To start off, you should know a couple things as background information; I had never been to Camp Joy before (when I started workers training was the first time I'd set foot there), I knew nobody (my connection to the camp was former directors) and I was a long ways from home (a four and a half hour drive). Thinking about it now, I can really see how God pulled everything together and made me so excited to go. I only had about 3 weeks after I knew I had been hired before we started training, and I hadn't thought it through like I usually would with something. You see, I realized about a day into training, that I didn't know what I was doing there. I hadn't talked to hardly anyone, I sat alone for everything, and it didn't seem like anyone was interested in my being there. This all soon changed.
Now don't go thinking that the staff members there aren't good people, because they're truly great...I just was expecting everyone to automatically accept me and be my friend, and things don't work like that. I had stepped into a tight knit group of friends that had been together since childhood, and I could hardly remember everyone's name, of course I wasn't going to be treated the exact same as I watched them treat everyone else, because they didn't know me yet. I can imagine they were still trying to figure me out, as well as I was with them, so I don't blame anyone. It was also a mixture of being stressed at this new undertaking, and being so far away from home that made me feel more lonely. I remember a specific conversation on the phone with my parents, I'd been there for only a few days, and it was the night before the first week of camp started. The phone call was basically me, telling them that I had no clue at all why I was there. I kept reassuring them, but more myself really, that I wouldn't go home after coming this far and committing to this, but at that moment, all I wanted was the comfort of my home. I honestly and truly thought that it was a horrible idea for me to have gone, and dreaded all that time to come in an uncomfortable and lonely environment.
The very next day.. ba ba ba ba dada da (duck song, sorry :)) the next camp began, and I was starting to see how wrong I was to think I would dread this experience. The second that children started pulling up in cars, needing help with their bags and someone to introduce them, I realized something. Just as I had very recently been homesick and lonely, many kids were about to experience the same thing.Quite a few of them hadn't ever been to a camp before, and they missed their homes...some didn't know a single person either, so I made it my mission to prevent that as much as possible. That meant sitting with the little boy who was all alone, or smiling at the little girl who looked sad, introducing myself a billion times, and getting the shy kids involved, helping a little girl do her hair, to spending hours helping a little girl get her hair untangled from a brush, singing homesick girls back to sleep, or rubbing their backs to help them fall asleep...any way I could think of to help those kids have the most comfortable and enjoyable experience of camp, and most importantly, to see the love of Jesus.
Some very hilarious, amusing, special, and touching moments happened this summer, between the staff and between the kids, all of them (and many unsaid) were the reason I grew to absolutely and positively love Camp Joy, my serving experience, and time with these wonderful people, and I'll share some with you.
My 3 favorite hilarious moments with the kids would be: 1 Macer Racers, these would be little girls who persistently and stalkerishly chased around another male staff member, stealing things from his bracelets...to his hair, yes his hair. We named them Macer Racers because it resembles names such as "Beliebers" and "Directioners" who are obsessed with Justin Beiber or One Direction. My second favorite hilarious moment with the kids would be a little girl talking about the movie "Soul Surfer". We're all talking about how it made us cry, or how touching it was, when this quiet girl pipes up and says "my favorite part was when the shark bit her arm off"...we were all in stitches :) The third most hilarious thing I witnessed at camp concerning campers was one of the girls being convinced that El Chupocobra (the camp legend, like a ghost for example, which is actually a legend from Mexico) was getting her while she slept. She would wake up every morning, dead serious, showing us this imaginary mark on her arm that was from "Chupocobra invading her in the middle of the night" :)
My 3 favorite moments with the staff members were: 1 the best game of lost in translation I've ever played, including phrases such as "a family of narwhals racing to the sandy shore to rest under the shade of a coconut tree" "You're so sweet, ponies ask for you on their birthdays" "and the decomposition process of a hot dog" (we played on my birthday, an off day of camp, and I have to say it was one of my favorite birthdays ever :)) The second most amusing moment I shared with fellow staff was a very creepy yet hilarious video we watched at the coffee shop in town. It was a rendition of "Father Abraham", and to this day one of the other staff members is scared of it, we even made a pillowcase mimicking the children's costumes in the video :)
And my third favorite thing would be pop stand. We sell pop and candy at certain times in the day to the kids, and we came up with code names for everything at the stand. Some examples are: a Medic= a Dr. Pepper, A cherry Pepsi= BEEEDOOO BEEEDOOOO BEEEEDOOO (Despicable Me 2:)) and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups= best buds. It was pretty funny to hear all of these ridiculous names called out every couple seconds :)
Now that I've shared with you some lighthearted things, I want to tell you about my absolute favorite thing that happened, all summer there, and something I won't ever forget. There was a girl, at Junior High Camp, and let's say her name was Sally (just because there wasn't a Sally and I've been thinking about Weeping Angels today :)) Sally was the girl you would assume was forced to go to camp by some family member. She sat alone, on purpose, and frowned frequently, she had a very negative way about her, and I saw her smile maybe twice until this specific moment. I would often go sit with her and strike up conversation, smile my brightest as she walked by, and include her as much as I could, but I thought it was going unnoticed. I also thought I was annoying her, and it was hard to find a balance of making her feel welcome and loved, to not standing over her. I didn't ever give up, but I kept doing those things for her and loving on her with the thought that it wasn't doing anything for her... but I was gladly wrong. The last night of Junior High week of camp, we had just gotten back from campfire. All the girls were busily getting ready for bed, playing with each others hair, laughing, and cherishing the last moments they had with new friends, before the sadness of parting came in the morning. I was in a separate dorm building- so it was just the girls, and 3 of us dorm leaders- the other 2 were off working on things, and I was in charge of the girls. I had been in and out of the bathroom monitoring shower time and making sure things moved along before I started nighttime devotions. On one of my trips back from the bathroom, Sally caught my attention and asked if she could talk to me real quick. I got excited, told her I'd love to talk to her, and we went and sat on my bed. She started to tell me how when she came that week, she didn't want to be there. She said she did not believe in God, and was irritated by all of the God-centered things we had been doing. She was lonely, and not enjoying herself. Then she told me that about mid-day on the second day she was there, she realized me doing things, like smiling when she walked by, or sitting by her at the dinner table and talking to her. At that point I thought "Wow, it was all worth it"... and then she told me that she now believes in God, because she saw Him in me, that I helped her to understand His love and His awesomeness. At that point, I was crying, and then she started crying, we prayed together and we talked some more, we ended up laughing together and then I unfortunately had to get devotions going and the girls to bed, but I will forever cherish that moment, and she will always be special to me. That moment taught me how amazing it is to see (and feel) God working through people to glorify Himself.
