all different, but all the same.

one of my favorite parts of working at camp is seeing how creative God is, in that every single girl that comes into my cabin is unique. obviously i know no two people are just alike, but you really really start to understand that here. the best part of it is that the longer i'm here, the more i feel like i should see some repeats, and while there are a lot that i say "she is JUST like so and so from last week," even those are still their own person. it's like there's a lot of types of personalities but each girl is different in it. it's so cool getting to know each of them and seeing what's special about them.

but there are at least two things that are true about every camper, no matter how drastically different from any child you've ever met in your life.

1. every camper is in YOUR cabin for a reason.

God has a plan. and each girl is part of that. there are some who you'll ask yourself "WHY did i get this one..." and there are some who you don't even give a thought to it. but God is going to use you in some way, whether big or small, in each girl's life. isn't that cool?

2. every camper is special.

i know you know this, obviously. yes it's a cliche, but i wish it wasn't because it's so important. i really started thinking about this one day in my philosophy class this semester, we talked about the image of God and how even though we're each made in the same image, we all have a unique way of reflecting that image(from our personality traits to our gifts to anything else). different aspects of God are stronger in different people. and even in a nine year old, you can see these things. a girl who's really compassionate, or a good artist, or thinks of good ideas, all of those are ways they're like God.

a lot of girls will come in not realizing this. they've heard all the time that they ARE special, but so many of them don't believe it. it's so great to be able to show them WHY they're special. helping them understand how God made them who they are for a reason. i won't start telling whole stories because i have too many of them, but it's a beautiful thing to see a shy, insecure girl go home saying she can't wait to go back to school and be herself, or a really smart girl who had thought of herself as a geek and a loser leave camp knowing that people think that's cool about her.

those are the two main ones i thought of. then there are at least four things every camper needs.

1. every campers needs you.

again, God put them in your cabin for a reason. there's something about you that is just what that girl needs.

but she needs you in a simpler, more general way too. you're the one getting her places. you're the one she goes to when she has a problem. you're the keeper of the money bags, the one with the answers, her mom for a week. you're the most vital person in that girl's life for her time at camp.

you'll have at least one difficult camper who acts like they want nothing to do with you. but they still need you, whether you or they will admit it or not.

2. every camper needs to be loved.

some need it more than others. some need it in different ways. but every one of them needs love, whether she's a good little church girl from a wonderful family who shows her every day how loved she is, or she's from a broken home where her mom and stepdad favor her sister while she herself is never told how precious she is.

it's not always easy. and you'll never be perfectly loving to every girl every second. that's okay.

some are easier to love than others. you'll have at least one difficult camper that you just do not like. and that's okay. but you have to love them. you may need to constantly tell yourself to love them, but that's okay too.

if you wake up every morning and make a conscious choice to love every girl in your cabin no matter what, it will make the biggest difference.

again, each one is special. watching and finding HOW they each need to be loved and finding ways to love them that way is one of the best things you can do for them(it's not as much work as it sounds, i just mean little things you might notice. for instance, if one of them is always hugging you, that's probably their love language. a high five or a pat on the back when they do a good job at something will mean the world to them)

if they all go home thinking they were your favorite, you've done a good job. but that's not enough.

not only do we get to personally love them, but we get to show them real love. if all your girls go home thinking "because of how my staffer loved me, i understand better how God loves me" then you've done a great job.

that's what camp is all about, when it comes down to it. just love your girls, and everything else falls into place.

i have a whole post about that in my drafts that i should finish; so that's all i have to say here.

3. every camper needs to feel accepted.

being in a cabin full of girls can be hard for some of them. they want to fit in, make friends, and feel wanted. that starts with you, because if they see you making everyone feel special no matter who they are, then they want to treat everyone like that too.

and i guess really, we get to teach them a lot about grace. just by how we act. being patient with the loud ones who won't hush during rest time, or the slow ones who take ten minutes to put their shoes on. giving them second chances when they don't do something right the first time, like a job in cabin capers or reading out loud in Bible study.

this ties into loving them no matter what. and the finding how each one is special.

4. every camper needs to know God better.

that's probably the biggest and most obvious thing i've said so far. but it's also the most important.

don't take for granted that all of your girls know who God is. the vast majority of them do come from churches, and they've heard about him plenty. but not all of them really know God. and for the ones who do, we're here to deepen their understanding of him.

camp is about God, for God, because of God. we can give our campers the most fun week of their lives and send them home feeling good about themselves, but if we haven't been Jesus to them, we haven't done our job.

so they're all the same in all those ways. and it sounds like i'm contradicting myself to say "here are all the same ways in which they're different" but that's the only way i can think of to get to my next point. =p
(the same things i thought off are more deep, but my list of different things is mostly practical.)

1. every camper thinks differently.

remember this when you're explaining anything. whether it's a simple thing like how to do a job in cabin capers, or something more serious like a concept in Bible study, not all of them learn or understand things the same way.

2. every camper likes different things.

we'll be teaching you a lot of kinds of games for this reason. not all your girls will want to spend their down time in the cabin the same way, so vary the little fun things you do, let different girls take turns picking things, etc etc.

shower time is the best example of this. some will want to be in the middle of everything, others are happy to sit on their bunks and do something quietly by themselves. sometimes going off alone is a sign of homesickness, and you'll want to watch this carefully the first night or two. but once you start to get a feel for all the personalities in the group, you'll see who's naturally quiet and calm, who likes thinking games, who likes fast-paced games, etc etc.

3. every camper responds to you differently.

some are much more open and tell you all day long that you're the best and they love you. but others admire you from a distance. don't think that because one of your girls doesn't talk to you all the time or much at all that they don't like you; they're just different. you(most probably) haven't done anything wrong, it's just their personality.

in another sense, some are more sensitive than others. we have to be really careful how we talk to them; there's so much in our tone that we don't realize. you may not feel like you're yelling, but some girls might think you are. and it's really hard(don't i know it), but you have to watch your sarcasm. they don't always get it, especially younger girls.

this falls in with homesickness a lot. some methods work with some girls but not with others. they'll all take them differently.

4. every camper responds to God differently.

just because a girl hasn't talked a lot in Bible study, liked quiet time much, or made a big decision on thursday night, doesn't mean they aren't learning. some either aren't as open about it or are less mature than others.

a lot of this depends on what they already know or what they've been taught. i once had a girl who thought she wasn't supposed to ask questions about God so she hadn't raised her hand in Bible study at all(but she'd wanted to a lot of times).

don't get discouraged; God is at work even if you can't see it.

but no matter how alike or how different all of them are, we get to love them and have fun with them and get to know them for a week, and it's the best thing ever. you're gonna love it. =]