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I took a deep breath as I reached the doorway of the church. I firmly grasped the handle and whispered a prayer before I pushed the door open into the room. It was nearly 10:00 am and several girls had already arrived, excited and ready to start the first day of STELLO camp.
Hugs and lots of talking aren't uncommon at STELLO practices, and we certainly weren't short of either of those this morning. I was excited to meet some new girls this morning during our first half hour. We also played a game, which included running to the center of the room and giving a high five to another person. We would do this if we related to the situation that Eden gave us, such as if we were excited about camp or if we liked certain movies. It was a great way to break the ice and a fun start to the day.
Next we did our Intro to Dance class. Jessica helped us stretch out and then taught us basic ballet bar positions, along with some jazz steps. It was a lot of work and several of us, myself included, were exhausted after our session. We finally headed to a short lunch break after we did some different floor combinations.
Our choreography session took up the first half of our afternoon as we worked on "Masquerade" by Jonathan Thulin. Intense was the word many girls used to describe the different moves for this song, and the choreography was definitely difficult to do, for me anyways. Thankfully, all of the girls stayed safe and we finished choreographing over half of the song!
After a really short break, we started on the music portion of the day. We sang through the songs "Hero," "The Real Me," and "Stained Glass Masquerade" today. We did basic choreography on "Hero" and "Stained Glass Masquerade" and worked on harmony for "The Real Me." The songs are already showing a lot of concert potential, which makes me super excited!
After singing together, we headed over to Eden's house only a short distance away. For dinner, there was a baked potato bar and salad. It was absolutely delicious, and the snippets of conversation I heard during that time, from other tables and my own, were friendly and uplifting.
For our last part of the evening, Eden led a devotional. We discussed the different kinds of masks people wear. There are four kinds:
• The pretty mask is the one we wear to church on Sunday, the one that makes God "look good."
• The grotesque mask, like the Halloween masks at a party store, is what the rebels wear. They push people away by distorting themselves to look ugly or dirty so that no one sees who they really are.
• The surgical mask is to protect you or someone else. The people who wear this mask try to not get "infected" by other people who are being real. They also try to not "infect" others because they don't want to be real.
• The "face copy" mask is intentionally made. It is fashioned to look like the person someone wants to be. Their hope is that they can assume that identity completely and their true self will simply disappear.
We talked about these masks and finished the day by listening to a song that talked about a girl's decision to no longer perform for others. Eden challenged us to be honest and real tomorrow, just for a day. It left me with a lot to think about and I hope it did the same for the other girls, too.
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Please pray that the girls will stay healthy, get enough sleep, have lyrics and choreography learned, be open to being real, make and strengthen friendships, and honor and glorify God in their lives. Stay tuned to see how God continues to work on our lives this week!
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