It is hard to begin to describe the ways that God has blessed our team and myself this month, by coming to camp Monte Blanco.
God’s love is evident in this place through the servant-hearted workers and volunteers. Our ministry this month is centered on helping in the kitchen. Here at the camp a normal week consists of 2 camps a week of three days each, ranging from 100 – 300 campers at each. The sheer number of campers emanates massive amounts of work to be done and a lot of it revolves around the food, but there are some hard workers in the kitchen.
The woman that work in the kitchen include, but are not limited to: Choka, Maxima, Mariana, Glenda, and Augustina. It is so refreshing to see their hearts, drive to serve, and the joy in doing it all. This realization has helped to remind me how important it is serve and do it joyfully. It would be very easy for my team and I to get tired of drying dishes, shelling peas, or serving food. The ladies in the kitchen have fun and have a strong sense of community with one another.
The last few days we have been doing some preparation prior to the campers arriving that range from cleaning the cabins, to knocking down walls, prepping food, or digging a ditch for a sprinkler system. These are a few pictures that show the work and ministry that we are doing here at camp, but I highly doubt that they will portray the fun that we are having.
The ministry here in Monte Blanco comes off as drastically different from some of our past months, but comes so easily to a lot of us on the team. It is a prominent reminder that even in seemly simple or mundane tasks that we do everyday we can glorify and worship Jesus in them.
This month my desire to glorify God through my actions and life overall has been an imamate theme. An area that many of us find difficult in our lives is the element of balance. Balance between work life, community, studying, marriage, relaxing, God, etc. All of these are and will continue to be vital parts of my life, but I am realizing that the importance of prioritization. The area that I struggle in and that God has been working on me in is balancing these areas, along with other tasks and expectations without becoming burdened by it. It is in this burden that I know that I can come complacent, stagnant, depressed, and miss out on what God has for me.
It is in those moments of balance where God has provided opportunities to capitalize on and build great relationships here with the ladies in the kitchen. Some of it revolves around serving, some around joking, but it is the smiles given by the ladies in the kitchen that impacts my heart.