And regarding the title of this post, "CAAAAAMP JOOOY TWENTY THIRTEEEEEEN" is what we would all yell at random times throughout this summer, someone starts it and then everyone joins in, it's pretty awesome. And in conclusion, I can't wait until "CAMP JOOOOOOY TWENTY FOURTEEEEEEEEN" :)
Some very hilarious, amusing, special, and touching moments happened this summer, between the staff and between the kids, all of them (and many unsaid) were the reason I grew to absolutely and positively love Camp Joy, my serving experience, and time with these wonderful people, and I'll share some with you.
My 3 favorite hilarious moments with the kids would be: 1 Macer Racers, these would be little girls who persistently and stalkerishly chased around another male staff member, stealing things from his bracelets...to his hair, yes his hair. We named them Macer Racers because it resembles names such as "Beliebers" and "Directioners" who are obsessed with Justin Beiber or One Direction. My second favorite hilarious moment with the kids would be a little girl talking about the movie "Soul Surfer". We're all talking about how it made us cry, or how touching it was, when this quiet girl pipes up and says "my favorite part was when the shark bit her arm off"...we were all in stitches :) The third most hilarious thing I witnessed at camp concerning campers was one of the girls being convinced that El Chupocobra (the camp legend, like a ghost for example, which is actually a legend from Mexico) was getting her while she slept. She would wake up every morning, dead serious, showing us this imaginary mark on her arm that was from "Chupocobra invading her in the middle of the night" :)
And my third favorite thing would be pop stand. We sell pop and candy at certain times in the day to the kids, and we came up with code names for everything at the stand. Some examples are: a Medic= a Dr. Pepper, A cherry Pepsi= BEEEDOOO BEEEDOOOO BEEEEDOOO (Despicable Me 2:)) and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups= best buds. It was pretty funny to hear all of these ridiculous names called out every couple seconds :)
Now that I've shared with you some lighthearted things, I want to tell you about my absolute favorite thing that happened, all summer there, and something I won't ever forget. There was a girl, at Junior High Camp, and let's say her name was Sally (just because there wasn't a Sally and I've been thinking about Weeping Angels today :)) Sally was the girl you would assume was forced to go to camp by some family member. She sat alone, on purpose, and frowned frequently, she had a very negative way about her, and I saw her smile maybe twice until this specific moment. I would often go sit with her and strike up conversation, smile my brightest as she walked by, and include her as much as I could, but I thought it was going unnoticed. I also thought I was annoying her, and it was hard to find a balance of making her feel welcome and loved, to not standing over her. I didn't ever give up, but I kept doing those things for her and loving on her with the thought that it wasn't doing anything for her... but I was gladly wrong. The last night of Junior High week of camp, we had just gotten back from campfire. All the girls were busily getting ready for bed, playing with each others hair, laughing, and cherishing the last moments they had with new friends, before the sadness of parting came in the morning. I was in a separate dorm building- so it was just the girls, and 3 of us dorm leaders- the other 2 were off working on things, and I was in charge of the girls. I had been in and out of the bathroom monitoring shower time and making sure things moved along before I started nighttime devotions. On one of my trips back from the bathroom, Sally caught my attention and asked if she could talk to me real quick. I got excited, told her I'd love to talk to her, and we went and sat on my bed. She started to tell me how when she came that week, she didn't want to be there. She said she did not believe in God, and was irritated by all of the God-centered things we had been doing. She was lonely, and not enjoying herself. Then she told me that about mid-day on the second day she was there, she realized me doing things, like smiling when she walked by, or sitting by her at the dinner table and talking to her. At that point I thought "Wow, it was all worth it"... and then she told me that she now believes in God, because she saw Him in me, that I helped her to understand His love and His awesomeness. At that point, I was crying, and then she started crying, we prayed together and we talked some more, we ended up laughing together and then I unfortunately had to get devotions going and the girls to bed, but I will forever cherish that moment, and she will always be special to me. That moment taught me how amazing it is to see (and feel) God working through people to glorify Himself.
And regarding the title of this post, "CAAAAAMP JOOOY TWENTY THIRTEEEEEEN" is what we would all yell at random times throughout this summer, someone starts it and then everyone joins in, it's pretty awesome. And in conclusion, I can't wait until "CAMP JOOOOOOY TWENTY FOURTEEEEEEEEN" :)
No comments:
Post a Comment