Lessons Learned From Sky Camp

I spent some time volunteering at Sky Camp, my church’s camp for young kids. The following is a reflection upon my weeks. 

My first week, I was an elementary crew leader. I had six campers, three of them were 12 year old girls. The others were boys who ranged in age from 8 to 10. Even before I met my campers, God put this love for them in my heart that I didn’t know existed. My goal going into the week was to love on my campers and to show them a glimmer of the Father’s heart for them. That was my prayer for the week. By the end of the week however, I realized I had been trying to be Jesus to them, and meanwhile, they were Jesus to me. I saw Jesus in one of my girls, as she willingly held the door for the entire camp, multiple times. I saw Jesus as my girls willingly gave up their desired job of being our crew’s “guide” for the day, to let my youngest boy have it (even though he had done it twice already). I saw Jesus in my kids when we once crawled like monkeys to our next activity...only to discover that one of my kids was excellent at crawling on all fours, with movements so fluid, at first glance you’d think he was actually a money. I saw Jesus in this monkey kid, as he taught the other kids his monkey ways, and we eventually all ended up rolling on the floor laughing (literally). I saw Jesus as one of my girls (who refused to pray out loud amongst our crew), volunteered to pray for us at the end of the week. I found myself discovering the love of Jesus and uncovering His heart for me in places I had never seen before. 

This week, I am a preschool crafts leader. Yesterday, I discovered that one of the preschoolers didn’t speak a word of English. She only spoke Spanish. Upon hearing this, during crafts, I attempted talking to her in Spanish (even though I only took a year of it). It was simple conversation. I asked her if she wanted a stamp on her hand, or what color egg she wanted. Not even full sentences. Today however, when she saw me in crafts, she came right up to me. When I led the kids outside to do some painting with their feet, she held my hand tightly and didn’t let it go. Instead of nodding or shaking her head, she told me what she wanted. She told me she wanted to paint with pink sparkly paint before I even asked her. At lunch, she started babbling to me in Spanish and whispering Spanish into my ear. I asked her if she wanted water and she told me that she did. We walked to the water dispenser and she filled up a cup of water to the top. Then she grabbed a second cup and started to fill it with water. The dispenser was basically empty at that point however, so the water in that second cup filled not even a sixth of the way. She gave me the first cup. I hadn’t told her I wanted water, but she insisted that I have the fuller cup. She took the one sip of water she could from her empty cup. 

I’m reminded of how trusting children are. “These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in” (Luke 18:17), takes a whole new meaning. As soon as a little bit of the Father’s heart was shown to them; as soon as they felt the love of Jesus, they were so eager to love and serve others. They didn’t doubt that what they were hearing could be false. They didn’t doubt God’s love for a second. They were so eager to love in return, and in doing so, showed Jesus to me and revealed the Father’s heart to ME. 

"Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these" (Matthew 19:14)