Well, Session 2A is over. This is always my favorite session in the summer. I don’t know why, but it is. This group of kids was great. We had a blast the past two weeks. This session, for me, was the most spiritually fulfilling, and draining, session that I have had working here. We had a few kids in the cabin this session that were asking great questions, some of them pretty deep. Questions about deep fears, questioning God’s existence, and deep problems back at home. I was able to continue a relationship with a camper from last year and help him through a loss of a loved one recently. Being able to build on that relationship and just be there for him was awesome.
There is a little irony in the past few weeks. One of the campers that I built a relationship was asking some deep and scary questions. One of his fears was losing a loved one; that he would come to camp or be away from home for a while and he would get a phone call that something happened to his parents. The camper I told you about that I picked up on where we left of last year, his older brother, only 16, lost his best friend in an accident in May. While this camper was not in my cabin this session, we went on a camp out together. Being able to sit down and talk with him about grief and dealing with it was tough but it was cool to just be there for him.
In both of these conversations, I was asked if I had ever lost a loved one or if I had the fear of losing someone and getting that phone call. I could relate too well to both of these cases. I was able to share some of my personal experiences in both of these cases and give some insight on how I dealt with it. But here’s the irony…
I found out Thursday that my father has a mass in his kidney. He will have surgery next week to remove the mass and the kidney. It’s not a good thing at all, but for now, there’s hope. After receiving that phone call, the stuff I had been talking about with my campers became even more real. Yes, I had already experience some of the things I was telling them, but at the same time, it gave more reality to what I was telling them.
I think I have said before in a blog post, we are not guaranteed a tomorrow. We don’t know when our time on earth will end. We must take each day and make the most of it. Stuff happens in our lives that we don’t expect, sometimes good and sometimes bad. It’s how we react and deal with the situation at hand. We can allow that situation to control us and consume us or we can put it in God’s hands. Now, I say that, and it’s easy to say that, but when you are put in that situation, it’s more difficult that it sounds sometimes, but that is what calls us to do. That’s faith…
For this final 2 week session of the summer, Session 2B, we have 7 kids in the cabin. We have a smaller group this session than last. We had a total of 253 campers last session, which is the largest ever in camp history. After this last session the majority of the staff will return home while a few of us will stay for Starter Camp. I will be working with the Apache Tribe (7-9 yr. olds) for that week. I am excited to work with that age group for a week. I don’t think I could work with them a whole summer, but I am happy for the opportunity to work with them for a week.
No comments:
Post a Comment