests:
Please pray that more high schoolers will sign up for camp.
Please pray that more middle school kids will sign up for camp.
(It is hard recruiting kids and handling all this while I am away from Jersey.)

I do feel a little homesick. I am used to my family coming and visiting me while I am on assignment. (Or being able to do assignment with friends.) Everyone here will have someone visiting them at some point during the month...except me. That makes me sad. So please also pray that I will be able to get through the month strong and not feeling sorry for myself.

I have a meeting in 40 mins so I better get going. If you happen to be thinking to yourself, "Self - I am so bored!" You can always write me! It's so funny how much I love "snail mail" at camp. I think I posted my address in a previous blog.

Hope you all are doing well...enjoy your weekend! And dad - I love you and happy father's day! Wish I could be there with you!

Hello from Lake Champion!

I don't even know what day it is. Is that sad?? OK, so I just looked on my computer and it says it is Tuesday. It is weird because I totally loose track of time here. Anyway, will write more later but wanted to say that I am here and loving it. It's not Woodleaf and for that I am sad - but regardless I am still having a good time. The kids are great- the humidity I could do without.;)

I will write more later. But for now it is time for a much needed power nap.

I leave tonight for Champion! I will have email and cell phone access (although I may not be able to return your messages right away) so feel free to contact me!! Or snail mail at camp is always fun:

Ashley Phelan, Assignment Team
Young Life's Lake Champion
247 Mohican Lake Road
Glen Spey, NY 12737

June 8 - July 8 Lake Champion

Hopefully I will be able to keep posting while I am there. Enjoy your day!

WL club on Tuesday. 

I was standing by the BBQ which is why the pic is kinda cloudy...lol Majority of our YL kids. Pic taken last night. 

Katie and me. 

Lake Champion this past weekend. Me and some of my leaders. 

Oh my goodness. I apologize for the delay in getting an update up on my blog. My laptop crashed (again) and it has been in the "shop." What an unexpected (and poor timing) mess that has been Ugh!!!! I don't know if you remember, but it crashed back in October. Luckily Matt was able to fix it (had to reformat my hard drive) but he got it up and running again (for free - so generous!!!). It has been great until a couple of weeks ago I started to hear the same noise it made back in October. Kind of a crunching-clicking noise in the back right hand corner. Anyway, I called our local computer repair shop and they told me that that was the hard drive and it was just a matter of time before my whole system shut down. I was sooo mad!! This laptop is just under two years old...it should not be facing this problem AGAIN! Anyway, I was able to save some stuff on it before I took it in. But, they called me yesterday and did have to replace the hard drive and currently my bill is $300. YIKES!! And, they aren't done yet. I should get it back tomorrow. But, I am just not happy about this whole thing because I certainly don't have that kind of money, I leave for camp in a week and I don't have time to reload everything on my computer but need to because I have to take it with me and I have been w/o my laptop at home for a while now. It has just been so inconvenient. ANYWAY...life goes on and here I am at work venting to you on my blog.;)

I hope you enjoyed your memorial day weekend. I went to a leadership camp with the other leaders (both Young Life and Wyld Life) at Lake Champion. It was fun. On the way home we stopped and saw Star Wars. It was pretty dark - but I am still glad I saw it. It pieces things together. But please don't take any young kids to see it. There were little ones in the audience and I just couldn't believe that their parents let them be there. Crazy!! Altogether it was a wonderful holiday weekend and a fun time of bonding with leaders.

Tuesday I had WL club and yesterday we had YL club. Whenever I have club my day is super hectic. But, thankfully last night was our final YL club of the year. (We still have one more WL club.) Now it's on to summer work!! I will post my schedule soon but can't now as I have to get back to work. Just wanted to let you know where I have been the past week. Hasta!