This year was my first year at Mountain Top.  The first day was very intimidating because I felt very much out of my comfort zone.  Luckily it got much better the next day and was great through the entire week. 

Before going to Mountain Top, I sometimes felt like I wasn't good enough.  I might not feel smart, pretty, or funny enough.  When I got with the Daycamp kids I realized that they didn't care about all those things.  All they wanted was someone to care for them and hang out with.  It was such a great feeling because with the kids and my YRG I didn't feel like an outcast, but I actually felt like I could be myself and not worry about what others thought of me.

Mountain Top not only helped me feel better about myself, but it also helped me grow closer to God.  I found the worships at Mountain Top were very moving and I really liked that about Mountain Top.  They helped me realize that even when I didn't feel great about myself, God still loved me and always will. 

I also learned to accept other people for who they are.  When I returned from Mountain Top, my friend invited me to go to her church.  She attends a Pentecostal church and I had been there before.  In the past when I went to that church when she invited me I found it almost odd.  During the sermon people would stand up and yell, "Hallelujah, Jesus," or "Praise Jesus."  Since I got back from Mountain Top I noticed myself enjoying myself when I would go to her church.  It almost reminded me of Mountain Top because I could see that everyone there worshiped with as much emotion as the people at Mountain Top did.

Mountain Top taught me many things.  It was a great experience for my first year and I really hope I can go back next summer.

My daughter Sharla was a freshman in high school when she and a friend of hers named Cindy approached me about chaperoning a group of students from our church in Germantown, TN so that they might experience Mountain T.O.P.  We got together a small group and attended the outreach project around 1979--we were hooked for the next 5 years!  What a beautiful program George Bass created!  Twenty-five years after the Germantown, TN Church first attended, the wonderful people of the church honored my daughter, her friend, and me with an event there.  We had long since moved to other parts of the country, but to know that the Mountain T.O.P. program still continues today with many, many more attendees from Germantown UMC than that first year we began, makes my heart sing.  And I just read today that a church in which I have been a recent previous member is attending its first Mountain T.O.P. this coming summer.  Congratulations CUMC of Plano, TX!!  I hope to look up pics to post of some of the many friends we made during our years of "stretching our faith"!!!

My trip to MountainTOP this year really made me feel almost like a cheater!

When I am preparing each year for bringing a group up to the Mountain for YSM, I get caught up in all it takes- the planning, the driving, the lining up tools, forms and people, and getting everyone trained, in planning for the logistics of the trip.  And then of course we expect to work hard while we are at camp, serving the people in the county.

I guess I get caught up in the “works”- how much effort it is, how hard we will work- and feel good about “all I am doing”. 

And then I get to camp. And we meet the rest of the community- the Summer Staff and campers from other churches.  Within a day or so I feel so surrounded by God’s love and joy- His energy and excitement- that all of MY efforts seem absolutely insignificant.  While I thinking that I am supposed to be spending my efforts working hard, God shows me His love in such a powerful way that I receive so much more than I give- so much that it makes me feel as if I am “cheating” or I have lied to myself.

Praise God.  As hard as we work, as busy as we are, God finds a way to refresh, energize and encourage us forward.  We get so much more than we give.

And we are the ones who are supposed to be giving Hope to others!

Hey Y'all,

This year was my fourth year at Mt. T.O.P. as a camper and this year was very differnt for me. This year before we left for Mt. T.O.P. I was a little reluctant to go, I am not sure the real reason why I was unsure about going but I do have some possible factors that could have been the reason. First reason last year there was a lot of unwanted drama going on in the youth at my church and I didn't want that to happen again. Reason two I just wasn't sure how it was going to turn out because I saw the theme for 2010 and it is Livin' Hope. At the begining of the week I wasnt sure if I had hope or really understood what hope was.

Then as the week went on, as we were being put into our YRG'S I was really unsure about myself because I was the complete opposite, or so I thought, of some of the people I was going to be working with. Well I just said to myself that I need to give them a chance and to stop jumping the gun. This trip for me, was not about gaining more friendships, even though I did, but it was about really finding myself with God on a more deeper level.

When I was growing up in elementary school I was the odd one out. I only had about four friends growing up. I was picked on and I hated going to school but I went anyway to see the friends I did have. Now I have more friends who love me for me. I struggled with my wieght and still do. And I always had very low self esteem and confidence.

 Anyway, it was about mid-week and I decided to text my good friend (whose name I am keeping anonymous) to see how his week went and just to catch up on things. I had learned that he had a calling to do staff the summer of 2011. And I was seriously considering it. I was telling him how much I wanted to do staff next year with him and he was happy that I also wanted to do staff. Thursday came and I went to the prospective staff meeting and found out when they start training and if I did it next year I would have to come back home to Michigan so I can graduate. They really did not ecourage it in my case because I graduate really late for them. So I was not accepting the obvious because I really wanted to do staff with my friend.

Friday came along and my YRG was pretty serious the whole week, Friday came and we were very wild but still appropriate for church camp. We had a decorating contest on our way back into camp and we went to Dollar General to get the stuff to decorate our car. We picked up water ballons, a water gun, four foam swords, streamers, and cocoa puffs. Our YRG was named Pirates of the Cocoa Puffs. So all the groups were in the strip of drive going into Camp Baker Mt. decorating their vans and it starts raining. We all just keep decorating in the rain, got back in the car and drove into camp. Everyone started dancing to techno music in the rain with our decorated cars. It was that day I really just let go of all my worries and just had a good time with our community.

I was an outgoing person before but I worried about a lot of things that I had no need to worry about. So saturday rolls in and I really don't think I need to describe how sad Saturdays are leaving Mt. T.O.P. When I was lying in bed sunday night I got my true calling to do Mt. T.O.P. staff and to keep doing mission work. I decided to tell my same anonymous friend previously in this blog to tell him how I feel about mt top, how it truly has changed my live in these short four years as a camper, and how I got my true calling to help people not only in Tennessee but where ever God directs me.

This is my story and I hope everyone can experiance Mt. T.O.P. in a gratifying way like me.

Love always and forever

Katie Kafcas