Campamento 2011

~Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Prior to campamento with the kids from La Carpio I was extremely nervous. I didn’t know who my campers were or even how many I would have. I hadn’t seen the program and didn’t know what to bring for what activities. I hadn’t seen the Bible studies and didn’t know how to prepare for camp. This may be totally normal for the Costa Ricans but for a gringa about to be in charge of kids who speak another language I was slightly freaking out. For a while we weren’t sure where the money was going to come from to pay for camp and a small part of me thought well that would solve my worries wouldn’t it…if we just canceled camp.

But praise to God that we didn’t. Camp was absolutely amazing. I had 6 campers between the age of 11 and 13. The girls were amazing and were excited to be at camp. There were problems of course but in general I couldn’t have asked for a better week. So here are a few highlights just to give you a glimpse of what we did…

1. averaged 4.75 hours of sleep a night

2. swam in a pool twice that was maybe 70 degrees

3. spent the evenings running through camp and walking in forests blindfolded or without light, and no one got hurt!

4. drank hot chocolate every evening and every morning…made me really happy.

5. bathed twice in 5 days…you would too if the water was 60 degrees and it was only 50 degrees outside in the morning. J

6. got to help translate for gringos that were at camp as well.

7. my campers joined with a group of boy campers to make a tribu (tribe) and our battle cry was Tome ChiChi!

8. I had three square meals a day of rice beans and meat of some sort and had dessert of pineapple after every breakfast and lunch.

9. Every morning the leaders had a meeting that lasted at least 2 hours and started at 5 am…good times

10. On the last day of camp my campers won a prize for always being on time to events…jaja perks of having a gringa for a counselor.

One of the best things that happened at camp was something that was a complete change of events from what had been scheduled. Originally we were going to sleep outside on the last night. Keep in mind we were in the mountains and it probably dropped to about 45 degrees in the night and most of the kids had one thin blanket. For a number of reasons…not just the cold…I was uncomfortable with the activity and had been worrying about it since I learned about it at the meeting in December. All of camp I was working with my campers and gaining their trust, telling them about Jesus, and things were going well. But in the back of my mind was this closing event that I was worrying about and stressing about a little. Then along came Thursday night the night we were to do the event I was preparing to go to a meeting and it began to rain. Not too hard but enough that you didn’t want to be outside. I began to think oh no there is no possible way they can make these kids sleep outside in the rain and cold. Then I began to pray that the rain would make the directors rethink the activity. I went to the meeting and we chatted as normal and then as the kids began to arrive at dinner they finally told us that they had canceled the event. For the rain, the lack of blankets, and because they felt like the event may have the reverse effect of what we were hoping for. I practically did a happy dance right there in the meeting. I was completely at peace from that point on. And the rain cleared up another event was planned and my campers told me the next day that that night was the most fun of camp. For me it was one of the most obvious times of the week that God had his hand in the camp. And it made me realize how pointless my worrying had been. If I had prayed about the event from the beginning and put it all in God’s hands the weeks leading up to camp would have been far more peaceful. It was one of those really cool reminders that when we really are trying to do God’s will He will take care of the details.

So over all camp was a huge success. I was able to ditch my introvert tendencies…because I was literally never alone. I was able to have energy even on few hours of sleep. Although I did sleep 12 hours last night and still feel as though I will probably need a nap in the afternoon today. Communication was almost never a problem and my campers taught me words in the Bible studies that I didn’t know. And the camp was absolutely beautiful. The week was a constant reminder of one of my favorite verses…My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness. When I could hardly hold my eyes open; when I answered questions in English without realizing it until the girls blank stares told me they didn’t understand; when I was told to make a cheer with my campers (rhymes in Spanish are not a strong point of mine…in fact I’m completely inept at them)…I would take a deep breath and remember that it was in God’s hands, that camp was not about me being the best counselor in the world it was about showing the kids the love of Jesus Christ. And as inadequate as I am to spread the love of Christ I knew it was out of my hands and that God’s power is perfect in my weakness.

I have 4.5 months left here in CR and I’m praying they go by slowly, that I able to absorb all that God has to teach me here, and that my weaknesses will be used to glorify God.

Campamento 2011: 4 days, 100 campers, cold showers, little sleep, and the abounding Love of God