Camp

So this summer, as some of you may know, I spent 8 weeks being a counselor at a Methodist camp where kids would come for a week to hang out, play, have fun, doing crazy crap, and learn about Jesus all at the same time. I came for 8 summers as a camper myself and this was my second summer on team, so it is like a home away from home for me. I just wanted to take my first posting after the summer to just reflect on the experience and share with you guys how good God was and what kind of growth I experienced.

First off, coming into the summer as returning team has a whole new feeling to it than when I came in as a new team member. I had more experience, I knew more what to expect, and I definitely already had a lot more friends than I did just one year ago. This time it was my turn to be the one to help the new people settle in and I was definitely excited to do so. During O-Week (Orientation Week) I feel like I really was able to embrace kind of a big brother role with my buddy and also with a few of the other new guy counselors and kind of help them find their feet here. It was really awesome and created some great friendships over the summer.

I spent the first 4 weeks straight on the high school age level. That is the age I love working with the most, but it is also the most draining in my opinion. Not only are you getting the least amount of sleep each night, but also it is the most active during the day and also the most emotionally and spiritually challenging and draining because at this point in their lives, they are dealing with the toughest issues USUALLY. Some cases you have the occasional middle school or maybe even elementary camper that has rough crap going on too, but the biggest struggles usually show themselves with the high school campers. This summer, we did something on Thursday night that focused on the brokenness of the individual and the societal pressures put on them and this REALLY brought out the sharing of brokenness. Dealing with all of that was tough, but also very cool because I got to see God use me to reach out to the kids and show them love despite their problems which they probably don't get much of back home.

I had multiple campers tell me how great of a counselor I was in those first four weeks, including campers I had last summer who came back and where really excited to see me. That is another thing that was a big change from last summer. I had campers that knew me each and every week and that was cool, but a challenge too. I struggle with pride sometimes and this summer was a real test of that. I like to hear good things about me and praises in my name, but at the same time, I hate that I like to hear it and I wish I wouldn't hear it because I know how quickly it can get to my head. When the campers are saying it, that's one thing, but its another when other counselors started giving me praise too. I was thankful that I was doing a good enough job to get noticed by other team members, but at the same time, I felt bad because I was just trying to do my job and I was getting praise while others were not. It felt weird to me especially during meetings when we would do something called "shout outs" where we just give praise to other team members in front of the whole team of a certain age group. To me, I feel like its good to give praise to people, but maybe do it privately, rather than in front of everyone. Maybe I am just weird about it because it is a struggle of mine, but I think that I grew in my ability to receive praise this summer and not let it get to my head AS MUCH. Just one of many areas I grew.

Week 5 I had a buddy. A buddy is a camper that is special needs that needs someone to be with them at all times to just make sure they are ok. They could have special needs for mental or physical disabilities. For privacy purposes, I won't share his name. If you were on team with me this summer, you know his name anyways. I just want to start off by saying that I had always wanted a little brother and getting the opportunity to look after this camper 24/7 for a whole week and just hang out him and I was really cool because I felt like I got to have the little brother I have always wanted to have. He grew so much spiritually and emotionally his week here and I am so proud of the man he is becoming and that he is allowing God to work in him. Being at camp was his first time away from his parents and it was a worry that he might not make it all the way through the week, that he might have to go home early. He made it the entire week though and only cried once at the end of the week because he was going to miss me and being at camp! I was so ecstatic that he had such a good week and he told me he could not wait to get back next year and have me as his counselor again. There are so many special moments I could share with you about this boy, but I will limit it to just one. On Friday night in worship, we do communion with the campers. He had never taken communion before and asked me about it. So I got to explain to him what communion is and why we do it and then I got to serve him his first communion and take it with him. I felt God so much in that moment and felt like the most blessed counselor to ever work at WWW. Then, he asked me to pray with him at the alter which was a huge deal because up to this point, he did not like to pray out loud with other people around at all. It was a huge step for him to have the courage to do that and it just blew me away how much God worked in him that week. I will never forget him or the week we had together and I continually pray that I am able to come back next summer and that I can have him as my buddy again.

One last story I wanted to share was about another camper I had last summer who came back this summer. Last summer, he was kind of less into his faith, for lack of a better phrase. He called himself a Christian, but I don't know that he really understood what that meant or lived it out at all. He was in my small group the week he came last summer and I could kind of see a change in him the week he was here, but it was very small. Then he came back this summer and I could see a huge change in him the minute I saw him at worship on Monday night. He was so into the music and the lyrics and just was full on worshiping God! It was awesome! So I sought him out the next day and just asked him what he had been up to since camp last summer. He told me that he had really changed, that he had gotten more involved at church and had accepted Christ into his life and that he was really convicted by God. He had just spent an entire month out of the country ministering to people of another country. It wasn't a typical mission trip, but they just went and spent time with the people and prayed with them and loved them. I could just hear the passion and the love in his voice when he talked about it. He then told me that myself and the other counselor who taught the small group with him, my good friend Morgan, where a HUGE part in his transformation. He said without us, he would not be where he was today. That blew me away. I cried, hard. I was so touched by the fact that God used me and my good friend to reach out to this young man and bring him into the kingdom and do great things not only in his community, but in another country. I found out later from another counselor from this campers church that the camper had been talking about Morgan and I and how much we impacted him at his church for a long time before he even got back to camp. It really showed me how big of an impact we have as counselors and if we truly love the kids and show them genuine love of God, we can literally change the world through the kids. It is still something that just blows me away and shows me how good our God is. To wrap up the story, on Friday night at worship, he was praying with Morgan at the alter. I played bass guitar in the band so I saw this happening right in front of me, so I put my bass down to go pray with them. After Morgan got done praying for him, I got up and went back to playing alter call music. Then he prayed over her and it really touched me. Much to my surprise, he then looked up at me and told me to come back down and he prayed over me as well and I will never forget the things he said to our Lord about me and the genuine thanks he had for me in his life and what I was doing for the camp and for all the kids. I am so blessed to have been a part of this young man's life and I am beyond excited to see how God uses him to bring God's kingdom to earth.

Outside of the campers, the team experience was fantastic this summer. I got to build more on friendships that I already had started last summer as well as start new ones with new people. I am sure that there are at LEAST a few that will be friendships that last a lifetime. I have never felt such a tight community of believers as I have the past two summers here on team. I know that we will all look out for each other and have each others backs for a long time. I would do a couple shout outs, but I would end up just naming all of team. I made a few friends that were closer than others, but there is no need to name you, you know who you are. If you served on team this summer, know that I love you and pray for you every day.

The summer is over now and I am still at camp working for people who come on retreats and other things of the like. We have a band camp going on right now as well as a football team staying here and I am just lifeguarding, working in the kitchen, or facilitating the ropes course for them as they need it. It is nice to still be here, but weird too as the rest of team is gone and summer camp is not going on anymore. Its almost like a whole new place here now.