Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Service + PreTeen Camp

My Why is service.  I love to serve people.  I love it so much I had it tattooed on my wrist.  Actually, I had it tattooed to remind me of how much I love to serve when others are being grumpy or hard to serve.

Last week my servant muscles got a good stretch.  I attended preteen camp with our church.  My original intention in going was to serve our special needs kids and help make camp enjoyable for them.  We've never done that before so we weren't sure how that would look or what kind of support the kids going would need.  So, I was also slated to be a 3rd grade girl counselor.

I am not going to lie.  I was super nervous about the 3rd grade girl part.  I am a boy mom.  The last time I was with 26 girls overnight, I was one.

Our group of 26 were actually split into 2 community groups.  I had a junior leader to help me.  Who am I kidding?  She ran the thing.  She's the most with it high school senior I've met.  I would not have made it without her! The other group's 2 leaders were newbies like me.  We were learning as we went!

I struggled to balance giving the girls freedom and being their momma.  Many of them were away from home for the first time so they needed someone to say "do this now".  On the other hand, this is camp.  Their chance to explore and have fun.  Our main challenge was being slow and late to everything!  But camp wasn't too regimented so it wasn't the end of the world to be a little late.  It actually worked out at dinner because they gave our free ice cream towards the end of dinner time.  Lots of "on time" groups had already left the dining hall before the free ice cream.  A couple of nights we ate ice cream before dinner!

As He always does, God provided for me and protected me.  We had no girl/friendship/she's leaving me out drama.  All the girls wanted their hair braided.  The other 3 counselors can braid hair like nobody's business.  I can not.  This gave me a chance to lay on my bed and rest.

Rest was my main trouble.  I had late nights with one of my special needs kiddos and early mornings with my girls.  I yearned for a nap the entire week.  In fact, I'm still sleepy.

But Thursday night made everything worth it!!  2 girls in our community group accept Jesus as their LORD and Savior.  I was so privileged and humbled to be able to answer their questions and pray with them.

I am so glad that God let me serve Him, 26 3rd grade girls and 4 special needs kids last week. I'm almost ready to do it again.  Let me take a few more naps and I'll be good to go.


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