Love Them

I leave for camp tomorrow with my 3rd and 4th graders. With 40 signed up...I can not wait to get them all out there! Before pick-up the in-town staff meets with the camp counselors to help prepare them for the kids and “turn the kids over”. The counselors are responsible for discipline, leadership, etc. during camp week. As hard as it might be...I take the backseat.

How do you prepare camp counselors for these kids?

“When I started CF...when you started this internship...you heard a few stories of what our kid’s home lives were like. Perhaps that was a mother passed out...or high...constantly screaming...perhaps it was random meals...if any meals at all...or perhaps it was abusive and violent. I’m coming off a week of camp sign-ups...where I visited the inside of many of their homes...met their parents and guardians...and experienced their life on the inside of their walls. And I want to make sure this point isn’t missed...those stories...became realities. I don’t know what our kids will go through this morning before they get on that bus...but when they do...we have a chance to make their day different. We have a chance to give them a week like no other they’ve known. Perhaps we have a chance to change their life.

Christina and I held a park program last week with a few of the kids that will be going out to camp with us. And much of what we had planned out so perfectly in our notebook...looked much different in the park. At first it was difficult not to get frustrated...but as God usually does in His way...let me know...“It is only important that those kids see you love them. They might miss the message...they might not play the game...but none of that will matter...if they see Christ’s love...in you.”

Make no mistake that many of these kids might be difficult to love much of the time. They will be ungrateful...they will be disrespectful...they will cuss you...they may hit you...they will hit each other. And if you react in the same way...it would be deserved...and probably would not surprise them...but love them...keep loving them...and that...will amaze them.”