Simon's thoughts as we approach the end of two weeks of Camp

 With our second and final week of Beaver Cross camps nearly over I’ve had some time to reflect on my experience so far as well as wonder what will happen in the future.

It wouldn’t exactly be a lie if I said that I was looking forward to going to New York city as much as the camps when I first applied to this trip, but as we had more meetings and found out more about what we were going to do at Beaver Cross I got more and more excited. Now that I’m here and have spent 11 days doing camps I can honestly say that this is one of the best experiences of my life  and it will hold a place in my heart and mind forever.

Don’t get me wrong; there have been a number of challenges both physical (leaches, having to navigate American healthcare for an eye infection, not to mention all the walking), and spiritual in receiving bad news from home. Not to mention the stress working with children who just don’t always want to stick to the programme (which has given me newfound respect for anyone who had to lead me as a child). Not to mention the biggest challenge… living in a building without wi-fi!

But its all worth the challenges and hardships thrown at us to see the smile on the children’s faces when they’re doing the high ropes course and seeing them praise God in song and learn more about him and pray to him. The enthusiasm and energy of both the American children and leaders is so amazing and inspiring to see and it fills me with a feeling I can’t describe.

For a bit of context I was on day camp for the first week which involves children arriving at 8am and going home around 5.30pm. The children who come to day camp are also younger than overnight (the youngest being about 5/6 years old) and they are, more often than not, non-Christian children who are just going to a local summer camp programme.  I thoroughly enjoyed day camp and made bonds with both the leaders and the campers that I now treasure (although I probably liked it most because you had time off after they all left for the rest of the day).

However, with the new week most of us were moved from day camp to overnight camp and vice versa and if I’m being honest it was tough. On the one hand people were excited about having a new experience and meeting new people and forming new relationships; on the other hand, however, people were upset about not seeing the children they formed relationships with that week and having to get used to a new schedule and a new age group. When the changes were announced there was a feeling of anxiety through the team, but we took time and talked and prayed about it.  This is just one example of how we have grown closer as a team and become genuine friends over this trip so far.  I said that I will treasure the relationships and friendships I have made with the Americans, but the friends I have made on this team will also hold a special place in my heart.

Getting to know new children in the second week was a challenge, as many of them have already established relationships with the American Counsellors and each other. Like day camp I have made friendships with the overnight team and campers but at the same time whenever I walk past day camp I do get a little nostalgic for last week, and try to at least say hi to as many of them as I can. Overnight is really fun though, with the children being slightly older you can have more conversations with them and children often come to overnight camp from a Christian background mostly so they come to learn about and praise God.  Since the campers are older and Christian the talks at overnight camp are a little more in depth and spiritual than day camp (not to say that day camp’s talks boring and light). This week we have a rector from a church who you could say kind of fits the stereotype of the Southern American preacher and his talks are really good and meaningful.

As I mentioned at the start we have nearly finished our second and final week of camp; this means that I am beginning to realize that we are all going to have to say goodbye to the friends we’ve made here at Beaver Cross. I have to admit that it is sad to think that we may never see some of the people we’ve met and made friends with here over these 2 weeks. However, the memories and friendships we have made will still live on in our hearts and minds and the amazing experience that has been this trip will live on as well. It’s not all sad though as I’m still excited about what our final days of camp will hold for us and how God will work through us in these last days. I’m also excited at the thought of our two dioceses interacting more with each other in the future and hopefully creating more opportunities like this for people to have amazing experiences like ours.