Standing Up

     Jr. High 3 was my last week at camp. This week was INCREDIBLE. High emotions, full of God, and just one of those camps I can not even describe. This camp is what inspired this post. So this camp was full of “Fearless Faith” experiences. This was the week I spoke publicly about something that I HATE talking about… My parents divorce. We had counselor meeting and it was asked if 2 people would share a time when someone betrayed their trust. My had just popped up. Like I think my hand was up before the question was over. If anyone knows me they know I do not talk about what my emotions are. 

     The time came when it was my turn to speak. I am not even really sure what I said but, I will try my best to explain. We were in the tabby at camp. I had 130 children and 23 other counselors looking at me. No pressure, right? Haha I thought I was going to pass out, not to mention I was already crying before I got on stage. I got up there, and I said:

“Senior year, it is supposed to be all about the senior right? Well that is what I thought. But boy was I wrong. My senior year was filled with me being the parent, me being the bigger person, and me being stuck. I was stuck between my parents arguing. Senior year the hardest thing should be choosing where you are going to college, and applying for scholarships. (At this point I am choking up on my words holding back tears) So around September, or October of my senior year my mom found out my dad was cheating. My world and my family were shattered all because of the actions of 1 person. (Actually about to cry) I’m sorry I do not cry. I am going to get through this. My dad was not considered a cheater. From then on out my life changed. I was being the parent most of the time, I was the one making rational decisions. I was the one seeing my mom cry at night. I was the one telling everyone it would be okay. I was making sure no one saw me hurting. I was torn apart inside. I looked up to my dad. There are a lot of girls in this room, most of you look up to your father I imagine. I thought mine was perfect. I was a daddy’s girl. He could do no wrong. But boy was I wrong. My dad broke my moms trust. My dad made a vow to love my mom and the family that they had and I was SO confused of how he could make me feel the way he did. (From then I was just spilling my guts and telling my story) I was so angry that he broke my trust and I was even more angry that he would break my heart. This is pretty much the beginning of my story. Fast forward to now. The story is still going on. The story is to be continued. I have not forgiven, and I may not forgive for a LONG time. I am still so angry. I am still so confused, and so hurt. But this is a process, and it will not be easy, it will not be short. This is my story. It is still going.” 

     I sat down. I was fine. I was not going to cry. I was going to be strong. I had 10 campers who were hurting. The entire camp or so it seemed was crying when I got off stage. (Not my intentions) It was in that moment of my weakness that one of the deans for our camp came and gave me a hug. Then another, and the second one was what made me know it was okay to be hurting, and it was okay to not have forgiven yet. I found out that the next day would be all about forgiveness and that it was okay to think about that stuff and to cry. It was okay to breakdown. I didn’t break down any during that day until worship. Worship we wrote down who we need to forgive. Who do you think I wrote down? Yup. I cried, my campers cried, and by the end of the worship my tank top was soaking wet from my tears and my campers tears. It was during that worship when I figured out. I am not sad any of this happened. I am mad. I have passed the sad stage. I am just angry about a lot of it. But through me telling my story, and through me talking about my emotions I made a great friend. I am SO thankful that my hand popped up in counselor meeting. I am so happy that I shared a piece of my story, because without that night I would not have this friend more than likely. 

If anything this summer I have learned 1 thing. “It is okay to not be okay.” God loves us SO much and we do not have to clean ourselves up to run to him. We do not have to do anything at all because he is a good good father. He loves us in our brokenness. He loves us when we are tired, and when we are not very lovable. I still am working on my forgiveness. I wish I could say it has progressed some but like I said this is still to be continued. As this summer comes to an end for most people and camp is over, it is now time to, "Go and be about the family business." Go out and share the good news. God loves you. He loves me. His love NEVER ends. 

"He said to them, GO INTO all THE WORLD and preach the gospel to all creation" -Mark 16:15 

Surely Goodness and Mercy Will Follow Me the Rest of My Days

Jr. high 1 at Big Group Games 

From the summer seeming like it would not be any fun at all to looking back at these past two months being the best months of my life I am feeling so many unspoken emotions. My summer started when I got to travel to Lakeshore UMA for the first week of counseling, Jr. High 1. I got the joy of showing and receiving love to not only the 10 girls who I called my campers but the other campers at the camp. Seeing God through girls who are younger than you and who are struggling with what you struggle with is an amazing thing. I went into camp thinking oh this is not going to be hard, these girls are not having any problems at all. This was not the case at all for any of the camps I counseled this summer. The thing about Jr. High 1 was it prepared me in the fact that I can't go into any week expecting anything because God will turn everything upside down from what you expect. Jr. High 1 was about building relationships, having Real T in the lazy river, running around the cabin, constant laughing at our silly jokes, and making the best skits Lakeshore has ever seen.

