One of the hardest parts about being a camp counselor is the fact that you only have a week to be able to impact your campers. During this week, you are able to have so many good conversations with them, and they have lots of opportunities to read God’s word and learn from it. It is beautiful to see how young girls can grow in their faith in the span of just a few days, when they are disconnected from their normal life and put into an environment where they are constantly being challenged and encouraged. However, once they leave that Friday, we as counselors often never get to see the long-lasting fruit of their week at camp. It is difficult to deal with, because when you aren’t seeing the fruit of your work, it is hard to keep on going. There were some times where I would doubt my own ability because I wasn’t sure if any of the girls were actually being impacted in a way in which it deepened their relationship with Christ. This is especially important for those that made the first-time decision to be saved, because you aren’t sure if they are actually taking their faith seriously, or if they made this decision simply because they felt like they had to. Even though I know that God wanted me to be obedient regardless of the outcome, it was still hard to speak life into girls that you would likely never see again after that week. So, it was a huge blessing whenever I got to hear back from a camper, and be able to see how they have allowed Christ to transform them.
One week, I had an amazing girl come into my cabin, and she brought such an infectious joy to us all. I had amazing conversations with her, and loved her deeply as a little sister in Christ. She was honest and vulnerable with me, and I am so proud of how brave she was all week to do things that pushed her beyond her comfort zone. She is such a wise young woman, despite how young she was. At the end of the week, she told me that she absolutely didn’t want to leave. This is always sweet to hear, because it means that camp has been an impactful experience for a camper, but I explained to her that if we never left camp, we would never be able to tell other people about what we learned, and then we would never be able to tell other people about Jesus! Even though that was a bit encouraging for her, I remember she was still really sad to leave. So, I gave her camp’s address, and told her that she could write to me whenever she wanted to.
About a week after that, I was delighted to receive a letter from her. She told me that her and her sister, who was at camp that week with her, asked their parents if they could go back to church, and they said yes! This was such an encouraging letter to get, for two different reasons. Firstly, it is such a blessing that these two girls are able to get plugged back into a local church! Even though you don’t have to go to a church in order to be saved, being in community with other believers and learning about the Bible with other people is such a great way to grow your faith and find accountability. These girls have such wisdom to be able to recognize the importance of church at that age, and I am so grateful that their parents have begun taking them to church again. In addition, it was amazing that she trusted me enough to tell me these big parts of her life, even though camp was over. We were able to be pen pals back and forth throughout the summer, and it was such a blessing that I had the opportunity to continue to pour into her after her week of camp was already over.
In addition, I have another story of a girl that was able to stay connected with us after camp was over. During high school week, I had the most amazing group of girls! They were all silly, and not afraid to have fun, even if it meant they looked a little strange in the process. They were always singing songs and messing around with each other, but were also really digging into scripture and learning more about what it means to be a Christian in this generation. One girl in our cabin that week did something extremely selfless: she asked all of us counselors for our favorite drink, snack, and Bible verse. A few weeks later, we received a box in the mail for us all from her. In this box, she had put all of our favorite drinks and snacks, cute stickers, intricate handmade friendship bracelets, notecards containing our favorite verses, and a beautiful handwritten note to each of us.
In case you don’t know too much about life as a camp counselor, just know that things like this can absolutely change your week. All summer, we are running off of low sleep, not much energy, little to no time for ourselves, and having to balance the needs and desires of fifteen different campers. If I’m being honest, we were exhausted the majority of the time, and it was a constant battle against the flesh to have to deny our own wants to love on our campers.
With all of that being said, it means the world to have somebody else take care of us when we don’t have the time to take care of ourselves. Being able to hear back from her, and being able to receive the love that she gave us, was such a huge blessing. We all chose to give our summer away to love kids and show them the hope and joy that only Jesus Christ can offer. So, being able to hear back from people and see the fruit of how God is working in and through them after camp is over is such a big blessing. In addition, it makes me so happy to see that these girls trust me enough, and feel impacted by the time we spent together, that they want to intentionally reach out and keep updating me on what is happening in their life.
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I think this is a beautifully applicable story, because we all have people in our life that we can reach out to and show love. Maybe it’s a friend you lost contact with after high school, or a family member that you haven’t seen much recently because of the busyness of life, or maybe it’s even a close friend that you know you can continue to pour into. Constant connection is an important part of our lives, and God designed us to build each other up and edify one another. So, let this be encouragement to continue to reach out to those people. Sometimes, you never hear back from them, so it’s hard to know if they actually care, or if they are blowing it off. And honestly, sometimes you may never know. However, we are not called to love those that love us back, but to love everybody. So before the day is over, take time to text, call, or write to somebody that God is putting on your mind. It means so much to people when you sacrifice your own time and energy to invest in them, and oftentimes it means much more than you know. God puts people on our hearts for a reason, and even if you don’t really understand why He put them specifically on your heart, He has a reason, and that person needs to know that you love them and care for them. Trust me, it means the world.
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