LOVE UNTIL IT HURTS

“I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.”  -Mother Teresa

While reading these wise words from Mother Teresa this afternoon, I realized how much it applies to what we will be doing up at camp next week.  Even at the end of the first day, our bodies will start to feel the pain of altitude and running around our campus; up and down the stairs and hills, around the lake and back, planning every little detail before our little ones arrive.  Then, at the end of the second day, we’ll begin to feel the physical “hurt” of little sleep, dwindling nutrients, & a lack of caffeine as well as the emotional “hurt” of a heart stretched and stressed for our children.  As the week goes on, we will push on and continue to LOVE until it hurts, until the hurt is replaced with even more love and all the while knowing, when we return back home, we’ll know that we did the best we could and LOVED UNTIL IT HURT to be filled again with even greater love. 

Just two weeks from today,

...all of our munchkins, 32 this year, will be arriving at camp.  To get to this point we’ve done lots to prepare. 

We had a “Down-to-Business” training meeting in March to allow all volunteers, both old and new, to gain insight into how best to serve and love the population of the children at our camp. We were very excited about the structure of our training this year! Throughout the course of this day volunteers had a chance to be introduced to the new additions to our family, connect with returning volunteers, hear from our leadership team and board of directors, as well as a priceless visit from Franklin Smith, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in Mental Health training and consulting.

Then in April we gathered again to allow all volunteers, both old and new, to continue to establish and build the relationships amongst ourselves, which is what truly propels us to be able to serve. What better way to have done this but spending a Saturday afternoon picnicking in the park with friends? That is exactly what we did. Throughout the course of this day we also continued to build on our training with some games and role-playing.

Last, but not least, we gathered up at our campsite in May for a weekend of team building, training, and campsite preparation.  This was an especially wet year up in Big Bear so much of the trailblazing that is our “norm” for this weekend was deferred to cleaning, replacing dirt for steps, and clearing some large fallen brush from the trails. We even got to wake up Sunday morning to an unusually late in the year snowstorm!

         Now that we are all trained, bonded, and ready to go we will wait on the kiddies.  These final weeks, as the boxes on our “to-do” lists get checked, we will continue to pray for camp and all that it entails, especially for the hearts of our little ones. We are also trying to push on to reach our monetary needs before camp, that the burden could be lifted.  If you could help us by donating using the button on the right that would be of great and crucial help. Thanks so much for your prayers, donations, & support during these final weeks…for the children!