Kids Camp

What a contrast, from a small teen camp to a large Kids camp. In the end we had 42 children aged 7-9. There were certainly a lot of cuties amongst them. There were six girls in my cabin, all of them precious in their own way. They were well behaved and I am so thankful for the opportunities I had to talk with them one on one. 

There are two times that I remember well. One was explaining what John 3:16 meant while helping two of the girls learn it in our cabin time. The other was at the end of camp. One of my girls was not picked up till late so I had almost 2 hours with her. It was so sweet to hear a child putting into rhyme her understanding of what we had been learning. I desire more and more to have faith like a child, in that I will believe what God says and trust it. There were many other times at during meals and activities when I got the privilege of sharing God with various children.

We had been praying for male staff and God provided one more on the afternoon camp started. That meant we had four male leaders and 22 male campers. So the games room in the basement was cleared out and 16 mattresses moved in. God had worked ahead of us and of the 14 boys in the "Blueberry Bunker Boys" cabin not one of them was a trouble maker. So the two leaders were able to manage the large cabin and still have an enjoyable time. For those who are thinking of adult child ratios, it is different here and we can have 1:8. We are continuing to pray for male staff with the next two camps also having more than one cabin worth of boys and only two leaders

The teaching during the week was top notch. The children learnt and we were reminded about who God is, His different attributes and saw them in the different Bible Hero stories that were told. I was also excited about fannelgraph being used. The children listened well and one of my girls was also keen to sit with me and follow along in my Bible.

We ended up only having campfire one night but it was a good time. We did some singing and listened while Stash shared his testimony in a way that the children listened as he interacted with them. I may have got a little distracted at one point when I could hear this bird in the tree behind me.

Being first aid for Teen camp and Kids camp was also very different. Kid's camp was a lot busier and a lot of Bandaids were applied. I also had the job of giving a little boy ear drops who didn't want them. His leader would get him to me and then I would turn around and he would be gone, under the bed and behind the door were two of his hiding spots. He was a fun little guy and we got through it.

I have been so thankful for the wonderful teaching on Sundays at church the past three weeks. After the children went home I was a little sad. Wondering how I could possibly do follow up, if I would see any of them again, if there would be a way to encourage and remind them of what they had heard. God brought the remembrance the previous Sundays sermon about how we can have joy, that there is a past history of God we can look at and there is a bright future and with the two things I do not need to get sad but rejoice in what God has done and what he is going to do. I still don't know what the future holds, but I know that God holds the future and he is trustworthy.