Keep Facing Forward

Hey guys so camp went really well, like really well...The girls were so sweet and lovely and the had a great time.  At lunch on the last day they were banging the table saying “we don’t want to go” and even though I am exhausted it is hard to see them go.  I always tell them at the beginning of camp the we have 0 tolerance for bullying cause this is a safe place for everyone. And we really want to make this a safe place, a place where they feel loved and accepted and it’s hard to see them go cause 98% of them are going back to places that aren’t safe, places where they don’t feel loved and accepted and it’s a step of faith to let them go and trust that God has got them, to trust that what they learned her and what they felt here won’t be in vain and that they will carry it and feel it as they go back to not so idea situations, that somehow in the craziness of their lives they will keep their innocence.  But guys please keep them in your prayers, it seems like things are just getting worse and worse. A pastora that lives and works in one of the neighbourhoods where these girls come from was telling me how things are getting worse. She said that men pursue girls as young as 10, showing them money and trying to get them to come in cars with them, and this happens regularly. Her and her husband have taken pictures and written down license plates and have passed it onto the cops and have talked with the girls in what to do with these situations but a lot of them also have absent parents, parents that aren’t around or that don’t supervise them or know where they are at.  So they really need your prayers, prayers for protection as I mentioned before, that their innocence would be protected.

And as you know it’s been a yard few months, and there was some fear going into this camp and I wasn’t to sure if I was going to or even wanted to keep doing camps, but this camp reminded me that it’s all worth it.  The tears, the unknown, the fears, the unanswered prayer, the exhaustion one feels at the end of camp, it’s all worth it and I know God loves these little (and big) kids that come to camp, He loves them, He knows them, He sees them and He delights in them, and there are times where I can just see and feel Him smiling over His kids.  Smiling as He sees them full of joy and laughing and having fun and feeling loved and accepted. I recently saw this post of Facebook by Ann Voskamp “The greatest act of courage is to simply keep facing one direction when everything in you wants to turn and run.” So in the hard times, in the fearful times, in the unknown, I will keep facing forward and keep fighting for these precious kids.

With that being said here are a few stories for you...

One little girl said to her counsellor “why don’t you guys yell at us here?  I did something bad and Profe Ingrid (the call us teacher, not because we want them to but it’s what they call a lot of adults that aren’t family) should of yelled at me, but she didn’t, she just talked to me normally”.  They are so used to getting yelled at overly punished for things that they do. Another staff told me of a girl in her cabin would apologize for everything, like she was scared that she was going to get punished, she would say “profe, I am so sorry, sorry profe, I’m sorry”.

A funny little story… It was our last breakfast and I was telling the cabins what their chores would be and a feisty little girl piped up and said to me “I want your job because you don’t do anything, you just tell us what to do.”  It was so super funny and cute.

We were coming down from the soccer field after playing games and I was walking with a sweet little ten year old and she said to me “Profe is it true that I can keep coming to camp until I am big” and I said “of course” and then she said “and is it true after that I can come and be staff”, I said “would you like to be staff”, she said “oh yeah profe I really want to come and work at come”.  I may have teared up a bit.

One more little story before I wrap up.  On Wednesday we went shopping to stock up on  all the non-perishable stuff we need for these next three camps so we don’t have to worry about going shopping in between and we went to this store that you can push a button and win half your purchases.  We spent close to $300 and we won… it was so exciting, we made a little scene in the store from out excitement...oh and we bought a freezer, I don’t know why we didn’t invest in one earlier, but so exciting.

Camps coming up

• Boy 11-13 June 17-20
• Girls 14-18 June 25-28
• Boy 8-10 July 1-3

If you want to sponsor a kid for $50  to go to camp (we should have about 60 kids in these next three camps) you can go to www.msccanada.org  There is a 3% charge for online donations but 100% of cash and check donations go straight to camp (so do online donations, you just have to pay a transaction fee).  

A couple things to pray for as we head into the next three camps

Please Pray For

• Lots of rest between the camps
• That the cleaning and sheet washing and bed making won’t be overwhelming
• That the tanks would stay full for all three camps and full enough to get all the washing done between ( they were full for our last camp which was an answer to prayer)
• For finding transport and a nurse for these next camps.

Thanks so much