BAAYF 2009

8/2/09 to 8/7/09

First year at this camp. Theme of this year was redemption.

Before camp I had no idea of what to expect. Never been to this camp and also I have never been a counselor either. What does it mean to be a counselor? What are the responsibilities? What makes me qualified? I had no idea how my campers would react to me. Would my campers like me? Would they listen to me? Would problems from my personal life affect me?

The car ride there seemed like it was forever. The questions I listed above circled in my mind.
When I arrived it was a totally new scene. A new campground. New people.
I put on my backpack and carried my luggage. Walking slow and surveying the area I have to admit that I was pretty intimidated. I laid down all my stuff in the luggage area and went to go check in. I received my name tag booklet and my camper list. I looked on the list and spotted a familiar name. Marc Chew. He was my co-counselor and with that I felt a little bit relieved. At least I would be counseling with someone that I knew. And I looked at the name of my campers and saw two familiar names but the other four were completely new kids. I guess our church van came early even though it was 4 o clock and it was recommended that we arrive at 3. I went up to my cabin which was pretty confusing to find at first. I had no idea where anything was. I just walked up a trail and asked one of the staff to direct me towards the area. My cabin was Birdland 18. I heard it was the worst area to live in since other cabins at the campsite were hecka nice. Birdland was reserved for junior high boys and the counselors. I walked up the hill and found my cabin. Hummingbird 18. It was a lot smaller than I expected. I opened the door and the cabin had two doors splitting the cabin into halves. I was wondering if I should choose side A or B. I thought I would be in A since I am an A student (just kidding). I found my lower bunk. The room was a little small and smelled funky but livable conditions. I went down to the registration area and saw my church kids. They kept on telling me to go find my campers. I went back and forth probably twice to see if any of the other campers arrived but they did not. I wore my red name tag which noted that I was a counselor. It was a pretty awesome feeling. It wasn't the feeling of superiority or being in control, it was more of that campers would ask questions where things were and what time were events where I would help them out only if I knew. Haha. I went around exploring the camp. The lounge was the area where there were plenty of comfy couches and mainly people just hanging out and playing card games. I saw familiar faces that went to Monta Vista and plenty of new faces. This was basically my first day. I had no idea what to do. Where to go. When it was dinner time I found out that the lines are super long because of 300 something campers.

This is my second huge camp that I have went to which includes a bunch of other churches around the area. Everyone is in their own little cliques at first when they first arrive at camp. For me at least I found it a little intimidating meeting new people right at the beginning because I was afraid that they would just think I was weird for coming right up to them and saying whatsup. But thank God that my campers who were in my cabin were not scared of me. I had one camper on my side of the cabin who was going to be an 8th grader while the other two were going to be freshmen in high school. One kid really loves TACO BELL and would non stop talk about tacos and relate things somehow to tacos. The other was really quiet and would be the first person to always sleep. The last one was 5' 11 and this is the kid going to only 8th grade! 2 inches shorter than me! Wow. So during lights out I would always be the last person to be in the cabin because I would take a shower for a super long time. I had this one shower all the way on the left which I would always use. I had this routine going on every single night. Shower, brush my teeth, take off my contacts all in that one stall. I could tell that the week was flying by by how fast it felt when I returned to the shower. Do you get what that means? I hope I worded it in a way that it makes sense.

Well the schedule for me basically broke down to this at camp.

Wake up at 7:30
Wash up
Breakfast at 8:00
Morning Worship at 8:45
Devotions at 9:30 (usually I would just lay on my bed and ACCIDENTALLY fall asleep)
Have Marc wake me up IF I fell asleep for Bible Study in the lounge at 10:00
Mandatory Rec at 11:00
Lunch at 12:30
Go to cabin and sleep during seminar! :) Till 1:30
Marc comes to cabin to wake me up for counselor meeting at 2:45
Free time till 6:00
Dinner
Evening Session at 7:00
Small Groups at 9:15ish in the lounge
Shower at 10:30
Lights out at 11:00

Yup here is my schedule with some exceptions here and there.

One awesome thing that I gained from camp is my new love for the youth. Some people know this. I used to work at Kumon. Those little kids that I worked with annoyed the heck out of me and made the job really miserable and I never wanted to work with kids again. I somehow got myself into working with the youth here at this camp. I saw them completely differently than I did at Kumon. I guess it was due to the fact that some of the kids were able to open up and be vulnerable with whatever problems that they were having or just sharing praises. Singing with 300+ people in the room is awesome. The passion that I see in junior high kids and high schoolers. Crazy stuff happens when God moves. It was amazing to see God moving in the youth. I know that when I was young I would always be afraid of moving past my comfort zone because I thought I was young and therefore not opening up. How I would answer questions that Counselors would ask me would be: yes, no, i dont know, good.

The bottom line is. When you pray. Great things happen. Counselors would be always praying in the back during evening session in shifts. Prayer is real and it works. Try it. Nothing fancy. No structure you have to follow. No specific words you have to say. No right or wrong. Just a chat with the Father about whatever is going on in your mind.

I am tired. I am going to take a rest from writing this at the moment. I shall update it and add more later. :)