This week was my first week as a counselor at PRBC. I stayed in a cabin with another counselor and 12 middle school girls. It was a very high energy group that brought a lot of fun, but also a lot of challenges. Here are some lessons I learned this week.
Lesson 1: God answers prayer.
By Thursday, Katelyn (my co-counselor) and I were getting a little discouraged that we hadn’t seen any significant changes in our campers. We knew that it was possible God was just using this time to plant a seed, but it was still a little frustrating. We both prayed about what we had been feeling, and 10 minutes later two campers came into our room. They said that they wanted to reconnect with Christ and asked if we would pray with them. Right then and there, they dedicated their lives to Him. PTL!
Lesson 2: Devotional time is important.
When I’m in a bad mood, the answer isn’t always to have more me time, but to have more God time. I am the definition of an introvert. It’s hard to be around people for significant amounts of time and I feel better when I can just be alone for awhile. You don’t get that opportunity as a counselor. Every minute of my day was spent with my campers or in meetings with fellow staff members. When my energy got drained very early in the week and I found myself desperately desiring alone time, I chose to do devotions instead. I discovered that I became much more energized from 10 minutes of reading the Bible than I would from a 30 minute nap.
Lesson 3: Kids require a lot of attention, motivation, and encouragement.
Sometimes they want to talk to you, sometimes they just want to be around you, but every camper wants to feel like they are important to you. One camper in particular needed that a little more than the others. Throughout the week, Katelyn and I noticed that she hadn’t been connecting with any of the other kids and got frustrated quickly when things didn’t go according to plan. We had also heard her make a few harsh comments about herself. Toward the end of the week, there were a couple emotional breakdowns which resulted in tears, locking herself in a bathroom, several private talks with the counselors, and a long talk with the session director. This camper was clearly having a hard time handling stress and change, and it took a lot of patience, encouragement, and one-on-one time to get her to start enjoying her time at camp.
How you can be praying this week:
Please pray for continued growth for all of my YoungTeen campers. Praise God for the life commitments that were made. Ask God to give my challenging camper extra encouragement now that she’s back at home. Finally, pray for the 3-5 grade girls I will be counseling this coming week.
“To know Christ and to make Him known.”
No comments:
Post a Comment