It's days like yesterday...

When I’m reminded how great my God is and how much He cares about me, down to the smallest details. Took a personal self care day and it ended up being filled with so many little blessings that it was impossible not to see His hand at work and His impeccable timing. To top it all off? Ran into the one person I needed to see most…one of my best friends and roommate from last semester, Taylor…the absolute last person I should’ve randomly seen. To what started as a hard day…ended with so much joy. PTL.


I may have seemed to drop off the face of the planet...but...alas! I am not! I am still alive and well! Well...kind of. Despite my left arm now in a lovely new...arm sling! gross. 


Today is our first day of program camp...aka we run our own camp instead of hosting guest groups for the rest of summer! I'm so stoked to actually be involved with the campers and to be able to attend chapel! It's hard to believe I only have 2 weeks left here and then head down to APU for RA training...where the freak did this summer go?!?!?


All in all...I have been growing A LOT. This has been such a hard and challenging summer...not one of my favorites for sure. However...It has been filled with a lot of soul searching, lessons, and personal growth as well. I know I went through this summer for a reason...maybe simply to be able to relate to someone in the future...(perhaps one of the girls on my hall!) to share my story and struggles. I am so stoked for this fall it is UNBELIEVABLE. But...I am a firm believer in being where I'm at...so I'm going to try to continue to focus on the camp life by being poured into and pouring out into the lives of junior highers for the next 2 weeks. (Lord help me) 


As always...letters are so so so appreciated. I have received so many from my High Sierra family...it's so wonderful and so encouraging. 


Until next time...muah. 

Life of an Event Staffer June 28, 2012

Some of you may be wondering...what exactly am I doing this summer? Well...let me just tell you.

My official position is "Events Staff." Each day I meet with my team out at the High Ropes course (there are 9 of us...plus our boss, Jason) at 8 am and we all do a devotional together. It's nice that not only is this a summer job for us...but a place where we are being ministered to as well. After, we all split up and usually perform different jobs...sometimes cleaning boats, sometimes planning games for our program camp coming up soon, before now we trained at high ropes (but now we're all official!), sometimes organizing certain areas, painting our equipment room, etc. Then it is lunch time and after lunch time we run our "events." We rotate throughout the week so somedays I am renting out bikes and signing people up for adventure recreation out of the equipment room, other days I am helping kids in and out of canoes and paddle boats on our pond, other days I set up and run paintball (I hate being referee...always the chance of getting shot and it HURTS), other days I run our 20 foot high rock wall we call Rocky (clever...I know), and finally other days I am running High Ropes (my absolute favorite!) After work (we usually get off around 5) it's dinner time...I usually go on a run and then either hang out or run into town (the only place where I get cell service and good internet) to run errands or to just steal Starbucks wifi...well it's not really stealing when I get iced tea every time! hehe. Many of these trips into town are by myself...it's nice to get away...but usually once or twice a week I come in with coworkers and we all go out to dinner or get ice cream (any chance we get to escape camp food...we jump on it!) On Saturday mornings everyone who works here all help "turn around" the camp...aka deep clean it for our next group to come in. I get 24 hours off a week at least...from Saturday at noon till usually Sunday at 2. Hopefully at least one weekend we can get a little more time off!

Tomorrow I run High Ropes and I'm stoked! It's kind've sketchy because each kid, as well of myself, are responsible for clipping ourselves onto each element (attached to nothing on the ground) It took a while to get used to hanging out 40 feet in the air on wobbly elements and then zipping down the zip line...but I am confident in my ability to run it and while I sometimes still feel nervous...I am definitely not scared anymore! Especially when in my training I had to free climb up the trees clipping myself in the whole way instead of being belayed, had to hang upside down in my harness, and then to top it all off...had to hook myself into the zip line and send myself down...after double checking each carabiner 20 times...I was finally able to send myself down. You learn to be extra careful real quick when you put your own life in your hands. haha.

So yup...that's my life right now. Pictures soon to come!

Also...I write a lot of letters...if you would like one...send me your address! Or...write me a letter and I'll write back...promise!

McKenna Bennett-CSP
Sugar Pine Christian Camps
48478 Mill Canyon Road
Oakhurst, CA 93644

Summer at Sugar Pine June 27, 2012

Let's get real honest. The past few weeks here at Sugar Pine have been some of the hardest in my life for various reasons that I need not go into too much detail about. However...I feel very alone. Again for many reasons...some being that it's hard being here where no one really knows me. Now, don't get me wrong I have met some great people and we can laugh and have a good time together...but there is just no depth. Knowing that we are going to be together for only a few months and seeing as how almost everyone here goes home every weekend since they live pretty close ( I was literally the only one in our entire cabin on Saturday night) it's easy to say that it is going to be a pretty lonely summer. Thank the Lord I have some friends from High Sierra that live right down the road that I get to see every once in a while...but our schedules keep us pretty busy so we don't get to hang out too often.

