Week Two!

This week I had an absolutely amazing group of kids. This week of campers consisted of kids in grades 7-9. Most of mine were 8th graders, but even my 7th graders were for the most part incredibly mature. They seemed to love everything we did, so getting them excited about our activities was really easy.

To be honest, the only frustrating thing about my kids was that they weren't exactly what you would call 'athletic'. We got beat like 30-5 in bellyball, but hey, they tried their best. I guess one encouraging thing was that I managed to stay somewhat patient (somewhat being the key word there) and not get mad at them for not being able to catch/run the bases very well.

Once again, my kids did amazing at cabin cleanup. We got the highest guy score for cleanliness every day of the week, and on Thursday we tied for the highest overall score. The success did not come without controversy, though. Some of the counselors gave me grief because I always huddled up with my guys after breakfast and gave them cleaning strategies. The guys would volunteer for responsibilities and then go for it. Well, some of the counselors started calling me the "Cleaning Nazi" and telling me that I was being too hard on my kids. It ended, though, when Fred (our Program Director) overheard some of the comments and squelched the comments.

On the spiritual side, I had one guy in particular that was incredibly mature. Even so, though, he still recognized that he had a long way to go in his walk with the Lord. We had a good chat on Wednesday where he poured his heart out to me because he knew that he wasn't living for God as he should.

Another guy wasn't also a huge encouragement to me. He broke down crying one night because he just didn't think he could be saved and continue sinning like he was. So we talked about how once we're saved God never lets us go, and he seemed to feel much better about it. Well on Thursday night he wanted to talk to me again, and before long he was just bawling. At first I thought he was just getting emotional again, but then he said, "I just really miss my sister right now."

My first thought was "Oh, he just homesick, he'll be just fine." But he then proceeded to tell me that his sister had died in June when, during open heart surgery, she developed an infection. I was floored. I didn't show it on my face because I didn't want to upset him, but I had absolutely no idea what to do or say. It really hit me then that I had no idea what I was doing as a counselor. Needless to say my pride took a well-needed hit.

By far, though, the most amazing thing happened on Friday night. No salvation decisions had been made all week, and all of us counselors had been feeling a little down about that. Then, on Friday night after chapel, I caught up with a kid who had been trying to find me the night before during free time but hadn't been able to. Well, we talked for a little while, and he told me that he had been struggling with feelings of hypocrisy, and he hated it. We talked through that, and eventually it came out that he really didn't think he was saved because he couldn't remember asking Jesus to come into his heart and he wanted to make sure he was saved. So, right then at the booth in the Lodge, he placed his trust in Christ for his salvation.

Then, that night after the bonfire I talked to each guy on the porch about the decisions they had made that week. I started off each talk with "What age did you get saved?" because I had to record that for my paperwork. Well, after I asked that to one of the kids he just flat out said "I don't know what that is." Now, I thought that was a little interesting, because I had talked to him earlier and he knew the right answers, but apparently he had never really gotten saved before. So, we talked about it, and he decided that was something he wanted to do. Hallelujah!

Yesterday I finished up my paperwork and went to the laundromat with Lindsay and Katie. While our clothes were drying we went to Wal-Mart and gassed up and then got our laundry and went back to camp. Then about 10 of us went to New Grounds, which is a Christian coffee shop about 10 minutes away. Then, it was sweet, sweet dreams as I got over 9 hours of sleep. Wahoo!

Today after church and lunch, I took a nap before heading over to Josh and Kimmy's trailer to play 'Apples to Apples'. Then, Myles came! He was in Wooster visiting a friend and he decided to come by. So, I took him on a tour of the grounds and then we all went to Pizza Hut. Now a couple of us are watching "The Princess Bride" before it's time for scheduling at 9:00.

Things to pray about:

Health: I've been sick the whole past week, and I'm tired of this cold! Juniors take a lot of energy and patience to deal with, and my cold took both of those away last week.

Adjustment: It's going to be difficult going from the maturity and responsibility levels of the junior highers to those of the juniors.