Chelsea and Courtney Surprised me!

Big thanks to Shea and Margy for coming
and seeing me. Also thank you MYF for the
sno cone from Jerry's! 

Wednesday getting up and
walking. 

The next big part of my summer was my back surgery. June 16 at 9:30 a.m. I was admitted into Germantown Methodist Hospital under the care of my Surgeon Dr. Keith Williams. I had my mom, dad, grandparents, aunts, cousins, friends, pastor, all there when I went into surgery at 4:30 p.m. This wasn't the hard part of the whole surgery thing. The worst part was all the medicine I had to take to not be in pain and all the IV's I had. Actually the worst part was not even 12 hours after surgery I had to get up and walk. I never wish the pain I had then on anyone. I spent Monday-Friday in the hospital with only 1 day, Tuesday, being the day of big scares and really bad day in general. I had great people visit and bringing not only goodies but their smiles to brighten my day especially Tuesday. I still to this day am healing 6 weeks post surgery and I will forever be healing, but I thank my great support system for getting me through everything.

New nickname is Emily. 

After 2 weeks of being home I headed back to Lakeshore for another 3 weeks of counseling camp. First week back I counseled Jr. High 2 which was nothing like Jr. High 1 and nothing like Elem. 3 and 4. Jr. High 2 was a great week growing closer to people I knew and building bonds with new people, my age, older and younger. This week taught me something about myself and was a learning experience for lack of better words. This week taught me so much about who I want be and what I want to do with my life. I had campers from every walk of life and some that you least expected it to be. This week was full of intense Real-Talk in and out of the Lazy River. It was full of tears and laughter together. It was full of nicknames like my newest nickname, Emily. It was full of pain meds and trips to the First Aid.(one night there were 5 of my campers in the room at once, needless to say field games wasn't for us) I got the opportunity to tell my story of what I struggle with, I got the opportunity to give those struggles to God and to experience Agape love. Having campers that mesh well was my God sent gift this summer.
I got the chance to stay the weekends at camp between Jr. High and Elementary 3-4. Elementary 3

Elementary 3 campers

was not a so great week for me due to the fact I had to leave camp for back issues, but I got to go back a few short days later to finish the summer strong. I traveled back to camp the Saturday before campers arrived the next Sunday, and really experienced the love of friendship. I got the opportunity to build new friendships stronger that what they were before. So Sunday comes and I really became bitter about the camp coming up. I am not so sure why I became so bitter but I did. Elementary 4 was full of laughter, tears, heartaches, real talks, frustration and lots of patience. I learned many things about myself this week, one including I am much more patient than I thought. My campers taught me that just because you are young doesn't mean that God hasn't started to call you.

VC led creek stomping to end a GREAT
summer. 2K14

Lakeshore means to me a sense of community. There are over 100 people who have something in common with you, and that is that they are seeking to find Gods love more abundantly. Lakeshore has always put me on that spiritual high, but this summer I felt something different. I felt God in a different way, the camps I counseled were in no way easy, they all had some sort of challenge but it was up to me to find the blessings in that challenge. I am confident that I am finding out the blessings that God holds for me through talking with people around me and getting help understanding his love more and more everyday. As I sit here sipping on my coffee, in my own room, alone, I miss the sense of community that Lakeshore has to offer but I know that it is now my turn to go out and "Be about the family business".

This is Normal Right?

"But it is in every song, it is in every book, it is in every movie. It is okay to have a little sip. It is okay to only take one hit. I won't become addicted. I am a teen I'm supposed to experiment. Come on lets try this. All my friends are doing it."
But it isn't in every song if you think about it. Those are the movies. It isn't okay to have a little sip, you could be starting a broken path. That one hit is what made you want more, and more. You will want to do it again. You are a teen, and your supposed to live past those years, your supposed to make friendships, learn, and have fun. Just because all your friends chose to make a zero on a test would you want that zero?
Today in society every teen is starting to grow up faster than we need to. I have been one to be apart of these sayings above. Just because all of my "friends" are doing it I think I have to. The truth is I don't neither do you. If those people were really your friends they would be taking you away from all of that, telling you that it isn't good. There is much better choices you could make. Your friends would tell you how they feel about your choices, they wouldn't go along with your bad choices. Your friends would be friends. They would be your mom when you need it, then they would be your friend most of the time.
Here are some alarming statistics about teen drug and alcohol use,
10% of 8th graders say they have drank in the past 30 days
26% of 10th graders say they have drank in the past 30 days
39% of 12th graders say they have drank in the past 30 days.
13% of 10th graders say they have been drunk.
26% of 12th graders say they have been drunk.
71% of kids say they drank at a unsupervised party
65% of kids say they steal alcohol from family members
In Tennessee alone
257 driving fatalities had alcohol involved
36 under age alcohol impaired driving deaths
25559 total arrest for DUI's
20339 total of arrest for drinking
38% of high school students who have used drugs ever

