KAA...U KNOW

Well, I am done with kamp and it was an amazing summer! Definately a summer of learning, serving, and loving....hence the name of the blog! I was in Golden, Missouri for 5 weeks and loved every minute of it. It was amazing to see God change some of these kids lives in ways that I never thought was even possible. I had an amazing "co" (counselor) and her name is Amber Gibson. She is from Texas and she was absolutely wonderful. She has been coming to kamp for many years so it was really nice to have a veteran counselor, because she helped me so much! Amber and I had so much fun together. Being co-counselors is kind of like being married in the sense that you have 10 kids together and you are basically being a parent to these girls haha! Amber and I also went by "Ebony" and "Ivory" haha, I really learned a lot about the African American culture and I taught them about the white/caucasian culture. I always said that I was white and one of my kampers corrected me and said that I was caucasian and not white! haha. I got asked if other counselors were my sister all the time...and I always told my kampers that all white people don't look alike!

my favorite story from kamp is we had a girl and she was just angry at the world...rightfully so. Her mother was killed by the mother’s boyfriend 3 years ago; lived with grandparents and they are going through a divorce; victim of hurricane katrina; 5 older sisters that made fun of her her whole life; and other junk in her life. she pushed every button that we had the first day just to see what she could get away with. but we were consistent, strict, and loving (with the help of God) and didn’t allow her disrespectful attitude. i honestly think it was the first time she felt loved unconditionally. After the first day we never say her disrespectful attitude and it was awesome to see God change an attitude like that, and then on the 2nd to last day she came up and told me that she wanted to be saved! She really understood what it meant to be a Christian. She understood that she had to change the way she was living her life. I just pray that the change is permanant!

One of my kampers this past week was from Iraq and so she was the closest to white of all my kampers. I let her borrow my sunscreen hahah! Anyways she was really disrespectful and she had no idea. But she is the 2nd oldest of 8 kids so she raises herself and her siblings. She translates for her parents because they dont speak english, but she just didn’t know how to be a kid. it was really sad. on her thank you she said that her counselors taught her that there is always time to laugh. that really made my heart happy just because how much joy i get from laughing, it was wonderful to see God bring that kind of joy in her life.

Kids Across America is such a wonderful place, I enjoyed being a part of these kids lives. Some of the kids that came to kamp came from rough families/pasts but other kids came from good and loving families. It was awesome to be able to serve all types of kids and just love on them! This summer I really learned what it meant to serve selflessly and to put others before myself. It was great to see how I was exactly where the Lord wanted me this summer, even though I doubted it back when I was making my summer plans. I could not imagine spending my time anywhere else!

Now I am in Atlanta and I am heading to Honduras for a month! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time. I will be using this blog to update y'all while I am in Honduras! Hopefully I'll be able to update a little more about kamp!