Day One, 7/1/13:
What a change it is to go from being a counselor last summer, to now being a group coordinator. Going from attending the needs of one to attending to the needs of the many has already proved to have its challenges. The responsibility is far greater, and while it’s something I’ve been excited about stepping into, I don’t think I am anywhere near as prepared as I thought I was. Situation after situation just seemed to just keep on coming in, so much so that once the day was over I was so worn out I forgot the face of a parent and had to ask who they were there to pick up. What I had to do last year was step into the world of one child, do all I could to make these 4 weeks the best they could be for him, and if something came up, go to my coordinator. And now I’m the one that those people are coming to.
What a change it is to go from being a counselor last summer, to now being a group coordinator. Going from attending the needs of one to attending to the needs of the many has already proved to have its challenges. The responsibility is far greater, and while it’s something I’ve been excited about stepping into, I don’t think I am anywhere near as prepared as I thought I was. Situation after situation just seemed to just keep on coming in, so much so that once the day was over I was so worn out I forgot the face of a parent and had to ask who they were there to pick up. What I had to do last year was step into the world of one child, do all I could to make these 4 weeks the best they could be for him, and if something came up, go to my coordinator. And now I’m the one that those people are coming to.
Thankfully, I am not alone. For one, the counselors all know the coordinators job can be stressful at times, and they are there doing their best to enter the world of their one buddy, giving them a worthwhile experience at camp, all the while trying to prevent as many situations as they can. Second, there is a great deal of love and support that comes from my fellow coordinators. Third, there are the directors of the camp, who have many times stated that if I need anything, I can easily go to one of them and ask for help. But most importantly, I have my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The love that Christ has shown me is far greater than any love that I can show these kids, but at the same time He is the reason why I can begin to. My young adult bible study has been going through 1st Peter, and I have been reading it often. Chapter 1 verses 22-23 states, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God." It is because of Christ that I can truly love someone at all, and it is because of Christ that after a long hard day that I can get up tomorrow and do it again. Not only is the love of Christ so powerful that when it penetrates our hearts it overflows into our love for others, but in chapter 5 of 1st Peter, we also learn that God cares for us so much he wants us to hand over to Him all of our anxiety. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” God knows exactly where He has placed me this summer, and He will provide the grace and strength to make it through. I know I will be challenged, stretched, and worn out at times, but I also know that Christ will be with me every step of the way, and so I cannot wait to see what He has in store for these next 19 days of camp.
Day Two, 7/2/13:
I don’t know what changed, but today was amazing. There were 10+ incident/accident reports filled out between the assistant coordinator and I yesterday; today we had to fill out 0.
This summer, I have the opportunity to lead the prayer group that meets once a week before camp gets started and today was our first meeting. It was so cool and encouraging to see so many people get to work early to pray for the camp. We were able to take some time and lift up the coordinators, counselors, volunteers, campers and almost every aspect of camp to the Lord before all the craziness began and I really think it set the tone for the day.
Within the two rooms the counselors came back with smiles on their faces ready to roll, and through the many lessons learned on day 1 were far more prepared to handle situations that occurred. Now that they are getting to know the campers a little more day by day, both the counselors and volunteers are beginning to enter into these children’s worlds, and it is really sweet to see. I can only hope it continues all the more as the camp goes on.
Day Three, 7/3/13, written about on 7/6/13 :
Wednesday turned out to be another hectic day, from a series of accidents/incidents, a stressful trip to Chuck-E-Cheese, to all of my parents ready and waiting for their children as we returned slightly late (because of all that happened) from the field trip, which you can imagine how hard it is to explain certain incidents of the day to one parent about their child in such a way that they don’t piece together that it happened between their child and the child of the parent that I just explained a similar sounding story to since they were all in earshot. That morning though before all of the craziness occurred, I received a gift card to Starbucks as a reward for being someone that was always excited and ready to be at camp, which was humbling because in my heart and mind, as I don’t always feel ready.
