Life Lesson #1...If it sounds like barfing, take cover.
As the buses rolled up to camp it was madness at 11:00 pm. The crowd was going wild everyone was super pumped to arrive. So at 11pm we start with opening ceremonies. I am pretty sure no mothers were involved in planning the late night activities. Each team, we had 16 students, were given a bucket of 50 sour sugar coated fruit by the foot balls and the winning team was the team that could eat the sugar bombs the fastest. YUCK! I took one for the team and ate 2. I did not want to be the sissy leader on the first night. Some of our students ate 5-7 of them. I think we took 2nd. Then as if that eating frenzy was not sick enough there was a soda chug game. 12 cans of soda were duck taped together in a circle, with the openings of the soda going all in different directions. So the students would come up one by one and open 1 can and chug it. Most of them let it foam out of their mouths, while some would cough and spray. Did I mention that if the person in front of you did not completely finish their soda it would spill all over you--coming from all directions of the circle. On their head, down their backs and front, and up their noses. We took first! Nothing like chanting Chug, Chug, Chug within the first 30 minutes of summer camp.
I finished tucking my last student in at about 1:00 am and managed to find a comfy spot on my 3 inch mattress and went right to sleep. Fast forward to 3:45 am. I woke up to the loudest water splashing noise. Forgetting I was at camp I hollered "What was that" No one answered. I got up with my flash light (the other leader in my dorm was 1/2 way up too) and procedded to scan the isles and ask if someone needed something. No one answered. I started shining the light in each students bunk to investigate. Nothing. Then back at my bunk I caught the sparkle of barf with my flashlight dripping down the sides of my bunk onto my blankets and suitcase. It was all over the floor and all over the girls bedding in the middle bunk. My student on the 3rd bunk up barfed over the side of the top bunk all over everything. WHY ME GOD?? Anyone who has cleaned up barf knows that if it is not their own child's it is pretty sick. I took one for the team, sent the other leader with the student to the nurses station, strapped on the rubber gloves and cleaned up barf until 5am. 3 cleaning solutions later and enough disinfectant spray to intoxicate the entire dorm it was back off to dream land--this time with one eye open.

Life Lesson #2...Black team...who are we...GERMANY.
Kory and I were the Black team and I had so much fun. We had a great team that made our job easy. We took first place, scoring a place on the big blue trophy! I caught Kory being amazing so many times through out the week. He really was a great leader for the guys. He is great at building up the guys self esteem and stretching them to think deeper. I felt like we were back in Iowa as kids again at camp!

Life Lesson #3...Students WANT to please their parents.
It was amazing to hear the student share that all they really want is for their parents to listen and hear them. They feel misunderstood and unimportant when it comes to making decisions that effect them. WOW

Life Lesson #4...I am not as young as I use to be!
The first 2 days of bang up, rough, tough competition felt great. Come on- I am in the best shape of my life. These are Jr High games how hard can it be. Well by Saturday it took me about 3 minutes to sit up to get out of bed, and about 43 seconds to sit down in a chair. Who knew leap frog, dancing like a fool, fill your yucket, and the conga line was actually a muscle death chamber of pain.

Life Lesson #5...Letting go and being a kid makes me feel as young as I use to be.
I forgot how great it was to play in the mud! We had mud and lake games one afternoon. WOW. One of my favorite games was fill your "yuck"et. Not sure what the Yuck was but it was down right nasty. They also have the best mud tug of war you have ever seen, with the pit in the middle about 2 feet deep of water and mud. The leaders had to set the attitude and with wild abandon get down and dirty. (literally) After the students played several rounds they had the leaders round. Kory and I were paired up with Jamie and his wife from the blue team. Listen with 16 kids chanting your name anything is possible. I whispered to Kory that if he let me get drug in the mud he was a dead man! I took my spot on the front of the rope and Kory positioned himself behind me several feet. I was thrown into the gunk about 25 seconds into the match. I felt squishy all over. I tried to climb out, but was offering no help while trying to get out. So with the heart of a competitor and with the pressure of 16 students chanting my name I sprawled out in the mud and dug my heels in. I wrapped my one leg around the rope for leverage and started to pass the rope over my head to Kory. It was a grudge match. Surprisingly it was one of the most fun moments. Go Team Kilbourne! The referee said it was the best match he had ever seen! We managed a comeback and pulled out the win. The gunk even washed out of my hair after the only the 3rd shampoo!

Life Lesson #6...God has an amazing way of blessing you with the totally unexpected.
You know when you make a statement like...Please do not make me do that God, anything but that...Well God knew what was best for me. I was able to connect with a student that had never felt love, acceptance and safety from an adult let alone God. I had the greatest moment during prayer whispering into this little girls ear that she was special, she had a purpose, God loves her, she was created for something really special and that she is so valuable to God. It was such a great lesson for me to remember that God can use anyone (even the most unlikely character) and any situation to teach you something. I pray to never take for granted the joy and opportunity to share God's enormous love.

Life Lesson #7...God lives at Summer Camps.
It was amazing to see what my girls learned and how they grew at camp during the worship and the services. There was powerful worship and teaching that was right on the nose of what my girls needed to hear. Some of them were too cool for school and it took some time but even my characters were really opening up and make some heart level decision on where they were heading and how they would be changed because of this experience. I have no doubt that Realife is full of world changers. I loved to open my eyes during worship and prayer and see the students earnestly seeking God and not caring about anything but seeking God. He arrived in a big way. I am so thankful for the summer camps experiences I had that helped to shape who I am today and mold my choices while I was in Jr High and High School. We are truly blessed to be working along side such amazing leadership at such a great church!

The point is...I was blessed way more than I was a blessing.