I have a youtube video that will explain in a little bit better form of how it ruins lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFh6T2w4KFw

Have a awesome week
Charley Johnson

Sad Truth

A few weeks ago I watched a video that had been shared onto my Facebook page about the rise in the Porn industry. To me I do not see how you could go to being involved in sexual acts to get money, or how you could not have enough respect for yourself to not be apart of that. Some people are desperate to get money for things and some people are simply addicts. I want to share with you a few statistics I found about human trafficking in the United States.

244,000 of American children and youth are at risk of sexual exploitation including commercial exploitation in 2000
38,600 Estimated number of 1.6 million runaways who are in danger of sexual endangerment or sexual exploitation.
The ages 12-14 are the average age of entry to prostitution.
There were 751 human trafficking cases opened by the FBI between 2001 and 2007
There were 185 human trafficking convictions by the FBI.

This means that children are being forced to partake in sexual acts with men and women who are older than them. People who they are supposed to look up to, those people are hurting them. I can personally say I know people who have been in these statistics, these people hold a special place in my heart. With my mom being a lawyer I have heard stories and I have been in the court room when I have seen court cases where the child was very scared to see their attacker. I personally can not imagine what is would be like to have that happen to me. I want to share with you the video that sums this up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_TQpIQxojM
If you are reading this right now PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE spread this video. Watch this video.

It has touched me and I hope I can share it with you. Because I have so much to say about this subject and if you would like to talk about it you can contact me and I will talk to you. But if you are one of those people who is addicted to porn or if you even watch it, please just think before you type in that link.

Girls please show respect for yourself. It is much more beautiful!

"You are all together beautiful, (insert your name), my dear, there is no flaw in you"
Song of Solomon 4:7

Have a great day!
Charley

Charley's Crazy Life: Surprise Sunday

Charley's Crazy Life: Surprise Sunday: So I have been saying that I love surprises, and well I shared that love today. I have been telling Kate that I wasn't going to get to...

Surprise Sunday

So I have been saying that I love surprises, and well I shared that love today. I have been telling Kate that I wasn't going to get to go to camp at all this weekend or this summer, but guess who went to camp today. Well I did! The story goes a little like this, I went to camp with Amelia today and when we got there, I saw Kate, so I bent over in the car, and was like I can't be seen, well I leaned up at the wrong time, and was seen. So then I was just like AHHHHHH! And it was great. 

 

Not only did I get to see Kate I saw many other friends like Lauren. Let me just tell you this I look up to Lauren Riley so much! It is like Christmas when I get to see her! So all I can say about today is it was so much fun and I loved getting to spend time with all of the

people who I hold dear in my heart. I loved getting to be apart of the last worship which by the way was awesome! 

"We'll be friends forever won't we? Even Longer said Pooh" 

-Winnie the Pooh 

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK! 

Charley 

My Day!

Well today, is a Friday. It has been pretty swell, I went to eat lunch with some people in my youth group at their school, Fayette Ware. Then I went to the church with my youth director and did the youth bulletin board from 30 hour famine. It has been a pretty chill day, and now I am about to do some chores, before mom and I have to get hot on the campaign trail. This week has been a pretty good week to recover from my past nerve block. I have not yet noticed a difference in my back pain though. But other than that, I have just tried to rest. Yesterday I got to pick out my birthday gifts, and I am more excited about my chaco's I got, it took about 2 hours just to find the perfect colors. That and filling out applications were the hardest part of Spring Break. Speaking of applications, I want to ask that you say a prayer for me while I apply to go to Summer College for High School Students at Ole Miss, I have 3 papers left to get finished before I can send everything in.

Rachel at lunch today

I will try to post what we do this weekend, especially Sunday. I love surprises. 

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" 

Charley Johnson