we all got to horse around this week!

So the past 2 days we have spent up at the Ramuda barn with the horseman directors Jason, Morgan, and Biz! They taught us all the basic skills of grooming, tacking, mounting a horse and mucking out the stalls. Along with all the easy stuff, we learned how to perfect our riding skills too=) We played a few games with the horses including: musical hankies (aka musical chairs on horseback), pole bending, and a few relay races. In addition we learned about "cutting" (basically herding a cow away from the other cows....Morgan doubled as the cow!). On Wednesday, we went on an 1 1/2 hour beautiful trail ride in the woods with the snow still covering the ground as a blanket. It was such a great time up at the barn these past few days, except that it was freezing up there.... nothing a little hot choc/coffee couldn't take care of! To end our time up at the barn, we got assigned to prepare/teach a horse lesson next month. Mine will be a ground lesson which will be on the parts of a horse! Guess I'll have to get creative with that=)

Snowed in and catching up on the past few months!

Well it's been way too long since my last post so I will update you on the events that I've been busy with in Dec, Jan, and now Feb. This is the perfect time to catch up on blogging because we are snowed in. Since Friday, we have gotton over 4 feet of snow! This past weekend we had to postpone the winter meltdown retreat because of the pending snow storms! So, we took advantage of the snow and time off and had a great weekend hanging out, playing basketball, sledding, eating together, watching movies, and playing games! So, needless to say, this week I am snowed in, cleaning, catching up on blog updates, and just life in general. I'll try to give ya the run down on what I've been up to.....



All through the month of Dec. we had plenty of Christmas parties to attend... I believe it was over 6 to be exact. One of those was hosted by 95.1 Shine FM the radio station in Baltimore, MD that is affiliated with RVR. Also, here at the ranch we invited our neighbors over for an evening of food, fun, and fellowship to celebrate the Christmas season. There were 4 other Christmas celebrations including: dinner at the Mersons, the full time single girls Christmas party, RVR staff gift exchange and breakfast, and finally all of us interns had a gift exchange of our own!



We were kept busy in Dec. trying to get the Winter Meltdown program details in order. We will have aprox. (over 5 weekends) 1,000 teens participate in our winter meltdown retreats. The theme this year is "Snapshot". The teens will be challenged to take a look at their lives and evaluate what other people may see if they were to just take a quick snapshot of their life. Each teen attending will have the chance to listen to inspirational speakers, watch powerful dramas, experience dramatic audio visual presentations, do great activities such as; paintball, horseback rides, zip line, dodge ball, and rock out to a concert by "Ashes Remain" , and so much more. Things we have been working on in order for Winter Meltdown to happen have included; painting a black canvas to look like an old polaroid photo (the kids are going to answer a question on a piece of paper at the end of each service about how they are living their lives. Then we are will tape the various colors of paper to the canvas in order to make a mosaic picture that resembles a cross, the sky, and a hill.), Beth has been diligently memorizing 4 poems to recite as slam poetry, Sarah's job was to write her own version of a reverse poem, Ryan and Bill are spray painting signs to go along with their presentation of John 3:16, and Taco and I have been working on writing "the weight I carry" from a teens perspective to present during the services, everyone of us have been working on and learning a drama that portrays the struggles and temptations that 2 teens have to deal with through life (I am the lead role as the girl that experiences and experiments with; her parents divorce, boys, self image, bulimia, boys, and alcohol, then I choose to follow Christ at the end of the presentation, and the last project to prepare for W.M. was a huge project.... it was to get the Old Town Meeting building winterized in time (a.k.a. striping out the old installation, sweeping sweeping and more sweeping, and installing heat.)



