Ellie Reed

when I was 15, I acquired a driver's permit and my mom took me to an empty Value Village parking lot a few blocks from the DMV to teach me to drive. I remember getting in the driver's seat and having absolutely no clue what to do next.  I had never turned a key in an ignition. I had never put a car into gear. I had never pressed a gas pedal.  I had never even used a blinker. I had become surprisingly comfortable in the passenger's seat.  Admiring the glove box and the spacious room for my feet. The day I turned 15, I was thrown into the driver's seat. Luckily my mom was there to cheer me on. She sat in the passenger's seat with a lump in her throat. Her right hand grasped the "oh sh*!" handle and her left hand laid over her heart- grasping her seat belt for dear life. That night, in that empty lot, I mastered the art of driving slowly in a straight line. Then she asked me if I was ready to drive home. I was not. When it did come ...

I have returned from camp and am back in the "real world" making adjustments to traffic and cell service and my normal routine. I learned so much during my time in Oregon.  More things than I could ever blog about. But one thing that has really been hitting me is the idea of humility.  My physical role at camp was in housekeeping.  I did a lot of cleaning and delegated cleaning tasks to the volunteers on my team. Most of the volunteers and staff serve the campers on their feet.  Lifeguards, standing on the edge of the pool.  Servers, carrying plates of food, walking through the dining hall.  The kitchen crew, who spent all day on their feet preparing meals. While I spent my fair share of time on my feet, I also spent a lot of time on my hands and knees.  Everyday we would clean camper rooms while they were eating breakfast.  My knees have deep bruises from where I knelt on the edge of showers and the sides of my shoes are cracked fr...

Washington Family Ranch has a long history.  When Young Life got their hands on the property, there was already infrastructure, irrigation and electrical systems. Many of the buildings we use for camp are original structures. There is one building in particular that we visit once a month. It is incredible. An old meat cooler is about a mile down the road from where we live and we go there to sit.  to sing. to speak.  to listen. There are white lights strung at the back of the cooler.  We pile in.  Sit criss cross apple sauce, shoulder to shoulder with the people we know and the people we love. we get together. staff. interns. summer staff. we sing songs about Jesus.  we read each other truth from the Word.   I get shivers every time. I spent my last night at camp in the coolers. Interns and staff gathered there and poured over Deuteronomy 8.   We talked about where the Lord is leading us.  How he has fed us.  How he h...

It’s been a while, but don't worry I am still alive and well down here. I planned to write a lot of updates while I was here.  The lack of posts have been due in part by my long work days, the poor internet connection and the fact that I don’t really know what to say. This summer has left me speechless. This place is incredible. I love my job. I love my crew. I love the God that I serve. But all of these things are really difficult to understand if you are not here living it alongside me. Even when talking to some of my best friends and my family, it’s hard to explain to them everything that has happened, because there is an element to this place that you really have to see in order to understand. Every morning, the light of the day pours over the hills in the Canyon right outside my bedroom window and wakes me up.  I stare outside every time, convinced it is a painting. Then I go to work and get paid to talk & laugh & clean with some of...

my first week of work has come to a close and I am enjoying a day off in Sisters, OR with a few other interns. I spent most of last week training for my housekeeping job, getting a tour of all the bathrooms and storage closets at camp and reviewing the policies concerning where dirty rags get washed and how to properly fold a pillowcase. I helped clean up the kitchen the other night after a meal and realized I could not spend all day in there.  All the interns helped do a turnover of camp the other day in housekeeping and were amazed that I was so passionate about the placement of the bath mats in the showers.  Its amazing that we were placed exactly where we need to be. Because all of the interns get out of school at different times, our staff has been slowly trickling into the condo and our squad is close to being complete.  Last weekend, a few of us drove to Bend to run some errands and stumbled upon a farm outside of Madras and couldn't resist taking a photo on t...

I'm here! After a long few months leading up to this day and a long weekend of packing everything into a small number of bags, I finally made it. It rained today and the Muddy Road sure was muddy as we drove down into the canyon. It has not quite hit me yet that this is where I will be spending the next few months, but it certainly feels right. As we drove through Canyon on our way to the staff housing, it did not feel like I was driving into camp. It felt like I was driving home. In the next few months, I will have internet access, but no phone service.  Feel free to keep in contact with me via facebook or email.  Or mail me something at: Ellie Stephenson PO Box 220 Antelope, OR 97001 A huge thank you to everyone who has talked with me and prayed with me and encouraged me through the last few months, I can't wait to begin this journey Ellie

it's official! This summer I will be serving as the housekeeping intern at Creekside at Washington Family Ranch in Oregon. Last summer, I spent a month volunteering at the high school camp a mile away and was challenged in really hard things and affirmed in really good things.  When I came home, I chose trust as my word for the year.  Trusting in the Lord through a hard academic year, a challenging relational year, a growing spiritual year. In the months following my time on summer staff, I contemplated the future but tried not to worry about what I would be doing for summer employment.  In November, I started looking for opportunities for jobs. After a long, prayerful application and two interviews, I was offered the job.  I was not sure that I was qualified. I was not sure that I wanted to do it. Eleanor Roosevelt once said that you should do something that scares you once a day.  I like to think that I live by this mantra, but for me, it's more...

this week began the season of lent! I love lent.  But not because I am good at giving things up.  In fact giving things up is really difficult for me.  This summer a friend told me I should give up my calendar.  That did not happen. Every year for lent, instead of giving something up, I take something on.  After all the point of lent is not to abstain from chocolate or coffee for 40 days, but to turn our focus on Jesus. This year I am reading more and more. Every morning, I get out of bed.  Turn on my computer, make a cup of coffee and read through the devotional provided by She Reads Truth. Before bed, I read through the Gospels and I pray. It would be wonderful to say that I do this anyways, but life has gotten the best of me lately, and lent is the perfect season to realign with what is important. Rob Bell talks about the season of Advent this way, "Advent confronts this corrosion of the heart with the insistence that God has not abandone...

it's late and I should be sleeping, but instead I have decided to get this baby up and running welcome to the blog! In a few months I will be serving at Washington Family Ranch for the summer, and I thought this would be a good place to keep everybody up to date. Let me start my introducing myself my name is Ellie, but my mom calls me Ellie Reed I love Jesus I love a good vanilla latte I love the ocean I love the ZAGS I love wearing shoes I don't have to tie I love my job I love grilled cheese sandwiches I love knitting I love Tom Hanks movies that is all.