The first week of camp just finished this morning.
The campers packed up, cleaned up, and drove off and away from the church. A lot of them left different than they came, and all of them were changed in some way. It was definitely hard for me to say goodbye to some of the campers… even though they had only been here one week!
But more than anything than I saw or experienced while program leading my first week of camp, I saw true servanthood in my volunteers.
Here's the scene of how it all started: Sunday 1:00 three volunteers knock on the door. My partner, Olivia, and I are in shambles. We had stayed up late the night before posting signs, making late night (and early morning) walmart trips to get all the supplies we needed to start a week of camp. We were still running around like chickens with our heads cut off when Todd, Jan, and Emma arrived. But how I knew it was going to be a great week with them was their display of graciousness towards us and complete encouragement. We felt pretty behind, but they stepped up alongside us and started that first day our great for our 75+ campers.
Throughout the week these three volunteers made this camp happen. Sure, Olivia and I have been trained on our certain duties and performed them to the best of our abilities, but the camp wouldn't have run without them. I always saw Todd and Jan in the kitchen. It was 6AM and Jan was up making coffee, and then it was midnight and she was cleaning. She didn't stop! Todd was Mr. Fix-Absolutely-Everything. Whether it was a broken toilet or me worrying about how I was going to get the next 3,000 things done that I needed to do, he was always there to fix it. Emma served by loving completely on the kids and being available whenever we needed her.
I saw such servant hearts in these volunteers, and such humble meekness. They challenged me to continue to be a servant even if I had only slept 5 hours the night before. I want to be a better servant because of the servants that our volunteers were this week.