We have successfully completed with lots of prayer and preparation 2 out of the 5 weekends of Winter Meltdown so far!!! It has been an amazing experience to be part of what God is doing in the lives of hundreds of teens. I love that we get the chance to spend all weekend ministering to them through facilitating activities, participating in the services, hosting the meals, and by just hanging out with them. My favorite part, by far, is before every service Beth and I always prepare ourselves to be used by the Lord by gathering together and offering up ourselves to Him in order for us to be humbled and Him to be glorified! I love that feeling of when 2 or 3 are gathered together that Christ's presence is all the greater! It is an indescribable and amazing feeling that I can't describe! I feel the love of Christ explode and know that the Lords being honored through out the entire weekend! It's a privilege to be blessed to be able to do the Lords work here at RVR! It's great=)



In January we started a new class called "Old/New Testament Survey". We have been learning, writing papers and doing presentations about the various types of Christ, the 7 feasts, the torah, classifying the Psalms, and piecing together Matt, Mark, and Luke's stories together to see the big picture. It is great to learn new and exciting biblical truths from the Bible!



We started our recruiting trips by going to what I love to call the PA Farm Show!!! It was sweet to be able to recruit at a place I have grown up going to every year. Each one of us interns took our turns going for the day with full time staff in order to recruit campers for the summer. I was the first to go on my college recruiting trip. I had the privilege to represent and recruit for RVR at Lancaster Bible College. It was awesome to go to my hometown and college for the day. I am looking forward to doing some more recruiting if given the chance=)



On every first Thursday of the month Matt and Michelle Merson (the intern directors) have all of the interns over for "Merson Madness". That means we pretty much go hang out and have a fun time together playing games and such. In Jan. we had an extra special "Merson Madness" night because Matt and his friend Ryan taught us how to make Sushi! It was so fun and very delicious=)

All of us interns got to go home, relax, and visit with our families for Christmas. Then we came back to the ranch ready for a busy and yet very fun and eventful week! The day after we got back from break we had a mid-week retreat group in. As soon as they left we were detailing all of camp in order to prepare for our RVR summer staff retreat. That night was New Years eve, so everyone (about 40 of RVR's summer staff, full-time staff, and interns) headed down to Baltimore, to explore the city, dance the night away, and watch the amazing fireworks display! It was one of the best new years eve's of my life! I had a blast=) Then for New years day we all slept in and enjoyed a late brunch. I played my first game of flag football! I had way too much fun playing defence and riping the flags off the opposing team! The funniest part though was when I scored a touch down by (in slow motion) running into and falling over the parking sign.... lets just say I had a blast playing flag football in the muddy field with everyone!!! Later that night we had a dodge ball tournament that the interns (boomstang was our group name) took a close 2nd. Then the evening took a calmer turn at the coffee house were Sarah, Beth and I sang "girls just want to have fun". All in all, spending time with RVR staff was a great way to start off 2010!

All the interns, Matt, and Zig all went to the CCCA (Christian Camping Conference Association)
sectionals conference in northern pa at Tuscarora inn. The camps that were in the region all came together to meet, talk, fellowship, worship, learn in workshops, learn from speakers, and to connect with each other. I met and formed some great friendships with some great men and women of God while I was there. Joe was one of those people. He is an older guy who myself and Erin (an awesome girl that I formed a friendship with) had the privilege of sharing lunch with. We were enjoying lunch and talking about each of the camps were we work. I mentioned about the dramas, slam poetry, and presentations that we were going to present during winter meltdown. He was very interested in watching us perform them, so I invited him to watch us practice in the lounge that afternoon. It was a blessing to let God use my mouth to speak to Joe and invite him to be a part of our practice. God used Beth's poems to touch his heart and lead him to share his testimony with us. He has been through a lot, but by Gods grace and mercy he
is following the Lord now! It was amazing to see God's work being magnified through our conversations and interactions with Joe. Joe was a blessing to us because we were a blessing to Him. God just keeps the blessings flow when you do His work! Thank you God for such a great life in You!

I will update you later on the position I will be blessed with this summer and the programing part I will be a part of while planning this summer!

~LaDessa

change of season... change of pace...

