Summer Camp in December - Day 2

My mood fluctuated from happy, excited, bored, nervous, frustrated, tired, energized and back again! The morning started off well enough with Morning Glory in the Church Hall at 7:30 this morning. We did some Praise & Worship, singing some choruses & then had a short message from Pastor Jack (from Zambia). Then the ‘fun’ began. We had a meeting with all the Youth Leaders before Church, starting at 8:30 & it went until about 9:45. In this meeting, we started talking about the schedule; that’s right, I said we started talking about the schedule. Pastor Nkosi was asked to be the Camp Director and then he assigned various people to be Asst. Camp Directors over certain areas (Activities, Facilities & Counseling). Each ACD also had support staff consisting of the rest of the instructors, youth leaders & pastors who came for camp. Pastor Nkosi gave us the time table for the rest of the day, which included another meeting to finalize the schedule and instructors for all of the activities. Gggaaaa!!!! (During this morning meeting was when I first started to feel a little frustrated)

After our meeting, we had some time to prepare for church services. I had volunteered to play the piano and Anthony (one of the Youth Leaders) was the Worship Leader. Once church services started, I began to feel a little better and God gave me some gentle reminders about camp being about the kids and showing them His love and not about having everything organized ‘just right’ or the way I think it should be done. We had some beautiful and precious Special Music pieces by some of the campers. I am amazed at their willingness to get up on the stage and sing out a song with just their voice! J

When church was over, we ate lunch and had our ‘official’ camp start at 2:00pm. Pastor Mankhoma was asked to give the welcoming message to the campers, then they had a couple of hours to enjoy some free time & play sports at the ground while the Youth Leaders had their meeting. It was about 3:00pm by the time we started our meeting, and we finished at about 6:30pm…. I got a little frustrated again a couple times during this meeting; but it was also where I got excited and began to anticipate the start of all of our camp activities. Kayla and I both were a little tired and started to get a little slap happy & giggly, which helped to entertain us for a bit. J

We ate dinner and then started our Camp Orientation. Pastor Nkosi went over the camp rules, Pastor Jack went through the activities and I talked about their dorm set-ups. Then we had a quick praise & worship session before sending them to their dorms for the night. Overall, I did have a blessed and joyful day and I am so thankful that God not only allowed me to be a part of this camp, but He wanted me to participate. He chose me to be a part of this group to show His love to the campers.

Our theme for camp is ‘Designed to shine for Christ’ (Phil. 2:12-15). I pray that when I start to lose my patience I will remember this theme, count to ten and ask God to wipe away the grime so that He may shine more brightly through me. Though the communication barrier is going to make some of our lessons a little difficult, I know that God is with us and will help us to understand one another. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for the rest of the week!! J