Camp, week one: Juniors

Blog thur 6/23/11

I wrote this during my break

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Multiple times this first week of actual camp (the couple weeks was just staff training—no kids), I’ve asked myself, why do I do this again?

And then I see God in the kids, see the beautiful looks on their faces, and try to answer the surprisingly deep questions they ask, and hear them cheer, “You go, Maryann!” and see them reading their Bibles in their free time out of pure curiosity and I remember what it was like to be eight years old and it’s then that I remember why I do this.

I am constantly growing and stretching as a person at camp. As a camper my thirst was being quenched; as a counselor I’m the cup, the means for the campers to receive the water they crave. It’s hard.

Last night was “outpost” night, which, for the late elementary kids (my age group this week) means cooking our pan pizzas over a fire, roasting marshmallows, taking a night hike, and sleeping in a tree house. All was well and good the whole evening except for the looming threat of storms. After we’d had our dinner, we went back into main camp and played some game called quidditch, which I was informed was from Harry Potter or something. I was the strongest force on a team full of 8-11 year olds, and we were winning for most of the game, but lost at the last second because of a weird rule our referee made about a golden ball or something. Also we had pool noodle “broomsticks” we had to keep between our legs at all times. Am I inadvertently making references to Harry Potter?

During our night hike we ate a magical food called wintergreen mints. They are magical because they are iridescent, in other words, they light up when they are crushed. It’s a natural source of light, the same way some animals are bioluminescent (for example, lightning bugs, glow worms, and angler fish). So when we ate the mints in the dark, we chewed with our mouths open so that other people could see what looked like tiny white fireworks in our mouths. It’s really cool. One little girl was cracking up as she watched me chomp on mine. I, for one, think it’s fascinating that anything, let alone candy, can produce its own light.

Once we got up to the tree house, and were about ready to go to bed, all the kids were freaking out because they thought they heard raccoons down below (they were probably right.) I, too, was scared, because the winds were picking up and the tops of the trees, including the one our tree house wraps around, were swaying. A lot.

I decided to calm my kids down and get them to go to sleep by singing to them, so I sayd “Hey guys?” like I was going to say something then when I got their attention I began to sing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun”. I started panicking because I couldn’t remember the second half of the third verse so as I was singing the first and second verse, I was praying that God would somehow put the words in my head so I could sing it and make my way to the fourth, my favorite, verse. Trusting him, I started in on the third verse, “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come…” and then, at the very, very last second (of course), the Lord provided. “’Twas grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

I finished off with my favorite verse, then sang the first verse again to the traditional tune of “Amazing Grace.”

After that they were quiet.

I lied in bed watching the trees moving, and started seeing lightning. After 20 or so minutes of that, it started getting more frequent and I started hearing thunder. I began to worry. It was still distant, so I texted my good friend and asked him to look up the weather. The kids aren’t allowed to see me with my phone so I tried to keep it hidden in my sleeping bag. He said different websites said different things for our area, but most of them suggested a good chance of storms. I finally decided to relocate the children. I was scared, but I was as calm and gentle as I could be with waking them up and telling them we needed to get down and move to the nearby shelter. After moving all those pillows and sleeping bags down the ladder, spreading out the tarp, spotting kids as they climbed down, and finally an exhausted attempt at single-handedly shutting the hatch to the tree house (it’s way harder than it looks), (oh, and after profusely thanking my friend that had been texting me), I crashed in my sleeping bag under the shelter, covered in sweat and with a relieving sense of peace and calm.

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This is where I stopped typing when I wrote this the other day. My break ended so I had to quit, but I think I found a good stopping place, don't you? :)

The rest of my week went well and I actually sort of miss my kids, they were great, asked so many good, deep questions about God, and thought I was the best counselor on the face of the earth, which is something I didn't experience last year, and it was awesome :D

I'm going on outreach next week, which is where I travel to a church somewhere in Ohio, stay at a host home, and do camp as a day camp. It should be super fun... hope all my faithful readers are having as fantastic of a summer as I am!