The Gift of Serving

Last week I got to go back to camp! Ah, such a wonderful place. It was week 10, the last week of summer camp. On the East side there were Hisablility campers (those with disabilities). Let's be real here- they are ADORABLE. They love coloring, and dancing, and hugs. I love it.

 

Meanwhile, on the West side, the techs and engineers did manual slave labor working night and day for 24 hours all week to scrub the camp til it shined. Ok, so that's a slight over-exaggeration, but when I say scrubbed, I mean scrubbed! :) And the funny (and best) part about it is that I loved every minute. Dusting ceiling beams for an hour, failing at putting curtains back up (that took us all morning lol ;), scrubbing basement floors, dusting cobwebs, washing widows, you name it. If it had a surface of any sort, it got cleaned. Isn't it funny how you can be cleaning out moldy junk, but still enjoy it because you're working for the Lord? It didn't really matter what we were doing because we were doing it together. Down on our hands and knees, listening to Adventures in Odyssey, and cleaning like our life depended on it. :)

I couldn't talk about this week without mentioning the PEOPLE. The people are what make it so fantastic. All of the high school staff who got asked back, or assigned to it from the start, come together to have a week of fellowship, cleaning, or serving the East side campers. It would be an under-exaggeration to say that I had one of the greatest weeks of my entire summer!!! All my favorite people from the whole summer are there at once, which is quite convenient. :) We had a night out as a thank-you with mini gulf, go karts, and Culvers. Mmm.

I look back at my many weeks at Camp Barakel and I can't help but feel so thankful! I say this every time (because it's true)- the staff there are wonderful! I'm running out of adjectives to describe the impact that my counselors and fellow workers had on me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have taught me the gift of serving that I can carry on for my entire life. Even though I was there to serve the camp, they ended up giving me an incredible gift; deepening my relationship with Jesus Christ. And for that I'm truly grateful!