How was the second week as a counselor?

So this week we had WAY less kids, so I didn’t know for a long time what I was going to do. I was eventually told that plan A was to put two counselors in one room and three in the other and the two rooms would each have 8 campers. Then on Monday we changed to plan B (like normal) and we were going to have the girls who are working here at camp move into our rooms with the campers and have 4 campers and 4 workers with one to two counselors in each room. I was told I would be with another counselor, Carolina. The reasoning behind all this was that we didn’t want the campers to think that camp was dead because there were so few youth that came. It was hard for the workers to move and hard for us to find a system that worked since they had a very different scheduled for campers. But we soon figured out a good rhythm and it actually ended, I think, being really good for everyone. Like I said I had four campers; Luana, Tirza, Aline, and Camila, and it was hard to get started but eventually we ended figuring how to communicate and I think the week ended well. I actually ended up getting to know Tirza pretty well in the last few days which was nice because of the struggle I was having and at times still have communicating, it was nice to know that I could and was still building relationships. This week was also a huge blessing for me because I was able to use my Portuguese more and gave devotions and added my “two sense” on most of the other devotions I didn’t give. I was also blessed with the opportunity to talk to one of my girls because she was having a hard time with the fact that her family is moving back to Brazil. I had the chance to share with her the importance and power of the Scriptures and that even though this was going to be hard that God has a plan and will work everything for her good. I didn’t solve any problems or make her totally excited to go but I hope that what we talked about will at least be a comfort to her in this difficult transition. I this week we are going to have A LOT of campers and I am super excited to be a counselor again. In our quiet times we finished Hebrews and are now going through 1 Corinthians, and God has been teaching me that I need to give everything to Him. This is something I have struggled with my whole life, I like to take credit for the things I do, but I am not and cannot do this work. It’s not my work. This is both hard to realize and at the same time the biggest blessing. It is not up to me to change the lives of my campers or fellow workers, it is my job to be obedient and let God work through me. At the beginning of the week I was having a huge struggle with that because I could get anything through to my girls but then Bruna and I talked for a while (since she was having a similar struggle) and she reminded and encouraged me that I needed to give it up to God and let Him do it. I still struggle with it, but I’m learning… slowly…

1 Corinthian 3:5-9

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

~Heather

S.D.G.