Lord I Am Amazed by You…

It is 6:30 in the morning. I am groggy and I drag myself out of bed, barely able to shuffle to the shower. The treasured 3 minutes “ALONE” in the shower is not to be missed. Well…anyone can walk into the bathroom at any time, but if you are fast… I let the water pound upon my head to wash away the cobwebs and wonder what the new day will hold. The Camp of the Good Shepherd begins to come to life. The kids are up and preparing for the day. I can hear their voices speaking in a language that I am technically too tired to understand, and yet I do. Lord, I am amazed by You…

The team gathers in my room to share a time of devotion. I read Romans 12:3-21. As I am reading I contemplate the unique gifts God has provided for the team. God has sent servants, artists, teachers, musicians, memory keepers and makers, encouragers, prayer warriors, leaders, menders of open wounds and broken hearts, gentle spirits and bold professors of faith. He has sent innovators and motivators. I recognize the gifts of comedic relief, love, humility, compassion, mercy and fearlessness. Pulled together by our King and our passion for the least of these, we are a crew of devoted followers of Christ. We are the body of Christ. Lord, I am amazed by You…

The children are waiting patiently just outside the dorm. “Buna dimineata Haley! Ai dormit bine?” “Good morning Haley. You have slept well?” We are on our way to gather with the Romanian team to unite as one body in prayer. This is one of my favorite parts of the day. Voices are raised in prayer in two different languages speaking to one Lord. The circle of chairs is intentionally left open to invite others into it. The children are preparing for the day ahead and watch from a distance or up close to see and hear what we are doing first hand. When we are finished praying and the “amens” and “amins” are spoken, the children immediately say “Good morning! You have slept well?” to anyone who will respond. We continue to wrap up loose ends with the daily assignments, gather our chairs and return them to the dining hall.

Dax, one of our lovable, scary looking and mangy dogs lets out a bark or twelve to let us, and any creature lingering near the camp know that he is ready to defend the camp and all who walk within its walls. Pamela is even mangier than Dax, and is busy nursing her orphaned kittens (she was an orphan herself so she has no qualms about caring for others including humans) and Rex, who is a fairly large and also mangy beast is hanging out in the back. He is new to the camp and arrived just a week before the children. Orphaned, hungry and alone he came to the Camp of the Good Shepherd. I could easily count his ribs last week, but not now. The kittens scamper over Dax and use his ears like toys. He looks at them wearily with one eye and they back off…well slightly. Rex uses the kittens as chew toys and Pamela snarls at him like a Mom in the park giving stink eye to a stranger even looking at her children. Lord I am amazed by You…

The multi-tasking begins. The team sets up the tables for the breakfast and chats about the day’s plans. The rain is coming today and we rush to prepare games before the forecasted torrential downpour arrives. I toss up another prayer request to please hold off the rain Lord for just a while longer. I hear the children gathering outside the dining hall door waiting to find that one special table where they will sit with friends and a camp volunteer. The perspective is always interesting from the dish room where I am assigned today. Volunteers have taken their place at different tables and the first children bursts into the door, looking around to see if there is an open place at their special volunteer’s table. I am seeing faces of joy when they see an open spot and faces of longing when they realize the last spot has been filled. They are children and quickly shift to plan B and find their second favorite volunteer. The food is blessed and the feeding frenzy begins. The new tablecloths this year seem to muffle the noise a bit and the children enjoy how nice they look. Breakfast is yogurt, bread, margarine, jam, “cheese” (and I use the term loosely), salami and hot tea…(well by the time it is actually served, it is lukewarm tea.). It is filling and the children are satisfied…as for me, I confess…I added a bit of granola to my yogurt, ditched the rest of the offerings except the coffee with the spoon standing up in it. I prefer the coffee brand “Janitor in a Drum” because it is industrial strength. After all we are at camp… Lord, I am amazed by You…

The action in the dish room has already begun. Serving dishes and tools are already being flung at us. Jilda and I duck and dodge out of the way of incoming spoons, plastic serving bowls, and plastic cups. If you can dodge a knife you can play Romanian games. Clearly, Jilda and I will be well prepared for game time. We make a pact to finish the dishes in less than an hour. Yes, it is a lofty goal, but doable for us veterans. Jilda and I do the double wash, meaning the ooooooooooo and goooooooo go into the first bucket of hot soapy water and once the initial gunk is off it goes to the “official” wash bucket. Then, the dish is onto the bleach dip, rinse dip and into the hands of capable Romanians to dry. All the while Jilda and I are pushing to keep on track with our goal. The team completes the dining hall clean up. The dishes are done and we have met our goal. We are released to continue our service in another area of camp ministry. Lord, I am amazed by You.

Craft time is next and the team sets enough places for all the children to make purses and it involves GLUE. Glue is my personal nemesis. I am completely craft challenged when it involves anything sticky. The children are cutting, gluing, sewing, smiling, laughing, creating, SHARING, and filling their purses with our felt pens, while I am busy trying to get my fingers apart after helping a child. I call out, ”Hey…Tracy and Heather, please check the bags for markers before they go out the door.” Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up everybody do your share! My “Angel” asks Jenn to deliver to me the purse they created. They have written my name upon it…”Jiil” in delicate lace. It is the most beautiful purse I have ever seen and I treasure it. Lord, I am amazed by You…

