A Day at Camp Hope
“A Day at Camp Hope,” summed up over the past 2 weeks of serving there. Day 1, I was miserable, completely out of my comfort zone. I had no idea what I was even doing the entire day. Dreading the next two weeks but saying goodbye Friday almost brought me to tears. I fell in love with the aroma of love that filled the halls. I fell in love with the constant smell of poop and dried food on sweat faces. I fell in love with the smiles and faces that lit up when we walked in the door. I fell in love with the confusion of never knowing what anyone was saying but trying my best to figure it out. I fell in love with the bright smiles after lunch and freshly brushed teeth. I feel in love with the paintings on the wall. I fell in love with every pure heart that walks or rolls through those halls. The purest love over flows in that place, you can’t help but get hit right in the face. The Lord definitely humbled me a lot in these past 2 weeks. He taught me to boast in my weakness because of His strength in every situation. In the moments where I had no idea what I was doing or where to even start. (99% of the time) He would send someone who spoke English or He just told me what to do. Out of my comfort zone is an understatement going into Camp Hope but when we walk in now it feels like home. I love that place with all my heart and every sweat spirit inside. I have been beyond blessed to serve there and I will never forget the people or the lessons learned at Camp Hope.
Every morning, we walk 30 minutes to get to Camp Hope. We pray and walk in where we’re greeted everyday with a big smile and “Hola, jhdjsh!” We wait in the waiting room to be told what will be doing that day. It’s a surprise everyday, we never know. “It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get” – Forrest Gump
Odd jobs in the morning:
Cutting vines out of trees
Cleaning anything and everything
Sorting out the rotten fruit and vegetable shipments
Recovering chairs
Picking weeds
Mowing the yard
Trimming trees
Planning things in the garden
Building ramps
Cutting logs
Sweeping the campus
Shorting CD’s
Pealing garlic
Opening peas
Cutting vegetables
Canning tomatoes for tomato soup
Told every morning we would be painting… never did.
Then we eat lunch around 12, as a team and sometime with some of our friends who traveled from around the world to serve at Camp Hope for months or even years. After lunch we go get the kids from their class rooms and make sure they have there zapatos on and there make shift bibs and roll them into lunch. We get their food ready, kooled off, and cut up. Most of them eat a bowl of soup and then a huge plate of food after that. Some kids can’t have solid foods. We feed some and assist others. Chasing after thrown spoons or singing anything to get them to open their mouth. Trying our best to get as much as we can in their actual mouth instead of their shirts or all over the floor. Also trying not to get beat up in the process.
When that’s all cleaned up, we wheel them up to the sinks and attempt to brush their teeth and clean them up. Then we roll them back to their class rooms where we change their diapers and pray it’s not too rough today. We have to change their clothes because the ones they had on will definitely need a couple washes after that meal. Then we rub lotion on them, message, and stretch out their tense muscles and pray softly over them. We also rub all different types of textures on there skin to help them feel or something. Sometimes we take them out to the park, paint, or do different types of things with them to help them build muscle or use muscles they normally don’t. Basically, get them out of there wheel chairs and moving with as much TLC as we can, while we can.
They have a snack in the afternoon, we feed them and try not to destroy another outfit. After that, we try and find their shoes to get them ready to go home or to the orphanage. Loving on them as much as we can as we wheel them down to the office to get picked up before we walk back home ourselves.
Dear Camp Hope,
Keep doing what you’re already doing so well. Keep loving those kids hard. Keep smiling. Keep laughing. Keep dancing. Keep rolling. Camp Hope, your one of a kind and you have definitely lived up to your name. You will be so missed but prayed for daily. Thank you for sharing your love and joy with us. We’ll never be the same.
If you were wondering why you haven’t seen a lot of pictures of our ministry this month it is because we can’t post pictures of the kids faces because most of them are orphans. To keep them safe we don’t post. Thank y’all for all the prayers and love your sending from home! We are moving to the Camp Hope farm tomorrow! Prayers for a great and fruitful last week and half in Ecuador!
