Monday, August 17, 2009
Yes, I have finally made it back to tell you the third part of my story, and I know you are thrilled! I apologize if I am not as detailed with my stroytelling as I have been. It has been a few weeks, and I am much older now and tend to forget things much quicker than before. So, where was I?....
The third week of camp was youth missions week. This week, we were given a mission project to work on helping an elderly lady around the outside of her house. This lady was so kind and patient with all of us (all 6 counselors and 11... then 10... then 9... then 8 kids). The first day we spent doing yard work: raking leaves, picking up trash, pulling weeds, etc. The next few days we spent painting her house.
May I just pause to say that this was a dream come true for me! When I was little (like, still watching Barney little)my dream was to be a house painter when I grew up (or a taxi cab driver, but I don't see that one happening anytime soon).
Anyways, we had 7 girls and 1 boy by the end of the week, and most of them were not very happy to be there. The whole time we heard complaints about when we were going to leave, or wanting to do something else. It was very discouraging for us, who had been called to serve these kids all summer, to hear the selfishness that came out of their mouths. We became broken about the hearts of these kids who did not know how to show great love because they didn't know the greatest love of all. We all met every day to pray and talk about what we could do to bring these kids where they needed to be for God to work in their lives. We just wanted a serious response from these kids that we had not gotten thus far. The night after our big prayer meeting, we all settled down for cabin devotions. The kids had apparently been led in a great campfire devotion by one of the other counselors (I was unfortunately unpresent), because when we got settled for our devotion time, they all started asking some really great serious questions about God and the Bible and what is true and why... As difficult as it was to answer some of their questions, it was so sweet and encouraginging to know that they were really thinking about spiritual things.
The fourth week of camp was music week. This was probably one of the best organized weeks of camp. If it were not for all of the camper drama, it would have been one of the best weeks. The kids spent a lot of time learning about music theory (basic basic stuff) and practicing songs for their performance at the end of the week. Because teaching music takes a considerable amount of talent, the director for the week took charge of this part of the week. It was very nice to be able to take a break and chill in a quiet, air conditioned room. The director for this week was so real, so down to earth, so helpful, so kind and patient, so nice... I can't say enough good things about her! I almost felt bad that she had to deal with everything that she did!
The kids we were working with this week were in 4th-7th grade. It was difficult to stop all of the matchmaking that went on among some of the more immature ones. There was no need for these 10 year olds to have "boyfriends" or "girlfriends," yet it seemed like all conversation seemed to revolve around that exact subject. On top of that, we had a lot of hypochondriacs (mostly girls). So many kids "needed" band-aids and tylenol... too many. This caused a lot of problems, even with some parents.
So, I've been waiting to talk to you about the last part of the title of this series, and I'm sure you have been to. During this week, we were able to take the kids off the camp site to a field nearby where, every year during this time, all of the local hot air balloon pilots gather and give people rides in tethered balloons. (They only go up about 50 feet and then come back down.) It was our job (as summer missionaries and humble servants) to help out the pilots where they needed it. For the first part of the evening, two of the other girls and I helped out holding the very heavy balloon filled with hot air down to the ground with the wind working in the oposite direction. We tried our hardest not to fail, but I'm sure the people we were working with were glad to get rid of us, because two of us and one of the guys were sent to help another pilot who was not giving rides, but actually flying. So, the three of us, who had never before been in a hot air balloon before, helped put it together. Who knew it was so complicated!? There were so many steps and parts and things to do, and it was all so heavy! After we assembled the balloon, then we got to ride in it! (This is how they test to make sure that you constructed it correctly.) I got the honor of riding from one field to another across some powerlines and landing back on the ground sideways. The pilot didn't seemed too concerned about it, though, so I decided not to be either. This was probably one of the greatest highlights of my summer: crashing in a hot air balloon.
It was quite a long week, drama included. However, we had completed more than half of our summer and only had two weeks left! Whoo-Hooo! :)
Return soon for the conclusion of our four part series...
The third week of camp was youth missions week. This week, we were given a mission project to work on helping an elderly lady around the outside of her house. This lady was so kind and patient with all of us (all 6 counselors and 11... then 10... then 9... then 8 kids). The first day we spent doing yard work: raking leaves, picking up trash, pulling weeds, etc. The next few days we spent painting her house.
May I just pause to say that this was a dream come true for me! When I was little (like, still watching Barney little)my dream was to be a house painter when I grew up (or a taxi cab driver, but I don't see that one happening anytime soon).
Anyways, we had 7 girls and 1 boy by the end of the week, and most of them were not very happy to be there. The whole time we heard complaints about when we were going to leave, or wanting to do something else. It was very discouraging for us, who had been called to serve these kids all summer, to hear the selfishness that came out of their mouths. We became broken about the hearts of these kids who did not know how to show great love because they didn't know the greatest love of all. We all met every day to pray and talk about what we could do to bring these kids where they needed to be for God to work in their lives. We just wanted a serious response from these kids that we had not gotten thus far. The night after our big prayer meeting, we all settled down for cabin devotions. The kids had apparently been led in a great campfire devotion by one of the other counselors (I was unfortunately unpresent), because when we got settled for our devotion time, they all started asking some really great serious questions about God and the Bible and what is true and why... As difficult as it was to answer some of their questions, it was so sweet and encouraginging to know that they were really thinking about spiritual things.
The fourth week of camp was music week. This was probably one of the best organized weeks of camp. If it were not for all of the camper drama, it would have been one of the best weeks. The kids spent a lot of time learning about music theory (basic basic stuff) and practicing songs for their performance at the end of the week. Because teaching music takes a considerable amount of talent, the director for the week took charge of this part of the week. It was very nice to be able to take a break and chill in a quiet, air conditioned room. The director for this week was so real, so down to earth, so helpful, so kind and patient, so nice... I can't say enough good things about her! I almost felt bad that she had to deal with everything that she did!
The kids we were working with this week were in 4th-7th grade. It was difficult to stop all of the matchmaking that went on among some of the more immature ones. There was no need for these 10 year olds to have "boyfriends" or "girlfriends," yet it seemed like all conversation seemed to revolve around that exact subject. On top of that, we had a lot of hypochondriacs (mostly girls). So many kids "needed" band-aids and tylenol... too many. This caused a lot of problems, even with some parents.
So, I've been waiting to talk to you about the last part of the title of this series, and I'm sure you have been to. During this week, we were able to take the kids off the camp site to a field nearby where, every year during this time, all of the local hot air balloon pilots gather and give people rides in tethered balloons. (They only go up about 50 feet and then come back down.) It was our job (as summer missionaries and humble servants) to help out the pilots where they needed it. For the first part of the evening, two of the other girls and I helped out holding the very heavy balloon filled with hot air down to the ground with the wind working in the oposite direction. We tried our hardest not to fail, but I'm sure the people we were working with were glad to get rid of us, because two of us and one of the guys were sent to help another pilot who was not giving rides, but actually flying. So, the three of us, who had never before been in a hot air balloon before, helped put it together. Who knew it was so complicated!? There were so many steps and parts and things to do, and it was all so heavy! After we assembled the balloon, then we got to ride in it! (This is how they test to make sure that you constructed it correctly.) I got the honor of riding from one field to another across some powerlines and landing back on the ground sideways. The pilot didn't seemed too concerned about it, though, so I decided not to be either. This was probably one of the greatest highlights of my summer: crashing in a hot air balloon.
It was quite a long week, drama included. However, we had completed more than half of our summer and only had two weeks left! Whoo-Hooo! :)
Return soon for the conclusion of our four part series...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment