Integrity and Transparency

Hello!  The team and I are almost back to normal speed after our week of camp.  We have been sleeping in the past two days and I think we are finally caught up on sleep!  As I said before, camp week was really awesome!  Every day we had breakfast, team time (just the small teams split up by colors--- my team was the red team!), then group time (with all teams together).  Group time was really great this year because instead of a different speaker each day, there was only one speaker for the whole week.  I think this was a really good way for the kids to get to know one main person, understanding his teaching style and learning how to listen and relate.  Landon spoke this week and because he comes from an Albanian background himself and is fluent in the language, he was able to create power points and to pick topics that were really applicable to the students.  One of my favorite days was the hike day because Landon's lesson and the activity we did up the mountain related completely and was an amazing way of driving the ideas of integrity and transparency home with the students.  The example is as follows:

Imagine a water bottle with water in it.  You have four choices: 

1. Clear bottle + clean water

2. Dark bottle + clean water

3. Clear bottle + dirty water

4. Dark bottle + dirty water

If you were to pick one to drink, obviously you would pick option #1.  Even though option #2 has clean water in it, you wouldn't know for sure since you can't see through the bottle to the purity of the water.  In this example, the water represents our integrity and the color or opacity of the bottle represents our transparency, or the amount to which we allow others to see our integrity.  When we hiked up the mountain, we played some fun games, but we also brought up a bunch of clear water bottles so each person could do an activity: creating their own bottle based on each individual's integrity and transparency (We had a lake with water and some sharpie markers to make the bottles less transparent if we so desired).  

It was a really cool exercise because it was a chance to be completely honest and let the students know that I am NOT 100% perfect just because I am leading a group and am older than them.  

My bottle was water from the lake with many imperfections in it.  I put rocks in that sunk to the bottom, as well as flowers and a couple of spiky flowers that floated to the top.  My bottle was transparent except for the bottom where I marked over the rocky area so it was harder to see them.  

Here a synopsis of what I said about my bottle in my group that day: I got my water from the lake and as you can see, there are many little things floating in it, though it is still clear enough to see through.  If you look at my integrity, it's not always the best.  There is a saying in a famous book that says "Everything I do want to do, I do not do, and everything I do not want to do, I do."  This is how I am most of the time throughout my life; I have many struggles and seem to keep coming back to the same ones.  The rocks on the bottom represent these struggles, and as shown by the marker around the bottom, these are the things about myself that I do not willingly show to the people around me.  If you ask me about them I will openly tell you about them, just as flipping the bottle openly reveals the rocks, taking them away from the covered area.  The flowers floating at the top represent the good things about myself, the strengths that I willingly share with others in my daily life.  Unfortunately, there are also a few prickly things in there as well, representing the times when I am not so pleasant, such as when I am easily angered or say something I wish I hadn't said.  The thing about me is that although my water contains dirty water and isn't completely transparent, it is on one thing alone that makes me clean and gives me strength to keep fighting for integrity and transparency to others, and that is Christ.  

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my bottle as much as I enjoyed making it!  It was a really great visual to remember such important topics and I would highly recommend it if you are ever leading a group on these subjects!

Don't forget to check out my pictures! 

 Here's a LINK to my camp pictures for the week!