All this to say that I know the Lord is going to use this summer for growth. A dear friend told me "I don't think you would be getting attacked if you weren't going to grow this summer." After thinking about that a lot...I realized it was spot on. The Lord knows I'm going to grow...but so does the Enemy...and I believe he has thrown everything he can at me to distract me from what the Lord wants to teach me on purpose. Doubts, fears, insecurities, and thoughts that I have not felt or thought in a long time seem to lurk around in my mind. I feel alone and lonely most of the time. I carry a heavy heart, while I so desperately do not want to. I question why I am here without anyone who really knows me. I long for someone I can actually tell what is really going on in my life. I am a mess. I am broken. I am hurt.

Now...I'm not saying all this to whine and complain. I'm just being real. I think the Lord has stripped me of comfort this summer...whether that be the absence of some friendships, being separated from people I love, a lack of familiar faces, or a lack of a sense of belonging...I know it is all for the purpose to learn what it really means to depend on the Lord. Now...I have always liked to think that I always have done this...but I don't think I ever really had to. I think that the Lord is trying to say, "Hey, McKenna...when you have nothing and no one...or feel like you don't...you always have Me. Come to Me, my weary child, and rest in Me. Find comfort in me. Find strength in me. Find hope in me. Trust in me for your future. Look to Me for self confidence. Talk to Me, tell Me everything that is on your heart. Run into My arms in the face of rejection. Let your tears fall in My hands and cry to Me. See My face in the creation all around you, that you are blessed to work in everyday. Learn to be dependent on Me.

The other day us event staff girls were painting a mural on our equipment room wall. Now...I am no artist...but I still helped nonetheless. As I was painting...I noticed that in order to make our mural look good...we had to intentionally create imperfections. A non-straight line here, a rough edge here, a smudge here...you get the idea. I couldn't help think of how, in life, beauty comes out of imperfections. How appropriate when looking at ourselves. We would not be who we are without our mistakes and imperfections and challenges. We would be boring...living lives of monotony. However...we, through imperfections and challenges, experience trial and error, adventure, character, depth, but most of all, beauty. I hope that out of this challenging summer...I can produce growth and beauty in my life...especially in preparation to be a freshmen RA this fall.

 Sorry for all the word vomit...this is what is going on...and this is what is on my heart. I know I am here for growth...and I do not think growth can happen without challenges.

 Next post will be much lighter I will tell you all about my job and the adventures I have been having!

Hi! I'm backkkkk. June 27, 2012

So my dear Uncle Bruce (aka my best friend, Rachel's dad) convinced me to blog about my experience here this summer at Sugar Pine. Unfortunately I have not had the resources nor the time to...however...I now have my laptop (thanks parentals!) and am very able to do so! I decided to keep going on this blog, from my semester at High Sierra, since I am still in this area and creating a whole new blog would be silly...and let's be real...I couldn't keep track of another blog...as you can see...I'm bad enough with this one...seeing how I never completed my blog on my High Sierra experience....However...I just found this on my laptop. I wrote it as soon as I was back in Arizona for the 3 short weeks before I came here: Hopefully this wraps up my experience in a nut shell...I want to add so much to it...but that will have to come at a later time.

High Sierra

            It’s hard to put into precise words…my four months…a semester…spent “abroad” at this place called High Sierra. I had no idea what to expect…just thought I was keeping the doors opened…never thought I would follow through on actually going. Even when I was accepted…it felt as if just a throw away plan. Something to apply to, and not go, no matter if I got in or not. Then I applied for the leadership team, why not? I was so encouraged to do so…that I jut did. And. Then…I got the position of community mentor…what.is.happening? I remember thinking. This position locks me into this semester. After debating over a few days, weighing the pros and cons, I decided to just do it. Time was running out…and a semester away would hopefully clear my head…and also escape from the many decisions I could put off until the fall. This is the first time I think I have actually took a leap of faith. To put all my trust in the Lord, because I literally did not know what to expect. Every other pretty major decision in my life I have played a large role in. Sure I “trusted in” the Lord, but I was never really required to really step that much out of my comfort zone…most of my decisions lined up with what I wanted or desired anyway. Not this time. I felt as if I literally took a step into complete darkness…not knowing what to expect, what to think, what the heck I was getting myself into. Me and the wilderness? Now there’s a joke if I had ever heard one. This nineteen year old girl, this pink loving, Disneyland loving, girly girl headed up into the mountains? Ha, God…funny one.

            Then the fateful morning came. I flew into Fresno on the tiniest plane imaginable, drove with my great friend Bianca, and arrived on campus. I do not know how to explain what came over me the minute I stepped out of the car other than the peace of God. This surreal peace that just came over me, the kind that can only come despite stress and chaos, and I knew in that exact moment, that this is where I was supposed to be. This was now home. It sounds cliché, dumb, weird to say this is what I immediately felt. But it’s the truth. Every doubt was literally wiped from my mind and I was ready to immerse myself in this adventure. I was ready for challenge, I was ready to face fears, I was ready to make friends that would turn into family that would last a lifetime. This was huge for me…this peace and realization that this is where I was supposed to be after doubting for so long…helped me to place all expectations aside, and simply let the Lord move and work over the next four months.

