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I woke up this morning to find out my US debit card needed to be frozen for fraud. Then I tried to activate my German debit card as a back up but I’m blocked out of online banking on that account. Here’s hoping I remember my PIN for my NZ debit card while traveling… also the irony of how I use my US card for all my purchases here and will now be buying things in the US with my NZ card. My life is a convoluted mess, and I love every bit of it.

I mean, maybe I didn’t love the first ten minutes on the phone with the poor new employee at the bank who had no idea what he was doing only to realise I was on the wrong line and had to be transferred. The next guy was a champ and stopped a $400 USD fraudulent charge which was great. And he was super sympathetic to the travel inconveniences. But here I am scrambling with the last bit of margin I had before leaving to get my banking details sorted before traveling for two weeks in America, and, oh, did you know we’re less than five weeks away from Easter Camp?

I’m happy to report that we’ve got space for over 100 people to sleep in tents thanks to my hard work and hounding families at church to let us borrow tents. I’m also watching our registration numbers climb, and on Thursday I met the guy who is assigning camp sites – he also told me my cabin was the first one assigned to guarantee I have the transfer bars in the toilet. These Easter Camp people are absolute champs.

My two camp mums came along with me to the key leader meeting on Thursday night, and I’m so grateful they got a chance to hear all the important information to help me run a safe and smooth camp. I showed up at the meeting after an emotionally charged physio session and a few hours of processing by myself at the beach. I’ve realised that the beach time isn’t just margin; it’s actually an important part of my physio session these days as I reflect on how I’m doing physically and the hard road that is ahead of me. My quads are still burning three days after this session where I nearly broke down in tears in front of the physio who’s only worked with me for a few months. As she asked me to do things I remembered Alex having me do in the hospital, I really struggled to activate the right muscles. I know I’ve made a lot of progress, but there are moments when it’s starkly apparent how little my body can actually do. As I parked myself in front of the beach and watched the waves for nearly three hours, I spent a lot of time talking with God about how grateful I am for his faithfulness and how much more I want in my recovery. This story isn’t over yet.

And yet I’m given such opportunity and encouragement to thrive in my giftings – especially in the Easter Camp space this year. Right when I got through the door, Matt, one of the leaders of the team, said how excited he was for what I get to offer this year. Two other youth pastors – one I just met and another who’s gotten to know me over the past year and a half – also both gave me specific words of encouragement as I plan and prepare to serve the young people at camp. I know my story is different than most, and it’s a wild adventure that I get to be on. I chose that phrasing purposefully because while I used to call it weird, my best friend Shannon reminded me the important implications of what I was speaking. It’s not weird; it’s wild. It’s a beautiful gift to live this life and be celebrated for the fullness of who God made me to be with the current ability level that I have.

I was chatting with Ruby and Simon from the EC office on Friday to follow up with some details, and I absolutely love their hearts to make this camp awesome for 3,000 young people and the leaders who love them. They do all this admin faff to make an epic experience possible where young people can encounter the Holy Spirit and be set up for effective ongoing discipleship. It’s brilliant.

So I’m sneaking off for a chance to do my other job face to face with loving on some of my ATCKs while checking in with some loved ones who are my long term supporters. Sometimes I’m amazed with how much I cram into my life, and then I have half an hour on the phone with the banking fraud line and have to catch my breath and thank God I had the margin to make that call happen before I left. Sometimes I also just want to sleep in another hour, but I’ve got to be prepared to get up at 3am tomorrow in order to catch my flight. I got this.

Your prayers would definitely help though.