Camp Life

Writer's Note: The internet is really really spotty here right now. Our internet is dependent on the wind, it's like a wind generator, and so if there's no wind there's no internet, and there has been no wind since Sunday! So I've just been writing blog posts in Word and am now going to copy them over all at once, so I didn't actually write all of these today, they're just being posted today)

Monday June 13th

I’m sitting on the front porch of the little house that I share with the two other girls, shaded from the sun and with a lovely breeze coming off the sea. It’s the hottest day we’ve had so far and apparently it gets hotter so I need to enjoy the coolness while it lasts. I can’t believe how amazing it is to be here. I am so blessed that I am able to be here! God just continues to bless me, no matter how badly I’ve screwed up.

We had church this morning, which consisted of orange juice and muffins served in Glenn and Sue’s courtyard where we talked about our hopes and expectations for our summer here and any prayer requests that we have. We prayed and then talked about the tentative schedule for the rest of the summer and it’s going to be so amazing.

I was really struggling with the ways that I would be helping at camp this summer. When I told people where I was going and what I was doing, I could tell they were thinking “You’re just going to be working in the kitchen and cleaning bathrooms? What kind of ministry is that? You aren’t going to be a counselor and working with kids?” It very much made me feel like what I was going to be doing wouldn’t be very important. Well I’ve only been here one full day so far and already I know that that’s completely wrong. The work that Anna and Kimberly and I are doing is very important, and a ministry of its own. Just because we’re not working directly with the campers doesn’t mean we can’t minister to them. We can serve their food with a smile and clean their dishes with a smile and we can struggle with our limited Spanish to converse with them. Just because we aren’t leading Bible studies doesn’t mean we aren’t ministering to these people. If the three of us girls weren’t in the kitchen doing what we are doing, the meals would not get served, the dishes would not get cleaned and then where we be?

And this group of campers at least are really appreciative and helpful. They smile and say thank you and a lot of them even clean off their tables so we don’t have to! While we were cleaning bathrooms yesterday, a lady was talking to us about where we were from and why are here and she smiled and talked about how we’ll have crowns in heaven for our work here. It was so sweet that she was so grateful and it’s nice to know our work is appreciated. And no matter whether this gets me crowns in heaven or not, it is a pleasure to be able to serve in this way, and I no longer feel like my work is unnecessary.

Of course it isn’t all peaches and cream. Cleaning toilets is not one of my favorite things, nor is picking hair out of shower drains. And people’s used dishes can get pretty nasty sometimes. And the campers aren’t always smiley and friendly, and sometimes they spray you with water when they’re having a water fight and you’re just passing by minding your own business but you get completely soaked. That happened today J They were joking that since I work in the kitchen I have to be clean, and apparently I didn’t look clean? I don’t know, but they thought it was hilarious to completely soak me with the hose. I was not amused :P. But such is camp life, and I want to have a servant’s heart. I can definitely see God teaching me in this way.