A Lasting Impact at Redwood Camp
At the end of each week at Redwood Camp, we pass out camper evaluations. Considering the ages that we’re serving, we try to make them pretty simple. There’s a few places to circle your answer and only a few fill-in-the-blanks, where the kids actually have to write out their answer. One thing that gets me every time is that the kids may not expend a huge amount of effort on the rest of the form, but when it comes to this question: “Something I loved about my counselor was…,” the kids go all out in this section— underlining and writing in all-caps about this person they now look up to so much. It’s such a clear visual for me of the long-term work we are doing here.
This summer at Redwood Camp, our theme was Adventures of the Lost Isle! Each day we learned stories from the book of Luke that talk about “lost” things. The Lost Coin, the Lost Son, the Lost Sheep. We weaved those stories around our “Neverland” inspired theme at camp and learned about how Jesus loves to find lost things. I put a lot of prayer and effort into the theme and I dearly hope that these kiddos carried home these pieces of Truth!
However, when I read the camper evaluations and see those enthusiastic responses we get from our campers about their counselors, I am reminded that the personal relationship our counselors build with the campers is probably the thing they will remember most from their week of camp. Maya Angelou’s words ring in my ears, “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
Jesus knew that relationships are the thing that will last, and He modeled that in His ministry here on earth. And this relationship our little campers build with their counselor may be the very first time they can see up close what it looks like for a person to have a relationship with Jesus. They may make a decision to start their relationship with Jesus at camp with us! Many of them have, praise God!
Or, they may carry home the memories of how their counselor made them feel and the things that they said. It may be much later that they put together the pieces of the stories of the “lost” things and realize that they are one of the lost things that Jesus loves to find.
Whatever the perfect timing of that is, I am thankful that God used our team once again this summer to capture the hearts of another group of His
precious children.
