Wasp Stings

I've come to the realization that I don't really like wasps. I was trying to fish a bike out of some overgrown weeds when all of the sudden I felt a stinging sensation on my left hand. I thought it was a thorn, so I jerked my hand back. Then I froze. There were 10 wasp looking insects hovering around me. I looked at my hand. It had a big mark on the index finger. I froze even colder. I wasp landed on my nose. I braced myself to run. I reached up to swat the wasp, and it stung me on the inside of my left nostril. So now my nose and cheek are swollen up really badly, and my index finger doesn't bend. I took benadryl less then 5 minutes after the stinging occured. Here are some pics we took 2 hours after the stings.
So this is my left hand. I was stung on the index finger, about 3/4 of an inch after the finger comes out of the palm of the hand. Inbetween the first and second knuckles. Notice the shininess of the hand.
Here is a comparison of the two hands. Notice finger size difference.
I felt a little lopsided and really felt like I had a novacane shot in the cheek.
If I look drowsy, it's cause of the benadryl. When my neighbour saw it for the first time, when the swelling had gone down a little, she asked if I had taken up chewing baccy.

Okay, I've got two videos down at the bottom of my blog that you should check out. The first one, called Teamwork, is a video that Leadership at Barnabas showed to us in one of our training sessions. It's pretty funny.

The second one, To be Known is to be Loved, is one that was shown to everybody at Barnabas during one of our evening wrap-up's/devotionals. It's about the woman at the well. There are a lot of words in a short amount of time, so you have to pay attention and concentrate. It was definitely better the second time I saw it. So anyway, take a look see at them and tell me what you think.

Pictures of camp....
This one is of my cabin (B1) during Term 8. I had siblings. Check one of my previous posts for info on that. Here we are waiting patiently for the cross to arrive at our cabin so we can pray over it.

This is my cabin in the middle of the cross-carry prayer. I'm on the left hand side of the pic.

Here are 2 of the boys from my cabin involved in the carry. On the left is Noah, and on the right is Tanner.

And last, but most certainly not least, is a picture of the cross at its station at IP. With a gorgeous view of the valley. Thanks to Alicia V. for all the photos. Josh, if you want to send me some pics, I'll look through them and maybe post some. More pics to come, if ya'll want to see them.

CW Eppinette - The neatest guy that I ever did know.

More about CW. This guy was incredibly socially active. More so than me, if you can imagine that. He'd go up to someone that he'd never met before and proceed with these questions, almost always in the same order.

#1 "What's your name?"

#2 "What's your mom's name?"

#3 "What's your dad's name?"

#4 "Does your wheelchair elevate?"

#5 "Where do you live?"

#6 "If you don't mind my asking, what do you have wrong with you?"

#7 "Can you transfer alone?"

Sometimes he'd have more then this, and other times he wouldn't get that far. It was really humorous, cause I could predict the next question correctly about 90% of the time. And he started off his prayers the same way too. "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for...(usually the sunshine)...

In case you were wondering, he could also talk. I didn't mention that before. His sentences were usually fairly coherent and well-spoken. If he was tired, though, he might do something like this. "George...um...um....um....(x3)." George was my nickname at camp. I got it last year when a bunch of people, including my 2 staffers, thought I looked like George McFly, from Back to the Future. I've never seen the movies, so I can't say whether I look like him or not. I'm also not promoting this video, because again, I've never seen them. Anyway, last year, everyone called me by George. I got really used to it. I even began to introduce myself as George. And for some reason, I respond to it better. Probably because over the years I've learned to block people out even when they call my name. Not a good thing, but possibly it has happened. :(

