Week 1, 2009

Well, Tuesday went better than a first day has gone in a really long time. But, starting Tuesday afternoon, I was already having run-ins with a couple of 1st and 2nd grade kids.

I asked a Jr Counselor to shut down the basketball court so we could finish the day and get the kids ready to go home. When I looked up, two of the campers were running circles around him. He couldn’t get the balls back, and they continued to shoot. Then, when I approached them, they tried to just walk off and ignore me. I think I dealt with the situation, but that wasn’t the end of dealing with these campers.

Later, I had a counselor calling me asking for some “help.” Not that she couldn’t deal with the situation, but this young man needed some “manly” input. We took away some privileges, and continued working with him.

Finally, by Thursday, after he had been involved in making another camper cry, we had to let him know he couldn’t come back on Friday for the closing ceremony.

I tell you this for a couple of reasons. One, we’re not perfect. We can’t make everyone come out of Camp behaving perfectly. Two, to get you thinking: Did we fail? Does this mean that we don’t love this camper? I hope you can see that we only did what we did because we do love him. I really hope to be able to see him in Club, or in Camp next year, and to be able to follow up on what we had to do. But sometimes, somebody has to enforce what they say so that these kids will learn about consequences and boundaries before the law enforcement agencies have to come teach them.

Please pray with me that God will use Camp in his life, and in the lives of the many campers and workers that will be at Camp this summer.

Thanks!