Junior Campers: A Theory Proposed

This week was the first week of Junior camp for the summer.  Junior campers are ages 8-11.  For many of them, this is their first time away from home, away from parents.  Some find it great to be away for a while, and others struggle with homesickness and missing their moms.  For many of the youngest campers this is the first time they have been expected to do things for themselves:  straighten their beds, fold their clothes, pick out clothes and dress themselves.  Because of this, it makes for an interesting and exhausting week for the counselors.

For the guy counselors especially this was a hard week.  Guys are often not as nurturing and loving as girls, and so it is an adjustment to care for these little guys.  They have stepped into the role and done their best, but it’s a stretch for them, and it takes them out of their comfort zone.  For both the guys and the girls, this week was a test of patience.  They have learned much from their experience.

We had several campers this week who have issues with parents.  Some of the kids are in foster care and feel lost.  Two girls lost their mother last summer.  Others feel unloved for one reason or another.  Over the course of the week, as the kids start to open up, some of these issues come out.  I have a theory about why this happens, but it’s just that… a theory.  I think that the campers feel loved and cared for in a way that they don’t always feel.  I think it feels good to them.  Even if they can’t articulate it, I think they know this is how they should feel most of the time, and they realize what they are missing.

That also means that our staff is doing their job.  They are being the tangible love of Jesus to these kids.  So the campers respond.  They may not make any kind of spiritual decision.  They are small; many have never heard the story of Jesus.  But seeds are being sown, the soil of their life is being cultivated. 

For many of them, my prayer is that God will send others to water and reap in their lives when they are away from us.  We also pray that they will return next summer, so that we can have another opportunity to labor in their lives.  

It is a labor of love.