Summer Cap #2 2017

Dear Prayer Coordinators,

Camp started off this week as usual-kids in junior high stepping off the bus, some with boundless energy while others were more tentative, followed bags ranging from thick cotton to plastic trash bags filled with clothes. The campers’ expressions went all over the board as they waited, some more patiently than others, for our camp directors to introduce themselves and talk about what this week would hold for them. As a counselor this week, I was assigned two campers. One camper, Jan, has been coming to Camp Alandale since fourth grade (she is going into 7th grade at the start of the new school year). Throughout the week, she exhibited such enthusiasm and interest in all that was going on at camp down to the last memory verse and pool time. Even when she was tired from the long fun-filled days, she still continued to answer and ask questions in every topic from Bible knowledge to Disney. She brought me so much joy and was such an awesome camper to have.

My other camper Latonya, came from an incredibly abusive background. During her testimony, which she shared at camp mid-week during testimony time, she told us that her mother and grandmother believed she was the devil incarnate, and her younger brother was one of her demons. She went through an unbelievable amount of verbal, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her family before she was put into foster care. She carries a lot of guilt and shame; she told me she blames herself for what has happened to her family and wants her family back, despite past abuse. This week, however, I got to see her shine through her creativity and desire to instill justice where she could. She stood up for another camper when another camper attempted to bully him, and took initiative in getting another camper on our team to participate in memory verse time. She has a gift for hairstyling; she dutch-braided and French-braided everyone’s hair who asked, mine included. I got a chance to see her be a kid, to laugh and have fun and make friends and talk about the many dreams she has in the future, including being an actress and a Youtube celebrity. On our last one-on-one, she told me she wanted to make friends who were good friends and who cared about her. Please be in prayer that she will meet these friends. Before boarding the bus, I noticed she was crying. She didn’t want to leave this camp that she said was “like a family”. I pray she comes back next year, and continues to learn more about the God Who created her so perfectly.

Thank you for keeping this camp, staff and campers in your prayers. 

In His Service,

Elizabeth Blackman – Summer Staff