            These past four months…I have had many firsts: wakeboarding, backpacking, shooting, seeing Yosemite, seeing a bear, real rock climbing, facing my fear of heights, leading a hall of girls, swimming in a waterfall and so many more. People ask me to describe my semester and while it so so so hard I always tell the same two things that I believe impacted me the most: Self-confidence and learning what it really means to love.

            This semester taught me a whole new level of self-confidence that I have never felt before. Ever. I felt free to be myself, no matter how much I was made fun of (which was A LOT…all out of love of course), I felt free to speak my mind, free to be my crazy, goofy self, nothing held back. As a hall, our theme was (re)defined. I led it, but I guess what they say about learning more when you’re the teacher is spot on…even though I was “teaching” I think I ended up learning more than I ever expected anyone else to. I learned to be comfortable in my own skin…so much so…that I stopped wearing makeup. Now, this may seem a trivial little fact…but for me, it isn’t. Growing up in the dancing world, I have been taught how to wear make up since I was five years old. I hadn’t gone consecutive days without wearing at least cover up since seventh grade. Sure, it started out slow…certain days I would not wear any…and still feel so ugly…but bear with it through the day. But every week I would try and go longer and longer without it…until finally…the day where I just quit wearing it all together, every single day. Not only that, but I felt comfortable not doing so. High Sierra has taught me how to be real…in every aspect of life…and if I hold on to not even being real in my appearance…how can I expect to be real anywhere else? Not that I see makeup now as a Satan-created evil…it can still be fun and useful for fancy events! But it is no longer my crutch.  I do not need it to define me. Although not using makeup is just one factor in my new found confidence…I believe it is a good symbol of it. I no longer need things or people of this world to define who, I, McKenna Lynn Bennett, am. I am a beloved daughter of the most high King, on this Earth to serve Him by serving and loving others. I have been bought and paid for the price of my Savior dying, and through Him alone I live my life as a bondservant. I could go on and on about this confidence and finally finding my identity…but I think I’ve made it pretty clear. While of course I will still struggle some days, I know that this finding of myself will last forever, and will help me to continue to grow in my confidence in who I am in the Lord.

            This semester I also learned how to love. I have never in my entire life grown so close to people in such a short amount of time. Somehow forty plus strangers captured my heart and turned into family within four months. How this happened, I will never know, but can only attribute it to the Lord. He brought us together through His love, and as we learned about how He loves us through classes, chapel, and just experiencing Him in our everyday lives, we were able to learn that much more about how to love each other.

            I have returned from this “semester of wonder” as it was coined by one of our professors with new eyes. Eyes for the Lord’s beautiful creation: in nature, and especially in people. I have returned with a newfound excitement and joy for life and all the adventures it has waiting to be taken. I feel vibrant, truly alive, ready to live my life to the fullest in accordance with my Father’s will. I am ready to seek and find truth; all the while exploring this world we have been blessed to live on. I want to keep adventuring, keep exploring, and keep on this quest of learning how to love and to be loved in return.

Excuse me for my long absence...

Let me just tell you the last few weeks/days have been so flipping PACKED! So much to update on...spring break in Mexico, last week, Trek II, and this week! Eek! I promise I will try this weekend!

Mini update: The next few weeks are so incredibly pack full it's insane! finals finals finals, events, events, events. good grief! Let me just tell you this place is not going to be easy to leave. In fact...it's probably going to be one of the toughest things I have ever done.

More to come...stay tuned for an insane amount of pictures, thoughts, and happenings.

Mexicali Here I Come! March 29, 2012

     Woke up early. Life and Teachings. nap. lunch: dino nuggz for the win! pack pack pack...I seriously HATE packing...it is the absolute worst. Tons of people partying it up in our room. Learning guitar from Ian. Driving home to Azusa tonight, staying with Katie Allen, and heading off to Mexicali in the AM! I'm on Team Barnabas...the prayer and encouragement team! So basically we get to work with all the other teams! It should be quite the adventure...camping all week in the heat of Mexico with...no showers. Maybe I'm more prepared this year because of High Sierra and Trek? I can dream...right? Prayers would be very much appreciated this week! I'll hopefully have updates and pictures next Monday when I return to High Sierra! Yay for Spring Break!

Professor for the Day March 28, 2012

    Today was crazy! Student leadership team in the morning...Burns brought us Starbucks coffee and doughnuts...yum! The rest of the morning was spent preparing for the lesson I had to teach today in leadership for my independent study on making decisions (ha!) I put a ton of work into the presentation...and think it went very well! Curious that the people who never sit front and center decided to the day I present...my friends can be oh so cruel! haha Then....it was off to Kingdom Krew! Us college kids were totally in charge today, and Ian, Christy, and I were specifically in charge of the younger ones since the director was gone on vacation. I would say...the kids were insane and it was exhausting...but I think we pulled it off and did an excellent job! Hooray! Jamba run. Dinner. Classics. For some reason I was super dizzy tonight??? So weird. Classics got out early and I've been messing around attempting to get some homework done...but mostly just hanging out with people since tonight is our last night all together for a while...because tomorrow begins our spring break! I will be headed to Mexicali, Mexico on a mission's trip...the same as last year! I'm stoked! Peace out lovahs.