A Magnificent Weekend!
Submitted by Huck Finn on January 08 2001 10:14:30
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My dear friends, For those of you who don't know, I went to camp this past weekend for one of their winter retreats. For the past three winters, I've been the counselor for the kids who sign up through the camp and not with a youthgroup. And from my last few posts, you know how a lot of things have happened to me within the last year at camp. But on Wednesday I decided, I'm going to apply to counselo there for 5 weeks of the summer and I'll counsel at the camp I went to as a kid for three weeks. On Thursday, I got an E-mail from the secular camp I applied to saying that they will not be hiring me because they have more returning staff than needed. God answered some prayers for me. I asked him to close a door so I will KNOW where to go this summer. And he did. So I went up to my camp (PR is what I'll call it) with a renewed excitement. Partly because of the visit I had last week, and partly because I knew I'd problaby end up back there this summer. I would be able to tell the kids, "YES, I'll be there this summer!" ANd boy did I say, "Yes, I'll probalby be here this summer." But let me tell you, I had 12 of the most wonderful boys in my cabin. But it could have been the worst weekend in my life... however, with my mind set on telling the kids about Christ and my eyes set on the Lord's work, my attitude was "all for God's glory!" I got there and found out I was counseling only 5 boys. So the camp put me in a cabin with another youth group. To my suprise, it was a group with a leader I knew. And even better, I knew 2 of the kids already! They were in my cabin this past summer (the ONE week I acutally enjoyed last summer)! So I was really excited! Then my boys who I knew from last winter showed up! And we had a blast the first night. One of the boys I had last winter named Alex was just bouncing all over they place. And when I say bouncing, I mean it. He wouldn't stop hopping. It was so cute. I'd say to him, "Go bounce on Robbie" and he would just run over to the guy and start bouncing right in front of him... so the people he'd bounce next to would always give him something to get him to leave. And so by the end of the weekend everyone would come up to me and bounce! Alex earned the nick name "The Bouncer!" This past weekend, I also was know as HUCK! the guy who was doing everything. You see, everyone knows who I am. It's really weird like that. They know me more than the know the speaker. Actually, I did a few skits with the speaker who happened to be a really boring clown. And the kids loved seeing me introduce her and do some stupid things with her. And then there's the song leader who I'm great friends with. He sometimes would invite me up there to help him with songs. And my half of the chapel was always much more animated and had a better time! Right? I mean look at their faces! It's the BEST Feeling being in fromt of 200 kids and seeing their faces as they sing "He's the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, but BEST OF ALL, He's my best friend!" Isn't that an amazing song?! Now for the bad stuff... I ended up sleeping on the floor because our cabin was too full. I had two kids barf. One at 2:30 in the morning right above my sleeping quarters in his bed. So I ended up having to clean that up in the dark and get him new bedding when I was the only one in the whole camp that was awake. The other threw up in the middle of breakfast and I didn't even notice it! He just says very calmly, "Huck, I threw up." I was like "WHAT? Where?" And so we got that taken care of. And then, on the last night, one of the boys started to cry at 1:30 and woke everyone up! It was about 90* in that cabin... So we opened the windows and turned off the heater... it got down to about 20* in 10 minutes and everyone was cold again... 2 of the boys and I couldn't get back to sleep so we stayed up till about 5:30 talking. Which ended up being my best memory of the weekend. Brad, Kevin and I sat on Kevin's bed. We just talked for 4 hours in the dark about anything that came to our minds. Skateboarding, school, girls (they are 11 and starting to notice girls), Mountain Dew, and everything else we talked about. It was great. We realized that our weights were over 500 pounds and we were wondering how much more weight we could fit in there... but we then realized that a boy named Alek was sleeping under us. So we didn't wanna break the bed. I got to share with the kids about what God realy did for them. In a skit we did, the clown gave me a bill of what she did for God that weekend. And I got to give her a bill about what God did for her! it was wonderful. And then there was a skit about how you need to put GOD first and not friends, camp, or even your Puppies! :-D But the best comment I got all weekend was one that I thought was in sarcasm... but it wasn't. I threw Alek in the snow. Really high and far. And I helped him up and started walking to where we were supposed to go. And Alek said to Kevin (his best friend) "Huck is the coolest counselor." I thought he was being sarcastic because I just threw him in the snow. "He can throw you and stuff because he's so big. I hope can get you this summer!" That just made my heart soar (flying soar not ouch soar)! My muscles are SOAR!!!! But anyway, I had a wonderful weekend. Nothing extraordinary happened. Or perhaps something extraordinary DID happen! When I gave the gospel message at night in my cabin on Saturday night, Alex, the boy I had last winter siad, "I asked Jesus into my heart last year!" And I said, "I remember. Alex became a Christian last year TODAY! he's one year old!" ANd the kids were like "Yeah! Cool!" And then when I was sitting up at about 3:30 AM that night, one of the two boys I was up with asked me, "How old were you when you became a Christian." I told them I was 12 years old. And they realized that I've been a Christian one year longer than they've been alive. Kevin said, "I accepted Christ when I was three." I said, "Good for you!" He then continued to tell me how his church doesn't have a youth group and that's why he's with these guys at their youth group. He said that their former pastor was fired because he REFUSED to have a youth group at his church. I don't understand that! THAT'S HORRIBLE! How can someone say that the YOUTH of a chruch is not important enough? But anyway, I also talked with my boss. And he was very encouraging. I told him how much I miss my ministry and he just seemed to be happy to hear me saying, "I'm DON'T want to give this up! I want to tell kids about Christ! And this is a great place to do it!" I'm pretty much going up there this summer because he's got me working on a few things for it! I'm excited about it! So it was again, A WONDERFUL weekend. On my rating scale of about 30 times counseling, it's my 4th best time! So I'm weird and rate my time at camp. But why not! It helps me remember the better weeks and learn from the not so fun or encouraging weeks. God Bless you all. And THANK YOU SOO MUCH For those of you who have written me emails and posts! Huck "In Christ" |
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