This past week we had the opportunity to leave our mission house for the week and stay at a camp called UCSA. At this camp each person on my team was a group leader for the primary school students of the camp. Going into this camp I was very excited because at my own home I am one of 10, second oldest- oldest girl, so i’m used to having to babysit at least six at a time- PIECE OF CAKE!
However, I can honestly say that it was one of the most challenging five days I have experienced. I used to think having nine siblings who didn’t listen to me was challenging, and then I got seven who didn’t listen to me, and to make things worse they weren’t mine so if they didn’t listen it wasn’t like I could yell at them to or punish them. I have never had my patience tested more than in this past week, but I can proudly say that I learned so much! For starters, I learned that not every situation is ideal or how you expected it was going to be.
I also met so many great kids, and I could feel the impact of the Lord in their lives through me. One experience in particular happened with a little boy named, Fabian. One of the other boys in my group started to taunt him, and Fabian finally got fed up and walked away. I went after him and asked him what was wrong, and he told me, “Ma’am no one listens to me or hears me,“ and when he said that I felt a hint of guilt in my heart, and my reason for this is because we come from a society where we have the opportunity to be heard if we want to be heard Even if no one listens at first, we still have the resources to eventually make ourselves heard, but in the culture and society that these children live in they don’t have a voice in many situations. A couple of days after this a girl in my cabin was bawling her eyes out. I asked her about five times why she was crying, and finally her friend answered me and told me, “Ma’am she lost her power cube, and if she doesn’t find it her Father will beat her when she gets home.“ This situation taught me that I am so incredibly lucky to have been born free.
That is why the title of this blog is ”B L E S S E D“. See so many of us were born so free, and we don’t even stop to think about just how incredibly Blessed we are. The world is so quick to helping us believe that its okay to only think of ourselves and watch our own backs when that is not how the Lord designed the world to work. He designed us to go out and “make disciples of all nations…” that is our job as Christians. To go into the nations and bring light to the people and places filled with darkness. That is why I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to have been at UCSA camp, and I would like to ask for your prayers over the campers at the camp as well.
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UPDATE: I am about $460 away from being fully funded!! Please keep praying, and I would also like to thank the people who have donated You have made it possible for me to have great experiences like the ones I told about above!!!
Also my team and I get to stay in Jeffrey’s Bay for the next 2 months!!! For those of you that don’t know, IT IS AMAZING HERE!!!
Thank you so much for your prayers, and taking time out of your day to read my blogs! Please keep my squad, my team, and myself in your prayers!
-A.Star
