These are some excerpts and prayers from my journal during my first week ever at Royal Family Kids’ Camps. Royal Family Kids’ Camp is a one week camp for abused and neglected children. The experience is intense and incomparable to anything I’ve done. . .including the last 10 years in the inner city.
During this week, my job was to be a ‘roving counselor’. Roving counselors pick up the slack when there are things that need to be done, and they also help if two kids are too much for one counselor. *All kids’ names have been changed. Kevin, who is mentioned throughout, is my husband.
Sunday Night:
We decorated the cabin tonight and are making all of our final preparations before the girls arrive tomorrow. The other counselors and I are about to go pray.
Prayer: Lord, let me show them who you are. Let them see through my actions and words that you are a loving heavenly Father. May everything go smoothly and safely this week.
Monday Night:
Prayer: Lord, I had no idea how hard this would be. I know, Kevin told me, but I had delusions that the kids would be grateful for my presence. *Lesly spit on my shoes. *Sherry cursed at me. Lord, forgive me for my arrogance. They have no reason to be grateful that I am here. Let them see your humility through me. I’m now off to write my ‘heart notes’ for the night.
Note: During every meal, kids get heart notes from various counselors. The staff, especially roving counselors, and “family members” like the camp grandma and grandpa, go to great lengths to make sure that every kid receives at least a few every day. Heart notes are encouraging notes. I know that some kids take them home and save them as a memento of the first time they were really praised.
Also, it is normal for abused kids to respond with spit or other unpleasantness to those who try to be kind to them. It is a survival mentality of “you can’t hurt me, because I don’t care about you. . .I’ll hurt you first.” In training, we were taught how to deal with this behavior.
Tuesday Night
Tonight we ate dinner with Kevin. He too was a roving counselor until one of the kids was too much to handle so he has his own camper. This kid is such a handful that Kevin has a helper counselor now too. One kid to two counselors! Whatever it takes I guess.
One of the campers spilled water and almost started to cry but I have to say my husband saved the day. Without blinking an eye, he “accidentally” spilled his water too saying, “See it’s okay, I do that sometimes too.” Then he proceeded to “accidentally” miss his mouth. The kids roared with laughter at his spaghetti sauce filled face.
When we got back to the cabin I realized how profound spaghetti sauce can be. *Joanna told us a story about when she spilled a glass of milk and was beaten. This was the incident that led to her removal from her home. She was scared that Kevin would get into trouble and that the director would hit him. That’s how warped her reality truly is! So she asked if it was because the camp director loved God that he didn’t beat Kevin. Then she wanted to know if God cared if she spilled her milk.
Prayer: Lord, help me to show them that a mistake is okay. Help me to show that you love them, despite their mistakes. Thank you for loving me, despite mine.
Read also: An Introduction to Royal Family Kids’ Camp
A Week at Royal Family Kids’ Camps Part 2