When I was in high school, I was a councilor for a summer camp. When you got home from camp, sometimes you would adopt the mannerisms / vocabulary / songs of your camper. Some of my friends and I like to call this camper syndrome.
This month my team and I are councilors (and gardeners and a few other things) at a camp in South Africa! We’ve staffed two camps so far, and man is it so fun/tiring/beautiful. One group of sixth graders left just a few hours ago that taught me SO much.
It was a really interesting dynamic of kids. They go to an English private school, which means it’s a pretty diverse school. They had experienced a lot of really crazy unfortunate things recently, so it was a pretty heavy camp. We didn’t have a very structured schedule, we just did what we felt the Lord leading us as a team to do. A teammate, Jenn, and I got the privilege to share the truth in our testimonies. Afterward the kids wrote down the burdens they were carrying and left them (literally) at the foot of the cross. It was SO beautiful.
This morning we woke up at five in the morning (waking up seven sixth graders at five am – a story for another day) to hike up the mountain. We got to the top, had a group reflection time, and begun the decent to our cabins.
All I could hear was
“Ma’am when are we eating”
“Ma’am what if I fall down”
“Ma’am I’m tired”
“Ma’am I am so thirsty”
“Ma’am why can’t there be a cable car to take us back to our cabin”
“Ma’am I’m never doing this again”
“Ma’am why are you making me do this”
And it hit me –
I have camper syndrome in my prayers a lot.
“God can you make this happen for me”
“God can you make my food come out faster I’m hungry”
“God I don’t want to do that”
“God what if I mess up”
“God I don’t know if I can”
“God can you make this easier for me”
“God why are you making me do this”
BAM
Alexis helloooooo??? pray with more thanksgiving and joy???
But also I am SO thankful Jesus is more patient than me, and gently reminds me how to be more like him. I’m also so thankful that He wants our burdens even if sometimes we complain because we feel entitled to the easy way out.
Thanks @ 147 sixth graders that reminded me of the power of joy and thank yous and glad obedience!!
Alexis 🙂
