Joy Camp

Saturday afternoon, October 13th, 2007, as we pulled away from the Barrington Woods trailer park in Greer, there was little evidence of what had just occurred there. The tables had been cleared away, the tents taken down, the orange cones stacked up and stuffed into the trunk of our car along with the puppet-theater and banners. Nothing remained on the grounds but a dozen hay bails lined up in rows. A few of the children waved goodbye when we drove off. Joy camp had lasted 3 hours. We had live music, a puppet show, crafts, games, a bible lesson, and we served bag lunches to over 50 children that morning. It was an effort to continue the outreach project we’d begun over the summer, a camp for young children living in trailer parks in our community. The majority of these children are Hispanic. For them, it is a morning filled with pure joy. Their mothers look on puzzled, that we come to them to do this for their children. Our five-day summer camp was a success. Last weekend, mothers and fathers came back again with their excited children for a one-day version of the same camp. The sound of music and laughter filled the air on that crisp fall morning. It is a lot of work to bring it all together. But for everyone who participates, the reward is great. For me, it is the expression of gratitude on the mothers’ faces that make it worth it. And when I speak to the children of Christ’s love for them, I see in their eyes, a real acceptance of this truth. We are not merely telling them this but showing it. We do this in following Christ’s example, in obeying Him, and to glorify Him.
-Ingrid Kinnunen

“’If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.’ He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.’”
Mark 9:35-37