In about 3 hours a bunch of crazy, high-energy college students will be arrive at the Ranch. Staff Training starts today!

I can’t help but think back a few years (six to be exact….as crazy as that is) to my first day of Staff Training. I pulled in to camp with all of my stuff loaded in the back of the Brat and was promptly greeted by a few overly excited people. I desperately tried to find the one person I actually knew that was already there. (mr. cooles himself.) It was a crazy day….lots of thoughts of “what have I gotten myself into” went through my head that day. A good friend told me before the summer started, “you have no idea…” and he was right….I had no idea all of the ways my life would change after that summer…
But what a fantastic summer it was…..I met so many amazing people that summer and made such lasting memories….going to Wal-Mart w/ Shelly & Kim…meeting a new friend who would turn out to be a fabulous matchmaker…walking into the gym the first day to a huge game of Twister with people I had never even met before…learning how to be a Mountain Man…doing laundry at the house of this guy who turned out to be pretty stinkin’ amazing, and who I just happened to end up marrying.

Please pray for the Ranch this summer and all the lives that will be changed….lives of campers as well as the summer staff that are about to arrive. Here we go!

So, we went to Wal-Mart last night.  We were looking for flour & a printer cartridge.  We came home with flour & a printer.  And a printer cartridge.

We realized that a new printer cartridge would cost $30.  (And we’re not even completely sure that a new cartridge will remedy the problem with our current printer.)  So we decided it made more sense to just buy a whole new printer for $30.  And the cool thing, is that we picked a printer whose replacement cartridges only cost $18.  (However the new printer did not come with a Black cartridge, so we did end up buying one of those….so really, we spent $50, but I think in the long run that it will be better.)

How about that for an impulse buy?

I recently read All Marketers are Liars by Seath Godin.  Basically he talks about how marketing is all about stores. Its about telling stories that people want to be a part of, and the way to be a part of it is to buy your product or service. If you tell real and authentic stores then you might be successful. If you tell real lies then you will be found out. Godin sees a lot of power in marketing (as do i), and part of that power is how good people are getting at telling good stores. He also believes that this power can be used for good or bad, and that there is great responsibility on the shoulders of marketers to do good with the power they have. I think a lot of my personal interest in understanding marketing is for this reason…there is great power in the ability to persuade, what i want to learn is how to use this power for God’s glory.

Any way, i would recommend the book. Even if your not into marketing it gives you some insight into how marketers try to persuade us into new behaviors.

I got a postcard in the mail the other day. It promised me a great rate on a loan. I don’t need a loan, so I tossed it in the trash (as I do with most junk mail.) The next day, I got another one. And the next day I received 2. In the same day! I found this to be excessive. So I called the number listed on the card. Here is how the conversation went:*

“Yes, I’d like you to take my name off your mailing list.”

“I’m sorry ma’m I can’t do that.”

“You can’t take my name off?”

“No ma’m, I don’t have access to that list, it comes from Texas.”

“You can’t take my name off at all?”

“No, I’m sorry.”

“Ok, well what’s the number of the place in Texas?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have that number.”

(well, isn’t that convenient)

“You have no way of getting that number?”

“No ma’m.”

“Ok, well, what’s the name of the place in Texas?”

(she told me the name)

“What city?”

(she told me that too….though she pronounced the name of the town wrong.)

I haven’t looked up the place in Texas yet, but I’ll keep you posted.

Oh, and guess who got a postcard this weekend? No, not me…. Ben got one this time.

*this may not be how the actual conversation went, word-for-word….but it gives you the general idea.

I was in OK City yesterday for a little seminar (all about postage rate increases…it was kind of interesting actually…). While I was checking in  the lady that was giving me my name tag and such asked if New Life Ranch was in Siloam Springs. I said it was. Turns out she used to come to the Ranch as a camper when she was young. It’s kind of crazy how often I meet people who used to come here. There was a lady in Siloam we talked to once who came here before it was New Life Ranch, and my uncle in New Mexico goes to church with some people who know Berry and know about the Ranch through him.

Any way, the latest issue of the New Life News mailed out a week or so ago. If you didn’t get a copy and want one send me an email and ill send one to you.

Today, give or take a week, makes two years of being on full time staff at NLR. As I look back the thing that stands out the most is the community that we are a part of. It seems like we (we…churches and Starbucks) talk about community a lot. This is a place where I see, and am part of, a group of people who are truly living, working, and growing together. We are all traveling together in life and ministry…sometimes we are not going the same direction, but we are learning and living life together. I am truly blessed by the people around me everyday.

Part of my role in this community is what I do for my job at NLR. Looking back over the last two years I can see a lot of things that are going well. A big part of my job is to unify and manage all of our communication (mostly of the promotional type). In a lot of areas we are making progress. But there is stall a lot of work to be done. One thing I have learned, and struggled with, is how quickly I can do things (and it’s not as fast as I thought it would be…or want it to be). It is often frustrating to see all that I have not yet done, but it is encouraging to see what has been accomplished.

We have been truly amazed and humbled by the interest so many of you have taken in our ministry, and we thank you for your prayers and support over these last years…we are excited to see what God has for us as we continue this journey.

You know how some days you look up at the clock and those minutes drag on for…ev…er?  And some days you look up and it’s 5 o’clock and you feel like you’ve only been there for a couple of hours?  The latter has happened to me a lot recently.  The days are just going by so fast here at camp.  There is a lot of work to be done to get ready for summer camp……booklets to print, registrations to process, ringing phones to answer, mail to open, t-shirts to order, payments to process, e-mails to respond to….  The list seems never-ending.  And I love it.

I love being here.  I love walking down the hill to work in the morning (not driving 15 minutes to get to work).  I love seeing my husband multiple times during the day.  I love eating lunch with my friends.  But beyond those things, I love doing what I do here at camp.  I love working with Mary & Ben & Russ to keep things running smoothly.  I love being part of our Guest Services team, where we look at the Retreat groups that are coming and assessing how we can serve them better.  I love the community that is New Life Ranch.  I am grateful for this opportunity to call this my “job” right now.

School is going well too….we will start up a new semester next week.  Only 2 more classes to take, and 420 more hours of counseling before I finish.  Hopefully that will be this time next year.  I love what I’m doing there too…..but my thoughts on all of that are still swimming around…..I’ll try to reflect on that part of life soon…