A few months ago I was called to be the Assistant Camp Director for our ward. Now don't get me wrong, I love Girls Camp. I've even been camp director before. But this was challenging to me for a number of reasons. One: I haven't had anything to do with the Young Women in this ward, I know very few of them and most are inactive and I didn't know them at all. Two: I don't know many people in our stake, or what supplies our ward has, I barely new the Camp Director. Three: they called me a month and a half before camp so I had very little time to get to know what was going on.
The late call was frustrating for Jen, the Camp Director and myself. She'd been trying to get some help for awhile, but they had wanted to give me time to settle into my new calling as nursery leader before they landed another one me. Nice thought, but it gave me 'not much time' stress. Jen has been camp director for the last three years so was very familiar with how things have been, but the other new thing this year was we had one 6th year, one 4th year, one 2nd year and 8 brand spanking new first years. Half of whom hadn't been to church in a long time.
It was kind of a struggle, but we got everything planned. Jen and the other presidency members work full time (plus Jen was planning her wedding for the week after camp) so they could only come up to camp part time. I was the lone leader that went and stayed the entire time.
We ended up having a really good time. The girls got really close...
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| Top to bottom: Dallas Ward, Haley Whitaker, McKayla Whitaker |
I got to know some of the other leaders better (pretty much NO sleep cause I stayed up late talking to Jen Washburn and Kim), and we wore our awesome tie-dye t-shirts....
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| Jen, Laurie Johnson, Kim |
There was, of course, some drama. It revolved around sleeping arrangements and feeling picked on and left out. I don't really want to dwell on it. It happened the night of testimony meeting and I was so disappointed. Testimony meeting has always been one of my favorite parts of camp and I was afraid it was ruined for these girls because of the fighting. I bore a very sincere testimony then just sat quietly and waited for whatever. Some of the other leaders and bishopric bore their testimonies as well and eventually every girl said something. It wasn't always a testimony, sometimes it was just how they felt about coming to camp, and we ended up with a very positive spirit in our group. I sincerely hope those girls remember that for the rest of their lives, because it was amazing. After that all eleven girls decided to sleep in the same six-man tent.
I had very mixed feelings about this whole experience. My mom came up to watch the boys and Kyle took some time off work to be with them, so they were cared for. But I was gone for H's 2nd birthday. I'm glad I was able to serve and be a part of this, and I hope it will be a positive memory for the girls, but I have fears that memories of drama and pettiness might outweigh the good. Who knows.
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