A Sambica Summer

This summer I took a break from blogging as I worked at Sambica. I corralled kids, played games, chased kids with noodles in Darth Vader masks, and so much more. God taught me a lot this summer about perseverance in doing good. I know I’ll miss a lot of stories in this blog, and sadder yet, a lot of people, but I can’t type on forever so I am only going to give a little taste of what summer at Sambica was like.

Week 1: Rez camp, 7th grade boys

I spent my first week as a counselor on rez camp. I led 10 boys that week playing games, inner tubing, hanging on ropes courses, and reading God’s Word. Before I came I prayed that I would be stretched that week, and I was. This is one of the weeks where I learned the most. I loved my cabin, even when they were a little crazy. I came out of that week with a lot of stories, but I’m not going to share them here, as with all the other weeks. I want to keep a feeling of balance between all the weeks because as time goes on I forget memories and get absorbed in new ones.

One memory I will never forget is the staff from that week. There were six of us, each with our own cabins, on two different teams (red and Blue). I was on the Blue Beluga Whale team with Spazz and Rambler. It was the perfect team because all three of us were into it. It taught me an important lesson. Even when teams seem lame, in name or even in camper spirit, you HAVE to kick it up a notch in order to get anything done. Our team didn’t have the best cheer, but we owned it and got the most points, earning us the Oar of Awesomeness (The Oar of Awesomeness!). The Oar was what it sounds like, an oar, that was given to the team with the most points at the end of the day. Whenever the PA said The Oar of Awesomeness, everyone would have to repeat The Oar of Awesomeness! Our team won it everyday.

I not only loved my team staff, but I also loved the entire Rez staff. The other team had Wakiki, Curly Fry, and Kazoo on it, and all of us were about the same year in college. It was a great way to start the summer.

One more story from that week was a salvation story. Several kids in my cabin accepted Christ that week, and two stick out in my mind. One of my kids had been having some issues that week. I told him one day that he was going to have to talk to The Dude (the male lead councilor). On our way up to the cabin he asked if he could accept Christ that night. I said sure, not wanting to push him and to give him some more time to think it over. After talking to the Dude for some discipline he came to me and asked if he could accept Christ, and I said yes, but first he wanted to get his water bottle out of the cabin (we were going to do it by the BEST water fountain on the face of the earth. I would do anything to have that water fountain here at school). I remember sitting on that bench knowing that I was waiting for his salvation. It was a weird feeling, but a good one, knowing that the enemy would be fighting, but that God had already called him and he had already really made a choice. A few minutes later he came back and we prayed together and then it all began. Welcome to the family

One of the other campers that accepted Christ almost didn’t tell me. He ended up letting me know while we were bandaging up his leg after he had banged it up pretty bad. I was surprised because I thought this kid was a Christian. He was the one who had his Bible all the time and read it for us at Bible studies. I’m glad Christ showed his love through me so my camper could come to know him.

Week 2: Day Camp, 4th grade boys

Appreciation banquet with my "Most Awkward" award

I had a week off of work, during which I went down to Oregon to see Sarah perform a wedding, but more about that n another blog. This week I had fourth graders, including a little boy we’ll call E. He’s responsible for sending me down in camp history. The second day of camp I was on early morning drop off. I’m not a morning person and messed up a few times (went on the wrong side of the car, signed someone in myself, drooled on a parent, the usual). E came and sat on a rock with his back facing me. I started to ask him questions like “Did you like the boats?”, “What’s your favorite thing so far at camp?”, and “What did you do after camp yesterday?”. Then I asked him if he liked our worship leader. “Do you like Kick-it?” I asked. E turned around, gave me a look, and said, “That’s an awkward question.” And thus started my name of Awkward Oakley (other variations are Awkley and Awesome Oakley). That name stuck with me all summer. At the staff appreciation banquet I even got an award for “Most Awkward”. I’m not really that awkward, but I owned the role and endless jokes, phrases, memories, and other stuff have come out of it.

One more thing I want to mention about this week, and all day camp weeks. Yes, our campers go home at night, but that doesn’t mean our work is done. As soon as they are gone we have a short break then help out with Rez camp stuff. One of my favorite things to help with was Mission Impossible,  the biggest team game I have ever seen at any camp, and the best game to get kids pumped for the week. I won’t explain the rules here (I don’t want people stealing ideas), but there are a number of people who are “it” and run around tagging campers. These taggers usually dress up, and a lot of us would take it seriously. Here’s a picture of one of our most extreme weeks.

Week 3: Rez camp, 7th grade boys

This week I got to work with Excellent in the Gillette cabins. Usually Rez camp is small enough that they can fit everyone in the Lower Forum and have staff in upper Gillette. Upper Gillette is a nicer facility because it has bathrooms in the same building as the cabins, unlike the lower forum ones, however Gillette is a little further away, but not by much. Excellent and I were in the two cabins there while the other 5 boys cabins were all together under the Forum. It was great. I had bonded with Excellent the week before at K-CUD (Kitchen clean up duty) along with a bunch of other people.

