It has been a week and a half since my team left Jeffery’s Bay to work at a youth camp in the mountains of South Africa. The camp was for students at Jeffrey’s Bay High School who were troubled youth. These were the kids hand selected by the principle and teachers as troublemakers. At the camp, I spent a majority of my time working in the kitchen. The camp was for youth and each of the members of my team had a group of campers to focus on. In a sense I had two and in another sense I had none.
I was paired with one group of kids who wouldn’t listen to me, so a man was put with them to help. But I was still a part of the team. And then, one of our team members got sick, so I took over his group for part of the week. I sort of floated around with 13 kids instead of just 6. I didn’t get to know any of the campers on a deep level. On top of having 13 kids, I was also on kitchen duty which is why I was in the kitchen so much.
In the kitchen I did dishes, I swept, I prepared sandwiches, and I handed out food. I got to spend a good bit of time with the two other team members who were on kitchen duty and we got to know each other better. There were two women who cooked all the meals for the camp. One of them didn’t speak the good English and the other one was called Skopie. I spent a lot of time talking to these women and playing with their toddlers as I helped in the kitchen. They were wonderful women.
At the end of the week we took the campers out to a banquet because many of them have never been and will never go to a restaurant in their life. That day a few people were needed to help set up the banquet and I volunteered. Our squad leader, Alysa, told me not to come because I had been at the camp and had invested the kids. She was telling me I needed to be there for the kids. I didn’t like being told this because I didn’t feel like I got to know any of the kids very well.
That afternoon I was really sad we were leaving because I didn’t feel like I had done enough at camp. I didn’t want to send the kids back home because I hadn’t invested in them enough – if at all. I decided I was going to go spend some time alone and sat by a waterfall off the campsite. I remember sitting there crying out to God about how I didn’t want to leave and apologizing to him for not doing enough for the kids at the camp. When I was done, I just sat there. I felt God telling me to open up my Bible to 1 Corinthians 3:10
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.”
I was sitting there thinking, seriously God, I don’t feel like I did anything to help these kids what are you trying to tell me. I read it over and over again and I read it in context. Then finally said, “God! I don’t know what you want me to take from this, who can tell me.” Instantaneously, Jace (one of the members of U Squad) popped into my head. But I didn’t move. Then God started yelling at me to go talk to Jace NOW! So I did.
Jace told me we had laid foundations this week and that I was meant to spend my time in the kitchen. He said I thrived there and I poured into and encouraged the two women working there. He said that was just as important as investing in the kids. It’s not that I didn’t believe him but I wasn’t so sure. I knew our team as a whole had laid foundations in those kid’s hearts and now it was time for us to leave and let other people continue building on them. I left camp at peace about what our team did but not at peace about what I had done. I didn’t gain that peace for another 2 weeks.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
