Buchanan, Michigan
Day 1- gonna be honest, it's not what I expected. We were told we were going to a camp. I admit I'm not a camping person. We were also told we were going to be in a cabin with enough beds for everyone. We got here and took a tour with the director. Not going to sugar coat anything here, you can tell this place has been unkept for a while. This is not what I was expecting. It's dirty. Lots of bugs. Inside, I'm freaking out but I have to be strong for the youth because I am a leader! It makes you appreciate what you have at home.
We had our bed situation figured out. The youth (girls) were willing to let us 2 female leaders have the comfy spots ( yes, I said spot.) we decided that I would have a raised cushioned seating area. The other leader was going to have a couch. The youth girls were going to have mattresses on the floor. Even with my sleeping spot high above the ground, I still didn't feel comfortable. Spiders were all over the walls and flying insects were all over the ceiling (because the lights were on.)
We had worship that night with everybody in our room. I couldn't keep it in any longer. I started crying while worship was going on. One of the guy leaders knew I was upset. On our nightly Walmart runs (hence the WAM name Walmart at midnight) he decided to buy a couple of tents to put up in our room. We got back to the camp and set up the tents and put our sleeping bags inside them. I felt so much better. ;)
Day 2
Today has been better. We went to Walmart last night about midnight and got a couple of tents. We put them up in the cabin. Yes, in the cabin. Then we put our sleeping bags and blankets into them. I slept pretty good in the tent. Woke up at 10 am. Being on the job site meant that we didn't have to get up and drive a half an hour like we had to do last year. Got a lot of stuff done today. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings.
My intention when writing this post was supposed to be a day by day diary. Meaning that I was going to write about what happened every day. But my nights got busy and I didn't have time during the day because we were working. So, I'm just going to write general things down.
While the director of the camp site gave us the tour, he was telling stuff that they needed done. The things that needed done were... Scraping and painting tables and benches (took us 3 days to do that.) Build a dock (2 days to do that). Put up a pool and fill it with water. Clean up leaves and branches that were on the walking paths. Clean up an area that was called the amphitheater, which was their worship area. Fix the labyrinth, meant weeding all the weeds.
Even with all that work, the youth still kept a positive attitude even though the week didn't start off so good. The youth were scared and disappointed on Sunday when we got there. I felt so bad for them, none of them knew what to expect. When we were getting the tour, the guy gave us a brief description of what the camp was for and why we needed to be there. He said that they used to keep the place up and have youth there almost every weekend, but their pastor left and took all the youth with them. There have been multiple groups that were supposed to come help clean up through out the 5 years that they have been doing this, but they all canceled at the last minute. We were the only group that came out to help them in the last 5 years.
After we had everything cleaned up and done, it looked so nice and some of the youth even said they would go to church camp there. I felt so much better knowing that we made a difference in other people's life. Everything seemed so gloom that Sunday when we arrived and when everyone wanted to give up and leave, God was telling us to stay and help these children.
It was fun and hopefully I'm able to come with this same group next year. We all have a special bond and work really hard a d good together.