This week was probably one of my favorite cabins (yes, I said it). Yes, I loved each cabin, and yes, I did see campers come to Christ every week, and this week was no exception, even if it was only one (I think the record I had was 4, if it’s ok to count). He was a Hindu kid we’ll call ‘Lahar’. He didn’t take his religion lightly and on the first day told me “my religion doesn’t believe this, the Bible.” I was stunned and didn’t know what to do. Thankfully he said that he just likes to listen and learn about other religions, and he was very respectful. But again, he did take his religion with seriousness. He couldn’t eat beef. When I asked him what he believed he said he believed in a strong monkey god who followed two other gods. I listened and prayed to God, “I don’t expect much this week God, but I know you can at least plant a seed.” I remember praying fervently for this Lahar because I loved him and wanted to see him know Christ. Well each day during FOB-FOB (nap time) I would read a Bible story. Lahar became increasingly interested and he kept asking if he could read my Bible. Every free time he would ask me, and it got to the point where he was asking when I couldn’t let him (lights out and such)! Then, on Thursday night he accepted Christ. I was blown away. I merely expected a seed, but God showed me fruit.

But the real reason this was my favorite cabin was because of my relationship with my campers. We’re they crazy? Yes. Did they always listen to me? No. Did I love them? Of course. But all of those are qualities that all my cabins have, so what separated this one? This cabin was special to me because my relationship with them was less manager/leader but more of leader/big brother. This is my favorite and best ministry style. I love being the older brother to my campers. My best relationships come out of this style of leading. If you look at Matt S and I, that’s the relationship we had. even on SOS staff this year I felt like a big brother on campus to them. I love that feeling. I remember one always trying to punk up to me, another always needing care, yet another who thought on the same wavelength as me, and so much more. I loved these campers and I hope to hear from them again.

Week 4: Day camp, 4th graders

Me and my CIT

Back on day camp. I do love day camp, especially the staff. This week of day camp seems to be the blurriest week of camp to me. I had some really sweet kids this week. One of them was my mini me, but he missed a day and a half of camp because of a bee sting, so I didn’t get to see him as much, but my whole cabin was pretty good.

One thing that I didn’t mention was my CIT. His name was No Name, which got changed to spider Monkey. He was a great CIT and I had the privilege of working with him my first two weeks of day camp. He did a really good job of interacting with the kids and playing the different games. I was so excited to have him for two weeks. I loved talking with him and I wish I had more one-on-one time with him than I had, but camp is camp.

In between Weeks: The Banquet

I loved our staff banquet, and I’m not going to do it justice here. Look at my FB for pictures. All I’m going to say is that I love everyone and thanks for the “Most Awkward Award” which I have with me here in my dorm room.

Week 5: Day camp, 2nd graders (my final week)

This was my final week of camp. It was the only week with high schoolers at camp, the one age group that I’m missing in my ministry experience. When I was interviewed I said I wanted to work with this age group. This is what I had been waiting for, but God had something else in store. There was some ‘drama’ about which camp I was to work at that week. My interview was either forgotten or viewed as irrelevant and I did not communicate that I wanted Rez camp till it was too late. With circumstances the way they were I knew I was going to have a real learning experience, and I did. I learned the most that week.

Because they were so much younger I couldn’t take on the leader/brother role. When I had my evaluation I was told I need to work on the relational side of counselling more, which was true. I focus more on older kids, but I need to learn to have relationships with younger ones, especially day campers. This caused me to take on a role that I have never filled before, the leader/dad role. I would pick up my kids, play with their hair (as it said to do in the manual) and just treated them like my kids. These kids were super cute and I loved them tons.

I also had an autistic kid in my cabin. He was a good kid, but he would run off and I had special permission to leave my cabin with another councilor to run after him. I learned it wasn’t because I was a bad councilor that I needed help, but that this camper needed 20 people with him. He just needed love coming from all those different people. I had a different CIT that week, Binkey, and he was a great help to me.

The week proved challenging, and I grew a lot. Proof of this came at the staff meeting when I was graciously awarded “Staffer of the Week”. I tell you this not to brag, as I have never bragged about it, but more so to show how much I connected with the staff at Sambica. Within my last hour or so at camp I received this award, showing that I was indeed a part of that staff, a staff that notices when you grow, a staff that pushes you to be challenged, a staff that blesses you as you go out. This trophy is literally a combination of great staffers who have put their marks on it, but for me it is a trophy made up of all the interactions I had all summer, all the jokes, hard times, help, prayer, injuries, and community. This trophy represents the community of Sambica to me.