It’s not usually like this….

In four years of counseling, I have seen a lot. Dealing with the unexpected camper problems is part of my job description. From wet beds to stitches, puke to homesickness, there is a lot to manage. But never in all the sessions I’ve been through have I seen a session quite like the one I just experienced.

“Abnormally crazy” is probably the best description I can give to sum everything up. It seems like every camper issue under the sun plus a few came down on all the bunks in Dry Gulch-not just mine. At our end of the session meeting there were countless stories of simply hilarious incidents that don’t usually occur. And to add to it, this was just session one! All those poor new people...they must be ready for anything now.

Gratefully though, all of my fifteen girls were totally awesome. I didn’t have to bench a soul and most discipline issues resolved very quickly. All these girls were already saved walking into camp, so I had the chance to go a little deeper with them in devotionals than normal. It looked like the things we discussed in chapel really clicked for them, and I hope it continues to.

But now for your enjoyment, I thought I would just mention some highlights of the insane events that happened during camp. Brace yourself….this truly is abnormal!

1. How did the window break?
I was just cleaning the lunch table while the girls lined up by the wall, waiting for me to finish. Then all of a sudden there is a shatter. One of the window panels along the wall where my girls are standing is now cracked into many pieces.

And how did that happen, you ask? “Miss Melody, Abby broke the window!”

No joke. My tiniest camper, so tiny she could still be in pre-K camper, has broken the window, and with her head!

"Abby what happened?!”                                     
 “I don’t know. I was just standing there and I knocked my head against the window and it broke.”
“Why did you do that?!”
“I don’t know. I guess sometimes I just need to knock my head against something.”

Isn’t that cute. 

(The photo does not do the window justice because it had already been taped at that time.)

On top of this, Abby is now standing with one hand covering her eye, which apparently hurt from the impact. We get an ice-pack. She’s a-okay. And now the girls in my bunk have spread a rumor that Abby is getting her eye replaced with a glass eye. And that spreads around the whole camp.  My bunk is practically famous.

2. What is that in the lake?
The lake water is gross enough by itself, but we got an added bonus.

“Miss Melody, I found poop in the lake!”

And it wasn’t from an animal; it was from a little girl.
Absolutely disgusting. This little one from another bunk decided the lake was a better option than getting out and using the port-o-potty.

I think I’ll be staying in the canoes from now on.

3. Where is Amelia?
It’s after nap time. We’re headed to the movie. We get there. We count 29 girls, and we’re supposed to have 30.

So the counselor from my sister bunk and I run back to the bunks. The bathrooms are empty, the bunk is empty. We start to worry child #30 has ran off with some other bunk’s line on accident. And then we check the top bunks. She has gone back to sleep.

I distinctly remember waking this camper up from her rest- but that sneakster crawled back up and knocked out. And her mom happened to be a sponsor, too. So thereafter her mom asked one of the other girls in the bunk to ensure her daughter woke up the next day at rest time….oops.

4. Christina gives me a heart attack

There was the sweetest mentally challenged girl in the bunk right beside mine this session. Her name is Christina, and I’ve actually had her in one of my bunks previously. She was fairly easy to work with when I had her, but this year her counselors faced one problem with her way beyond the norm.

Multiple times she would refuse to get up out of bed. One day after rest time her counselors could not get her to come down, so they called me in for back-up. I was able to just talk to her for a bit and get her down. But then she needed to get her swimsuit on.

After a few minutes  we called her name in the bathroom and received no reply. We don’t go into the restroom with campers for privacy, so we recruited another girl from my bunk to check on her. She wasn’t in any of the stalls. So we asked her to check the showers. (In this bunk, there is a door leading to the showers because they use the building for other purposes during the year.)  My girl goes to the door and pulls…and it doesn’t open. She tries again and looks over at us… “I think it’s locked.”

Well that can’t be good.

Christina has locked herself in the shower room, on purpose, no doubt!
Honestly people, I didn’t even know the shower room could lock, at least not without a special key of some kind. And even greater, why do they lock from the inside?!
The only other option is going outside to see if the back door into the shower room is unlocked. I am running the possibility through my mind that she may have escaped out this back door and could now be anywhere in Dry Gulch.  But praise the Lord, the door was somehow unlocked.
And there we find her, sitting in a shower stall.  We are just so relieved we forget to punish her. So we just get her to put her swimsuit on after a lot more coaxing. Goodness gracious. 

5. Aubree
She was the youngest of my bunch, and it was also her very first time away from home.
As cute as a button, but also full of surprises.

*Sleepwalker. Once she was just sitting up on her bed in the middle of the night panting. I said "Hey Aubree, can you lay down for me?" and she fell down right where she was, in a ball at the end of her bed....at least she wasn't walking out of the bunk?
*"Can I call my mom?"  happened within thirty minutes of being at camp. This was a battle, but I was so proud of how well she did. We called mom once, but otherwise, she was able to have a lot of fun.
*"Miss Melody, I found some glass". She kept finding it and picking it up to show me. Then I asked her not to pick and up and just to come get me when she found some, but we had to stop that too because she would come and get me like every five minutes.
*My eye hurts. The sunscreen would go on, she'd wipe her eyes, and sunscreen would be in them. I would help her wash it out and then try to distract her with something, such as a canoe ride. That worked like a gem.
*And lastly: "this note is for you." She wrote me possible the sweetest note of the session. It read: "Dear Miss Melody, I like you. Remember you can do good things through Christ. Love, Aubree"
Precious.

It makes me a little tired just thinking of all that again. But at the same time, it makes me laugh. Camp would not be camp without these sweet memories.

Except this coming session, I am going to pray for less of them.

Talk to you all next week!

Love,

Miss Melody