This summer I worked at a summer camp called Camp Oak Hill in Oxford, NC. I literally lived out in the middle of nowhere for an entire summer. And if you know me that is not something I would have jumped at as the perfect summer job. So when my bible study leader approached me about working there I was a little skeptical at first but after a little time talking to Jesus and a little encouragement I decided to do it. I get there and the first week was staff training and everyone is so outgoing and full of life. I also get hurt and had to be driven around in a golf cart for about two days. Fear immediately kicks in and I think that I am not going to fit in at this place that I had signed up to be at for two months! I am the most introverted, non energetic person I know. I wrote a blog on it once so how was I going to become an outgoing, full of life, energetic person? Well soon enough I would find my perfect fit at this place. For every week at camp except two I spent my summer in the lovely cabin 4B with Rachel G. We were the complete opposite but somehow the perfect combination! Week after week we had different girls of all different ages, personalities, ideas, etc. and we shared the love of Christ with them at every chance we got as well as a few dance moves we hope they keep forever. I had to come out of my shell and open my heart up for the girls that walked through our door. Each of them had different stories and backgrounds so camp was sometimes their escape from a hard home life or just a home a way from home. Either reason I knew I had a job to do and that was to first show them the love of Jesus and also just make the week the most amazing, funnest week they've ever had! So from 7:30am when "Your Love is, Your Love is, Your Love is, Strong!" woke us up until devotions, then bedtime between 10pm-12am, we gave it our all. Every week and even every day was different but I went through this summer believing I am doing this for God and the kids, never really believing I was doing it for myself. But it wasn't until I packed up my car and hugged my last friend that I realized that this summer healed my heart. I made it through this summer and was able to get through the days, weeks, and give my all to the kids because of the people God placed there that pushed me to do it. The staff this summer taught me how to love and what love is. The energy, the glow, the passion, the excitement, Jesus coursing through each and everyone there made it possible for me to come out of my shell- they made me see real love.
I began my summer at a loss for what love is but now that my summer has concluded I am free to say that I know what love is, at least for me, it is real, sacrificial, emotional, honest, and unexpected. This summer has forever changed my life and the way I view love and what love is. I truly can say I left a piece of my heart at Camp Oak Hill.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
I John 4:7-11