Well it seems that winter is forcing its way in on us. Just the other day God sent a white blanket to cover the ground and saturate the trees with beauty. Taco, Sarah, myself, and the Cline girls (Marla, Rose Mary, & Lily) enjoyed the afternoon playing, sledding, and slipping in the snow. Within a few hours we were freezing from the wet snow. So we headed inside for some good'ol hot chocolate! Later that night we had the little Cline girls over to pretend to be Cinderella's and help us clean our house for our loft inspection today from Matt. Sarah, Taco, and I all went back to the Clines for pizza and ice cream where we shared many laughs (especially Sarah) about random things like nose hair trimmers=) By the end of the evening at the Clines, Taco had his fro hawk done up all nice (compliments of Rose Mary & Marla). Now when I say,"done up all nice", I mean Rose Mary went to town by placing as many hair ties, clips, and bows, as she had in hand and Marla dyed his hair hot pink (don't worry it was temp dye!!). We ended up staying up till midnight finishing up our house cleaning so that we could win the competition!

This past weekend I had the privilege to be TNT host! My TNTers were... Kirby, Spike, Katie, Morgan, & Emma (Emma only stayed for b-fast because she home work). I had an awesome time working along side each one of them=) It was amazing just getting to spend time with them and learn about their lives and talk about their trials through life, joyful times, and relationship with the Lord. I enjoyed our time during devo's sharing about how we can/should bring God glory in everything we do (Col. 3:17) and What prayer and worship is and why we pray to God and worship Him. The 2nd devo on prayer and worship was actually an audio recorded dialogue that all of us interns put together for RVR's full time staff group devo's this morning. Speaking of devo's this morning, it was an awesome time of reflecting on our heavenly father and just turning off all the distractions around us and giving the Lord our full attention. The mood of the room was set by dimmed lights and burning candles in the shape of the cross. We all listened to the voice recording with Bible verses in the back round, sang praise songs together and ended by coming together with clasped hands in prayer to our Father.

A few work projects we have been working on in the last couple weeks was painting the filly cabin/winterizing it, doing a photo shoot for our new internship brocure and web site page, and typing up/printing out a book of group inititives.

Since the fall season has come and gone we are now moving into our winter months, which means more work projects, indoor classes, and colder days. It's sad to see fall go, but we are all excited to have a change of pace with more academic learning; which means being indoors when its freezeing!

Wow I can't believe how much God is working in the lives of all the people I get to talk to. Just the other week Ryan, Taco, and myself were running the outdoor climbing tower for an outdoor ed group. It was so amazing to see God working as we talked to the teens and their leaders. Always after each activity we have a "debrief" in order to apply life principals to each high element that they just completed. Taco was leading on this particular day because he had struck up a conversation with some of the teens right before we ended. Therefore, he just feed off of what they were discussing and expanded on their discussion. Taco was able to have a long debrief with them because we were ahead of schedule. God defiantly had that all planed out in advance! God opened the door for Taco to share Gods love and the gospel with them. It was amazing to see God work through Taco to encourage and challenge these kids in what they were living for. When Taco was finishing up, the leader asked if we would be willing to pray with the group because he felt the power of the holy spirit there dwelling among us. We all joined hands and Taco lead us in prayer. Once the leader sent all the teens to their next activity, he stayed behind and we all shared about how we got to the ranch and how God has been working in our lives. It was such a blessing to minister and show the love of Christ with the outdoor ed group! Another amazing experience was last night. Matt (the intern director) Hannah, Taco, Ryan, Bill and myself all went to Baltimore for what is called "Baltimore blast". It was put on by the radio station 95.1 Shine FM. We put up a display in order to hand out summer camp flyer's and talk to people about the ranch. Of course our main attraction was the indo board! It was fun watching everyone and trying myself to balance on the board. =) Thank the Lord no one got hurt (at least not to bad). It was so cool to talk to kids, teens, and parents about what RVR has to offer for the summer. This one kid was really interested in working at the ranch! We may have recruited a new TNT'er!!! YEAH! Each of us took turns to go watch a little bit of the soccer game while the others stayed at the RVR display and continued to hand out pamphlets and talk to people. Once the game was over we were able to stay to see "chasen" and "Kutless" in concert! It was an AWESOME concert=) Hannah and I got really into it by going up front, jumping around and just being crazy! It was so awesome to see two christian bands in a public building talking about God with a mixture of people with various back rounds and religions. I think that is what made it so much more amazing to me! Every person was there to see the same sweet bands and experience great music. But only some were there to worship the Lord! It was so awesome to be a part of that concert! The Lord really used what the lead singer from kutless said to encourage me. He said that he would not be were he is in his life, if it was not for his salvation in Christ. He said he would be no were if he doesn't put his faith and trust in the Lord. This really hit me because sometimes it's hard to ONLY trust the Lord for your strength. Lately I've been thinking of the passage of the Bible that talks about only trusting God and not relying on your own strength. Prov. 3:5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." I need to in every situation trust God to get me through things and not rely on myself to get the job done. I need to learn that I can do all things through Christ because he gives me strength. The Lord has been speaking to me about this through various situations and people especially the past 2 weeks. It seems like where ever I turn God is sending me the same message. Not on my own strength, but through HIM!

