His Strength

This week I am helping out as a counselor at the day-camp my church runs for a week every summer. For the past couple of weeks there have been meetings to attend, lessons to prepare and a lot of cutting and painting to do as we transformed our space into a treasure-island. I also had to search through my closet looking for clothes that could make me look like a pirate.

On Monday morning we launched into a mad time of songs, games, lessons, crafts, drinks, more games, more songs and the best bit of all - when one of the counsellors gets 'gunged'! It is an amazing opportunity to teach lots of children about Jesus and all that He has done for us. Many of the children have never been to church and this is the first time they are hearing about God.

The question always seems to be, who's having the most fun - the children or us counsellors? The whole week is the greatest fun and I really think that the counsellors have just as much fun as the children.

The problem is, it is totally exhausting. Everyone puts a lot of time and energy in to each of the children and moving them around and doing the lessons and joining in with the games. Also, there is the not-so-little question of keeping all the children going in the same direction, picking up lagers for every activity and making sure that they don't get left out, keeping our area clean and tidy, getting the children involved in the lesson and answering the questions and a new one for me - stopping the fights that break out. This last one has been especially tiring. For some reason I seem to have ended up with an unusually high percentage of difficult and disruptive children. Trying to keep the balance between discipline, order and control, and fun, encouraging and interested is proving to be a lot harder then I would ever have imagined.

Today I became totally stressed out and all I wanted to do was come home and cry. I was totally exhausted and I felt as if I would never be able to ring another drop of energy from my weary body. Worse still, everyone else could see it too. I was wondering if I would ever be able to be nice to another child again.

I was totally convinced that I would not be able to get through another day. At last I managed to work out a strategy for dealing with the slightly more challenging children. Maybe I could make myself be nice to everyone and with a bit of hard work I would be able to get through all that needed to be done with a smile on my face.

Hang on, what about God? Where does He come into it? What is He doing all this time? What exactly is the real reason we are doing this camp?

I have become so stressed and tired that I had totally forgotten to ask God to be there with us through our time, to show Himself to the children through our lessons and to be with me as I'm trying to cope with the demands of the day. Maybe if I asked God to give me the strength I need, I might find myself relying on Him to get me through, rather than worrying about how I am going to manage.

What a revolutionary idea. Duh.

Tomorrow I am going am going to be trying my hardest to rely on God's strength, not my own; to ask Him, rather then worrying; to rely on His faithfulness rather then trying to do something that is beyond my capabilities. Putting my reliance and trust where it belongs will put the right perspective on all that is going on.

I am hoping - and praying! - that tomorrow will be a less stressful and tiring day for me and a more enjoyable and constructive day for the children. Tomorrow, with the help of a new day, a refreshed attitude and an all-powerful and ever-faithful God, the children and I can both have fun together.