This will be my third summer of working at Camp Ojibway, and it seems to me that every week brings with it different challenges and surprises. This week was definitely a learning experience, and after some time of reflection, I learned a few important things.
On the second night of camp, there was a power outage that had some of the campers scared and left most of the staffers rather frazzled as we worked to adapt our schedule to accommodate for the lack of electricity. As I put my campers to bed, I was preoccupied with thoughts of what would happen if the power could not be restored by the next morning. However, after my campers went to bed and I went to a meeting with the rest of the staff, the camp lit up around 11:00pm. We were all so relieved and excited! Later that night, I was reflecting on the 5 hours we spent in the dark, and how much I was worried about tomorrow and failed to trust in God to provide for every need we had that night. It's not like God had forgotten us. As Jesus said in Matthew, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father" (10:29). How much more will he attend to our needs, despite our doubts and concerns! He definitely taught me a lesson in trust that night.
After the week was over, I was thinking about all the difficulties that came with having a large cabin of young campers. It was difficult for me to feel like I could counsel that many girls very well. This may have been due to several reasons: I had a hard time giving each of my campers the one-on-one attention that they should get from their counselor. My drive to be consistent in the way I treated each of my campers may have kept the few that really needed special attention from getting it. But while it is easy to only focus on the difficulties that any camp counselor faces, it also highlights my need to point campers to God, because I cannot be all things for them, and I certainly cannot be everywhere at once, but God can. My prayer after reflecting on this week would be that God would be teaching me to be less self-reliant and to lean on him to be my strength and the true refuge to whom I should be pointing the campers. What a valuable lesson.
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
That he understands and knows me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice, and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the Lord.
--Jeremiah 9:23-24
I would definitely value your prayers as the summer continues. Pray that the staff would continue to bond and take advantage of good communication to make things flow easily. Pray for energy for work crew and counselors alike, and for wisdom for our counselors as they will be meeting their campers for the week and want to help them to have a fun and meaningful camp experience! I would also appreciate prayers as I continue to balance working at camp with my fundraising efforts.
I have already been so blessed by the outpouring of prayerful and financial support that I have received in the past month. Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to send encouraging emails, snail, mail, and texts! Your words are extremely encouraging.
(You can take a peek at my fundraising page for updates on that front!)
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Speaking of FUNDRAISING, I have a new way for all of you, my dear readers, to celebrate Snowball Saturday: You can invite your friends and family to Pizza Fundraiser that I will be hosting at Davanni's in Richfield!
Check out the event on Facebook and RSVP
But if you are opposed to Facebook, you can also RSVP by email at kapitchford@gmail.com :)
And here are the deets:
Where: Davanni's Pizza in Richfield (6345 Penn Ave S, Richfield 55423)
When: Wednesday, July 16 from 5:00pm - 9:00pm
What you need: Everyone planning to attend needs a special coupon, which they will give to the cashier when they pay for their order. Davanni's will donate 20% of their "coupon sales" towards my fundraising total! I hope to hand out coupons at Hope Church and email out printable coupons a few days before the event.
If you would like to receive the coupon by email, let me know by sending me a quick email. That would be super helpful!
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Last but not least, I hope to update the "Got Miles?" page before I go to sleep tonight. I apologize for the delay in giving those details if you have been wondering how to donate miles. Life has been a little crazy, and I didn't have a lot of time to touch my blog while I was at camp (go figure...)