That day, I began to realize that the hardest thing for me so far about this camp, is having to explain any accidents or incidents that occurred to the parents, especially ones dealing with a behavior that is frowned upon. For one thing, it is hard to explain the report in a positive light, on one hand I would like to truthfully represent what occurred, but on the other I want to remind the parent that while yes, this mishap did happen, it was 30 seconds of a 5 hour day where your child had a wonderful time doing x y and z, and that we really are working on things. And for another, it is extremely heart breaking to tell a parent of something that happened and have them respond in disbelief because they have specifically been working on that behavior for a year straight. Though a cool thing that happened over the weekend is that a friend also working at the camp reached out to me and shared is the fact that we as coordinators have to stress the positivity of it all, always being excited to see that camper the next day and desire to work on things, no matter what occurred the last, and also somehow remind the parents that sometimes what works at home or school will not work at camp.
That day, I began to realize that the hardest thing for me so far about this camp, is having to explain any accidents or incidents that occurred to the parents, especially ones dealing with a behavior that is frowned upon. For one thing, it is hard to explain the report in a positive light, on one hand I would like to truthfully represent what occurred, but on the other I want to remind the parent that while yes, this mishap did happen, it was 30 seconds of a 5 hour day where your child had a wonderful time doing x y and z, and that we really are working on things. And for another, it is extremely heart breaking to tell a parent of something that happened and have them respond in disbelief because they have specifically been working on that behavior for a year straight. Though a cool thing that happened over the weekend is that a friend also working at the camp reached out to me and shared is the fact that we as coordinators have to stress the positivity of it all, always being excited to see that camper the next day and desire to work on things, no matter what occurred the last, and also somehow remind the parents that sometimes what works at home or school will not work at camp.
Day Four, 7/5/13: written about on 7/8/13
It was nice to have the 4th off, I was able to spend the night of the 3rd at a friend’s house whom I hadn’t seen in awhile and the 4th was spent with my brother and his family. As for the 4th day of camp, overall it was a very testing day, I came in ready to go and extremely excited to be there, but by the end of the day I was completely gone. By the time I got home I really had to check my heart and ask myself why I was there, and that’s because I found myself very distant that day at camp. Filling out yet another accident/incident report form became a numbing experience after doing so many and instead of being something I saw as something we needed to work on in order to prevent in the future, I came to expect them. Also I was not the most gracious with the parents when explaining to them their child’s day.
That being said, it was crazy to see how fast the first week of camp went, especially when each individual day seems so long. And let me tell you, it can be exhausting on so many levels, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Physically, I’m hanging out with kids all day, running around, playing, walking, etc. Emotionally, I’m all over the place and sometimes in a matter of minutes, you can go from feeling extreme joy because of seeing a camper do something that makes you laugh and smile seeing them enjoy camp to immediate frustration because 10 seconds later you get a report of another accident/incident. Spiritually, how much of the fruit of the spirit I have in the tank is being tested severely, and if I wasn’t daily taking time in the morning to be in The Word, and go to The Lord through prayer, I can most definitely say I would have ran out of strength days ago and this would have been be an extremely long and unfulfilling camp. So overall the first week was a good one, The Lord gave me many opportunities to take steps towards growth and I can’t wait to see where the rest of camp takes me.
It was nice to have the 4th off, I was able to spend the night of the 3rd at a friend’s house whom I hadn’t seen in awhile and the 4th was spent with my brother and his family. As for the 4th day of camp, overall it was a very testing day, I came in ready to go and extremely excited to be there, but by the end of the day I was completely gone. By the time I got home I really had to check my heart and ask myself why I was there, and that’s because I found myself very distant that day at camp. Filling out yet another accident/incident report form became a numbing experience after doing so many and instead of being something I saw as something we needed to work on in order to prevent in the future, I came to expect them. Also I was not the most gracious with the parents when explaining to them their child’s day.
That being said, it was crazy to see how fast the first week of camp went, especially when each individual day seems so long. And let me tell you, it can be exhausting on so many levels, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Physically, I’m hanging out with kids all day, running around, playing, walking, etc. Emotionally, I’m all over the place and sometimes in a matter of minutes, you can go from feeling extreme joy because of seeing a camper do something that makes you laugh and smile seeing them enjoy camp to immediate frustration because 10 seconds later you get a report of another accident/incident. Spiritually, how much of the fruit of the spirit I have in the tank is being tested severely, and if I wasn’t daily taking time in the morning to be in The Word, and go to The Lord through prayer, I can most definitely say I would have ran out of strength days ago and this would have been be an extremely long and unfulfilling camp. So overall the first week was a good one, The Lord gave me many opportunities to take steps towards growth and I can’t wait to see where the rest of camp takes me.
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