Elementary my dear Watson

Elementary indeed!

I totally forgot how different elementary camp is compared to jr. high camp. Its like week one all over again in terms of adjusting yourself to the camp setting. This last week the setting included about 50 campers grades 4-6. It also included Randy Burtis, the director. This was officially week one of his directing duties at camp wapiti.

Right from the start of camp there was a spirit of disrespect and opposition to authority in the campers. As directors, Randy and I did not do the best job of setting clear boundaries regarding bed time behavior, and it was a problem right from the start. (Its always going to be to some extent with this age group) Anyway, tuesday was our parent night where they come down to camp and play sing and eat with their kids. Every time we have done it, there has been general mayhem and mad rush antics to keep everything rolling. This week was crazy, I was running around everywhere. We were way behind schedule because of a miscommunication with the cooks, and so programwise things were quite out of whack. I burnt my arm, broke a guitar string and every little annoyance possible seemed to find its way to us. Once the parents left, we had a myriad of behavior issues, both big and small.

I remember wondering why I was not more stressed out about everything. Part of it might have been some adrenaline that came with the high pace of the evening. But I had a wierd peace about everything. Most of the stress I felt was being produced in my head from habit. "There is so much going on that I should be really stressed right now." But the reality was I really wasn't. I remember looking back on the night after it was all done (with a cold rootbeer in hand mind you) and saying "...You know...nothing that happened tonight was really that big of a deal." It was quite wonderful. Satan mounted his attack that night when our scheduling was unstable and when we were all quite tired, yet God shielded us and came through for us. It was so incredible. One day at camp our prayer list we had made one morning had been met with specific and direct answers to each prayer item. Amazing. God is always at work for his people whether we are aware of it or not, and that is so good to know!

Randy did an amazing job! On wednesday I stopped and thought about how 3 days ago he had never directed a day of camp here in his life. That just didn't make much sense to me because he seemed to be fitting in so well. I really had doubts about this week when I showed up but MAN do I need to trust God. It is so obvious that he is in control, his plans are good to the minutest detail. What a good reminder of that.

Darren is gone next week, and with him goes the frame of reference I have of how to handle situations at camp. I am looking forward to grow here though, and figure out what Kaleb would do in these situations instead of what Darren would do. Darren has challenged me much, and I am very grateful for his investment in my life (no small one by any terms) and it has been a gift from God to be sure.

I am still tired and I have some stuff to do, but this has been a very restful weekend so far. I need that to continue till the end!

Oh, and I had a lot of fun with the banquet this week. My outfit was a bit much for some people apparently :) Not sure why but whatever.