An Eventful Summer

Ah summertime… The time that families go on vacation, Kids run around all day, high schoolers sit around the house doing nothing, Moms get frustrated with their kids and send them outside, college students attempt to find jobs so that they can make money to stay in school, ah… summertime.

In the past I have always gone up to Alaska and worked as a fisherman up there in the summer time, ever since coming to the states that is. But this year I did something different. This year I worked at the Anchorage Christian Camp in North Carolina. It was a good experience. The Lord used it to teach me some things and to really help me grow.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First off, yes, I was working at the Anchorage, I was working as one of their counselors. Now at first I thought that working as a counselor was going to be all fun and games. I mean, when I was a camper I saw the counselors and they looked like that were just playing the games with us all the times and having fun. It wasn't until I actually became one that I realized just how much work and stress a counselor actually has and goes through.

First off, the work and stress of teaching two Bible lessons each day. The God and I time lesson in the morning and night devotions in the evening. The God and I time was the easier of the two because they already had a lesson mapped out for you, so you didn't have to work on preparing anything, but it still requires work to teach it and to make sure you are going through the lesson at the right pace so that you will finish on time and making sure that all of the campers are paying attention and participating and not zoning out. Many things go into both of those lessons and make them quite a handful.

Second, there is a lot of stress just making your campers be quiet when they are supposed to be quiet, and active when they are supposed to be active. Neither teen campers nor junior campers particularly cared for settling down in the evening. They wanted to continue with their joke telling and giggling (Yes, the guy campers giggled.) and laughing uncontrollably. The last thing that they wanted to do was settle down and go to sleep, you must be crazy. "We could stay up all night, we aren't tired." Is a comment one of the campers made. They were very short sighted though because the next morning when you went to get them up they were convinced that they still needed at least 10 more hours of sleep. I would even explain to them when it was time to go to bed that if they didn't settle down and go to sleep, they would be too tired to get up in the morning. Then I would tell them that if they DID just settled down and go to sleep then they wouldn't have so much trouble getting up in the morning. That didn't seem to make sense to them. Oh well, maybe they'll understand when they hit college. =P

Third, there was a lot of stress with always having to be with your campers. Now, I generally liked my campers, but I'm the kind of guy who also likes his own personal time. I like to be able to lock myself up in a room and read, or just have my own peace and quiet for a little bit. And at camp, that didn't happen during the day. If I wanted quiet time I would have to get it before everyone else got out of bed, because once they did, there was no quiet time at all.

Fourth, goes along pretty closely with the third, but there was a lot of stress with not being able to do the things that I wanted to do, and having obligations and things that I needed to be doing  16½ hours a day 6 days a week. There are a couple things that I really like to do during a day, and try to do as often as possible. Things like reading Christian books, (Like, "The Pursuit of Holiness," "The Measure of a Man," or "Know Why You Believe.) and exercising, and reading my Bible, and praying. But at camp there really wasn't time for "luxuries" like that once the day got started, so if I wanted time to indulge in those things then I would have to do them before it was time for my campers to rise. If I wanted to read my Bible and pray then I would have to get up at 6:20, if I wanted to go running prior to my Bible reading and prayer time, I would get up at 5:50 and cut my devotion time down by about 10 minutes or so. But reading other books, like Pursuit of Holiness, and Know Why You Believe, had to wait for the weekends though, because there simply wasn't time during the week.

But those were about all of the major stressors. There were many thing that were huge blessings and very enjoyable. For example, one thing that I was expecting to be a stressor which actually wasn't, lack of sleep. I was expecting lack of sleep and tiredness to be a major problem at camp, but after college, the amount of sleep I was getting there at camp seemed perfectly adequate. Another thing that I really enjoyed was just the fellowship with the other staff members on the weekends and such. We were able to bond together both through spiritual conversations and just plain "hanging out" and having fun. Many things just jumped out and took ordinary objects and everyday activities and used them to point out and exalt the one and only Lord and Savior. It was amazing how God used so many things just to draw our attentions back to Himself and bless us through the process.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed running around and playing games and interacting with the kids. I'm not trying to say that I didn't. I'm just saying that counseling is not "all" fun and games like it may appear to be from the camper's perspective.

Though I may have had some stressful times, I had many, many other times that were great blessings. Every single time I was able to go back with one of my campers after a service and talk to him about salvation or just living rightly before God, I consider a wonderful blessing that can't really be fully described with words. Those times would bring an overwhelming sense of joy and fear and excitement all at the same time. I would feel inadequate and unqualified to be trying to "counsel" this kid, even though that was by job description. But at the same time I would feel overwhelmed with excitement, that God would allow me, ME, to be able to talk to this kid and help him make a decision for God that hopefully he will keep and it will guide him in the right way, so that he would not stray and fall away. The fact that God was allowing me to aid these campers in their spiritual walks, was just an overwhelming truth that I had to step back and thank Him for.

So, being able to counsel kids and share God's Word with them was definitely one of my favorite things of the summer, but one of the other things that I truly enjoyed was the free times on the weekends. Remember how I mentioned earlier that during the week we had no free time at all? Well it was pretty much the opposite of that on the weekends, after we had everything cleaned up and taken care of we really didn't have anything to do. Now some people went to the water and did stuff, or went to town and did stuff, but I typically didn't go along, and that was my own choice. We didn't have our computers to do stuff with or anything like that even. But I was very glad that there was nothing to do, because then I was finally able to do some of the things that I had been wanting to do, like read. I was able to read books like "The Pursuit of Holiness," and "The Five Love Languages," and "Be Determined." Good books. I set up my "study" in the snack shop and just read. I would read, and read, and read for hours on end. It was amazing, no distractions, no other obligations, nothing. I was able to learn so much this summer just from the books that I was able to read.

I was a great blessing to be able to hide myself away and spend so much time reading spiritually uplifting and encouraging books, but that certainly wasn't the only time that God was teaching me things, as I mentioned earlier God was teaching me many things during the weeks as well, through the kids and other staff members. All in all, it was an excellent summer. Nothing is perfect or ideal, since we live in a fallen world, but this summer was pretty close. =) I just can't thank God enough for what He did in the lives of the campers, or in my own life for that matter. 

My summer was full, and busy, but it was a blessing, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I thank the Lord that He knows exactly what I need, when I need it, and gives it to me.

Psalm 145:1-3,8-9

    I will extol Thee, my God, O King,

         And I will bless Thy name forever and ever.

    Every day I will bless Thee,

         And I will praise Thy name forever and ever.

    Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,

         And His greatness is unsearchable.

    The LORD is gracious and merciful;

         Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

    The LORD is good to all,

         And His mercies are over all His works.

This is Tim, until next time.