preschoolers instead of push-ups

So the other day Matt decided to cancel PT(physical training) "just for fun". I was somewhat Ok with this since my schedule was slightly different then my normal Wednesday. You see I got to work with Betsy all day!!! She is in charge of all the special events here at RVR. So we got to host about 60 preschoolers for the afternoon. They just came to play on the sweet playground, take a hayride, and pick a pumpkin. Well they did all this with the addition of the mine shaft zip line. This is a ton of fun for the little kiddies and was fun for me too. Also it kept me warm cuz it was freezing outside. This is were the physical part came in... I had to lift each 2 1/2 foot child in and out of the cart. So i decided that this took the place of the 100 push-ups that we didn't have to do in the morning =) Once Betsy and I waved goodbye to the little ones we made lunch. After lunch, was the part of the day when I really felt like I started to do some work (mostly because I got dirty and ended up smelling like a gas station.) mmmmmmm good times! We got to put diesel gas in about 50 tiki torches for the times we have the corn maize at night. Later last night Betsy and I hosted a night corn maize for grace bible churches girls/boys pioneer clubs. It was really chill, literally! So I attemped to start a fire.....then once I decided it wasn't catching to the wood I left it and sadly told Betsy that I had failed to complete my mission of building a successful camp fire. BUT.... When Betsy and I came back to see my pitiful fail, guess what?! Yup U got it! IT WAS A BLAZING!!! I'm so proud! I started it on my own =) So while the group got lost with their flashlights in the maize, Betsy and I tried to help them through the maize by shouting directions from the tower. Once the group left Betsy and I chatted by the fire for a while and then both called it a night. Right now I'm in class working on writing group initiatives/name games and writing on my blog! hahaha k bye =)

Time is flying by......

O my word! Time has been going by so fast here at the ranch. I love every second here even though sometimes life is challenging in many areas. Tomorrow is the first day of RVR's annual Maizefest. I get the honor of working 4 different parts, including; ticket and pumpkin sales, the corn bins/wagon, and the pumpkin painting station. I'm so stoked to be part of the fall festivities here=) The past 2 weeks have been awesome! However, it's been really really busy. I'm working on sending out my prayer/support letter prolly on Monday or so. I've been using my evenings the past few nights to work on my homework and just catch up on daily things that I don't seem to ever get done. Tonight I decided I needed a break from work, so Beth and I ran 3 miles before we made ourselves a fresh chic salad! umm ummm good! Then we went into town with Hannah to run some errands. Tomorrow, Matt is taking us to a REI attic sale to check out and maybe buy some merchandise. You never know when you'll need some camping supplies! I mean, come on I only am working at a camp! yeeeesh! haha Well I need to go so I can spend some much needed time with my Father. =)