The children gather for game time. Ionut is in charge of game facilitation. He is a great young man who has been a camper, a Romanian volunteer team member and now is a leader of ministry at the Camp of the Good Shepherd. He was rather shy as a boy, but has been beautifully transformed into a confident young man. I am thankful he is using his gifts because, while I enjoy playing the games (I can chase people with the best of them), I do not enjoy leading the games. God has given our team a Shepherd to lead games! YEAH! The kids are having a great time playing at the four stations. The team is spread out amongst the stations. I am running a gunnysack back and forth between stations and cheering the children on. The kids are shouting for their team members who have been mixed between the two orphanages who are here together at camp. Quite a change from years past when the children would belittle each other if they could not compete at a high enough level. They would not even consider being on a team with a child from a different orphanage. It is lovely to hear the encouragement. Lord, I am amazed by You…

It is time to set up for lunch. We are scrambling to get the plates out and the tables prepared for the large meal of the day. We are serving, soup, bread, meat with a pasta-ish noodle and a cucumber and tomato salad. Jilda and I are in the dish room eating our lunch between washing dishes and dodging flying objects. Now the real work begins…lunch has twice as many dishes and utensils. What is our new goal? Oh yes, to get them done before it is time for DINNER! ;) Two young guests visiting the camp ask to participate in the dishwashing ritual. I gladly relinquish my place to them to get on with other business about the camp. Using the same process they manage to get through the endless piles of dishes and finish up well before the deadline. Jilda makes one last swipe with the mop and shuts out the light. Jilda, the humble servant moves on to clean the bathrooms with Heather (not a great job by most people’s standards, but necessary). Lord, I am amazed by You…

It is shower day and the hot water is being finicky. We are trying to get 50 children washed and shampooed before the incoming rain. Alas, we missed the window of opportunity. The rain is pounding down on us and everyone heads for cover. It is “rest time” (which usually means when properly translated, the Romanian adults take a nap and the kids don’t) but today, after the showers the children have fallen asleep listening to the rain dance upon the skylights in their cabins. Marcel and I head down to the cabins after a few hours to bring an afternoon snack, a banana for all the kids and caregivers. We have cast aside the “NO FOOD IN THE CABINS” rule for just today. It is pouring. We go from cabin to cabin delivering the treat. Some are awake and some are asleep. Some sprawled out without a care in the world, some snuggled together with two or three to a bed sleeping. They are assigned individual beds and yet find comfort in sleeping three to a twin sized bed. Usually someone is sort of half on half off the side of it but they make it work. Lord, I am amazed by You…

The rain is letting up and we stall for dinner as long as possible. The banana has filled them up for the time being. The children initiate some free play. I must confess I looked for a quiet corner to regroup after a long day. Rats! Someone has found me. You would think I could find one place in the camp to hide for a few minutes after all of these years. I answer some more questions and make some more decisions then move on to setting up for dinner. Tonight we are having bread, a bean and “meat” soupy something (which was quite tasty by the way) and “hot tea”. The children are entertaining themselves with hand and singing games. Jilda comes breathlessly into the kitchen and says, “Oh, that was so much fun playing the hand games with the kids.” And the dish room activity starts again! There is always laughter in the dish room so it is not a bad place to serve, but by days end my back hurts. The tables the dish buckets are set upon are too low and the room is too small to accommodate more than 4 people. But it works. Still waiting for the new dishwasher to be installed. Here come the kids…they are ravenous. “Jill, te rog, mai paine!” “Jill, please, more bread!” more tea, more beans, more margarine, more jam… “Multumesc Jill!” “Thank you Jill!” Lord, I am amazed by You…

After dinner the evening fellowship will begin. We have a slight delay because the children have started playing a singing/dancing game, which involved something about a girl named Carolina (I think), and determining if you could be friends if after the count of three standing back to back, you both looked in the same direction. The game started out with only a few children. I am intrigued and venture over with five girls hanging off various parts of my body. “Let’s join them!” The circle opens. I see more children approach and I go to them. “Let’s join them!” The circle opens. I see more children approach who are typically on the outside looking in, a child also sees them and goes to them and says, “Join us!” and so on and so on and so on. The circle is getting larger and larger and larger. The laughter is getting louder and louder and louder. I see the delight in the eyes of Iulia, Roxi, little Marius, Angelica, Claudia, little Florentina, Nela, Tracy, Haley, Jilda, Kris, Ruxi, Naomi, Flori, Maria, Maria, Maria and Maria. One of the Romanian volunteers who is a nice young man interested in world politics was having as much fun as the children. “ Dany the Dancing Politician” as I like to call him would graciously and joyfully dance with all of the children. Ionut also helped to make each child feel special as he invited or accepted the offer to dance. The game went on and on and on. Another confession…I always secretly hoped that someone would pick me over and over again. It felt so special to be chosen and to dance and celebrate. I guess we are never too old to long to feel acceptance. Lord, I am amazed by You…

The shrill whistle blows and everyone rushes the main hall to grab a chair. It is time for evening fellowship. There is music and skits and lessons. The skit which was a lesson on love was about two “nerds” which were played beautiful by Jenn and Heather, however, the costuming expert and ROOKIE Di, helped to bring the characters to life. The joy of singing songs in both Romanian and English is overwhelming. My heart is full and satisfied. The children listen in rapture to the lovely voices of Jenn and Heather as they sing about compassion and our Savior. I watch more than a hand full of children singing along in English with the team. They beg them to sing it again and again. Our God is Mighty to Save. Fellowship comes to a close in prayer. The children hug their favorite team members and say, “Noapte Buna!” “Good Night”. I am off to prepare for lovely rest until we begin it all again tomorrow. Thanks for a great day! Lord, I am amazed by You…

Jill