Shake Your Money Maker

So, my weekend down in Ridgecrest, NC for camp training was awesome. Every leadership member of every Fuge student camp was there this weekend and it was great! During the day each of us spent time with our leadership teams for our different camps, so it was really fun to go ahead and connect with everyone and to get tons of details organized and worked out. We also spent time with the other people who had the same positions and were trained in all that stuff.

Let me just start off by saying that FD (financial director) training wasn't quite the most exciting stuff. Rec directors were up the mountain playing games and learning how to relate back to what students are studying with their Bible study groups. Development directors spent some time learning the Bible study material and activities so they can train their staffs. Fun stuff. FDs... we spent time learning about expense reports, our camp budgets, inventory, and how to run a cash register. I think that by the end of the summer, I may hate walmart and Excel spreadsheets. :)

It was a lot of stuff to cover in 2 1/2 days.
It's hard to make that information exciting and fun.

But let me tell you what was fun...
1. Laughing with the other FDs.. although I'm sure I'll realize that while I was talking and being silly, I may have missed some important stuff.
2. Getting to know the people training us who work in the LifeWay office... I have a feeling they're going to be my new BFFs.
3. Sitting with/near 3 out of my 4 FDs from summers past. Praise God for them and their willingness to answer my questions. Andrea, Chris, and Winders will probably save my life this summer. Well Winders probably wont because he'll be out at Jenness in Norther California on a mountain that is lacking in cell phone towers... but he'd help me if he could and its the thought that counts right?
4. Playing with cash registers was a lot more fun than I thought. I mean even if was pretend, Andrea and I had fun shopping in the Fuge store with a $4,000 total at the end of it all.
5. Learning about my job so that I feel a million times more prepared.
6. Meeting new people who are going to be FDs all around the country this summer.


See here's the deal. I never in a million years thought that of all the leadership positions that exist in the fuge world, that I would be an FD. I applied for the job because people told me to. I applied for the job because for some reason I felt the Holy Spirit leading that that was what I was supposed to do. When I got to Program Training I just wasnt excited about. As an FD I dont get to teach Bible study or Rec. I love those parts of camp. I dont get a bible study group.. which means i have less time to spend with students. It's going to be hard. Plus, I was struggling with getting excited over spread sheets and expense reports and feeling confident that Molly Bostelman, who struggled to pass all things math in school, was going to be able to do this job.

It was rough.

BUT the more time I spent learning about my job, the more confidence I began to have that God has prepared me for this summer and this role. Here are some things I realized:

1. God placed me on the Carson Newman team as the FD for a reason. It's not by accident.
2. The Fuge store isn't just so that students can spend their money on CDs and t-shirts... the stuff they buy helps the Fuge office to keep camp costs down so that money is less of an obstacle in getting kids to camp where they can hear the Gospel. The stuff they buy is advertisement so that more people ask "what's Fudge??" and our students can tell about camp.. and not just in an advertisement kind of way, but some kids might even get the chance to share the Gospel because of their t-shirt.
3. The jobs I do.. bank deposits, the store, walmart runs, spending reports, registration stuff, etc.. they're all jobs that need to be done with or without me. Because the FD does all this stuff, it frees up other staffers to be able to spend time being intentional with students and hopefully giving them the opportunity to really share the Lord with them. So even though I'm not directly going to be interacting with tons of students, I'm still serving my staff so that ministry can get done..and isnt that what it's all about?
4. It's not about me.


I learned a lot of other stuff, but those were the big things. It's going to be a good summer.
On tops of FD training galore, I also got to have some sweet reunions from summers past. It was one big family reunion and I loved it!

People I got to see... woo hoo...
I was the only person from my first summer at training this week.. (carson newman 05) BUT I got to have a...
*Mississippi College 06 reunion with my FD from that summer, Andrea.
*North Greenville 07 reunion with my Director David, my FD Winders, my roommate Leslie, suitemate Valerie, our site direcotr Tiffany, and fellow Bible study leaders Emory, Hope, and Scottie. (I think that's everyone)
*BUT the biggest reunion of them all was with my staff from last summer. I cant even begin to tell you how many people this weekend said amazingly good things about specific people from the Glorieta staff last summer. I mean I dont wanna brag, but I think we were the dream team. :) We all got to go out to eat together and it was a sweet reunion. Lets see, there was, Jeremy our director, Lysney our site director, brandi our DD, Chris our FD, Josh our P-Diddy, our rec director Allison, and fellow Bible study leaders Dinah, Chris Suskin, Ashleigh, Eric, Tessa, and Carrie.

It was fun.


Now I wait 2 weeks and then get the heck outta stafford and head to Carson Newman for 7 1/2 weeks of my favorite part of the year.
I have a great job.

And PS. I have no pictures because we were way too busy and I just didnt think much of it. Sorry kiddos.