My summers are filled with a lot of vacation and trips, they have been for most of my middle school and high school life. When I would come home from trips I would typically fill my days with reading and sleeping in, watching TV and twiddling my thumbs until the next trip came around. But last summer, something changed.
This place, in all of it's blue skied beauty, came into my life.This place has actually always been a part of my life. Close family friends own the camp (which is only 10 minutes from my house), so I grew up going there for play dates, birthday parties, etc. It was always just our friend's house to me, though. I knew that God's Farm was the summer camp that met there, but it wasn't something that I felt should have been a part of my life. The work of the camp was for people who weren't me.
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Little did I know that last summer I would be proven wrong. In ways I don't even know, the Lord pointed my life toward a summer of volunteering at God's Farm. For a little background, God's Farm is an outreach camp to the inner city of Atlanta, and just finished it's 27th year. Camps of kids come out every week and participate in activities like fishing, canoeing, archery, scavenger hunts, low-ropes, etc. The camp basics.
God's Farm is unique in a lot of ways, but shares similarities with summer camps in so many other places. Whether you grew up going to a summer camp or your life has been changed by working at one, you understand the summer camp bonds that grow and shape your life.
God's Farm is characterized by a lot of things. The first thing that comes to mind is the abundance of the same kinds of food for every single lunch, every day of camp, for the entire summer. My diet at God's Farm consists primarily of hot dogs, chewy bars, buffalo wings with ranch potato chips and Gatorade. We have t-shirts that say "Today's Menu? Hot Dogs!" as a way to simultaneously boast in the disgusting but lovable meals we serve, and to make sure the kids are always prepared for their inevitable, never changing menu.
The feeling of the early mornings before the campers arrive is amazing, when so much beauty and peace floods the place that you can barely remember the chaos you felt the day before, when over 100 campers were with you. And then that afternoon, you can barely remember what it feels like to have quiet on the farm. Camp days are hot, sweaty and a lot of the time just plain hard. Groups don't want to cooperate, kids get hurt and stung by bees, they complain because they don't like our activity for the day. All of the counselors finish their morning activities, rush to the kitchen to serve and eat lunch as quickly as they can before they lead their group out for Bible study.
This is one task that was incredibly humbling to me this summer. Because I wasn't a counselor last year, Bible study responsibilities didn't fall on me. I was able to enjoy a long lunch and never feel the weight of Gospel teaching on my shoulders. This year was a different story because I was one of the head counselors. This burden, though taxing, was incredibly rewarding. Some weeks the kids would barely listen, much less participate in conversation. But other weeks, our conversation would flourish and discussion would just go and go and go. One week I asked my campers what their favorite activity from all of camp was, and they enthusiastically answered "Bible Study!!" Those small moments are so valuable for the giver and the receiver.
Overall, camp is just plain hard. But it is also jam packed with joy, laughter, and feelings that truly can't be expressed until they are felt and lived out. While it is heartbreaking to not be able to spend more than one week with each group, it has sharpened my focus on the world around me, and who my God is, in amazing ways.