So this year, Term 9, I intro'd myself as George. One of my staffers started calling me Curious George, or just Curious. The nice thing about responding better to George is the fact that I was able to hear and act when CW called my name in the middle of the night. For those of you who know me really well, you know that waking me up can sometimes be an ordeal. I normally sleep really hard. For example, Term 8, we had a young kid about 6 years old that woke up in the middle of the night crying. And he cried for 2 hours straight. I never heard a thing, even though everyone else woke up and were moving around, and even though I was only 15 feet away. So the first night that I had CW, I asked the Lord to help me sleep lightly, or at least hear and wake up when CW called me. And He answered that prayer. I slept extremely light that week. Of course, I was a good deal more tired, but I was able to serve so much better. On average, CW woke me up about 3-4 times a night. Usually about 1.5 hours apart. Maybe that's why I slept lightly. I never had time to actually fall into a deep sleep. :) One night he woke me up 6 times.

You might ask, "how did you survive that week, and didn't CW start to annoy you?" My answer? I survived with God's grace, and yeah, CW did annoy me sometimes, but I miss him a ton. He was totally a fun-loving kid who helped me grow so much in being patient and being a servant. You know, the kids at Camp Barnabas are really the ones being patient with you, not the other way around. They've lived like this for 16 years or more, and are used to everything being down a certain way by people who are experienced at it. Then they come to camp and they get these totally unexperienced teenagers who attempt to do as good of a job as their parents, and who normally fail in their attempt. We talk about being out of our comfort zone, but how about the campers?

I've got some pics from term 8 that I'll post later on.

Tired..yes...Exhausted...of course...Missing Camp...absolutely!

So I'm back from Camp Barnabas. I had some really neat experiences there some of which I really enjoyed, and others that really tried my patience. My camper Term 9 was named CW. He had CP, MR, and Sclerosis. He was 17, but his MA was 12-13. The only things he could do by himself were chew, swallow, breathe, talk, and almost close his eyes. And none of those things were accomplished with apparent ease. Because he couldn't move himself, he would wake me up during the night so that I could turn him either on one side or the other. Oh, and he also had a dislocated right hip. It took three people to get him showered. He was laughing at us one shower time, b/c his mom showers him by herself all the time.
Since I have been home, I have not felt very splendid, and spent most of yesterday lounging around and either reading books or looking at various college websites. Why do those things have to be so confusing. I am sure that my questions about the colleges are the same questions that other people have, and yet finding the answers to these questions require going to what seems the most obscure part of the website. I have to set up an appointment with Drury so I can figure out what classes I need to have taken before I graduate high school so I can get in to Drury. If you all want to pray for me, that my parents and I would get my school matters worked out quickly and easily, and that the Lord would show us His will, it'd be appreciated.

Term 8

First week of Camp Barnabas is over. For all those of you who are wondering, Stuart is doing okay, he is alive, and kooky as ever. I am extremely tired, so forgive me if this post jumps from one thing to another without a subject matter change. I was in a Sibling Cabin this last week, which means that instead of taking care of a blind camper, I helped to take care of 8 boys ages 6-8. Each of these kids have a brother or sister who is visually impaired. These kids have totally different emotional problems then do most "normal" kids. You really have to love on them a ton.
I'm only here back at the house for about 4 hours, max. I came into town with some people that met from California. They came in to go to Bass Pro Shops and to eat at Lamberts. So I called my family, and my sister came and picked me up from Bass Pro. We are celebrating my older Brother's birthday tonight. So, after dinner, I'll meet up with my friends and go back out to Camp tonight. Tomorrow, the rest of the CIA's for term 9 come to Barnabas. Heather, Josh, Suzannah, and Natalie will all be there. This next week is physically handicapped ages 16 and up.
Pray for physically strength. My knee did not do well this last week, and I had to wear a knee brace all day, every day.
You can email me at camp. It is refreshingly fun and encouraging to get an email at camp. It totally makes my day. And it takes you what, 2 minutes to do? Email camper@campbarnabas and put my name, Josiah Hardin, in the subject line. Even if you just read my blog and you don't really know me, send me a note at camp. I'll be there until next Tuesday.
One more thing. I got to dance with the sweetest little girl I've ever met/seen...
More laters...