The Last Kid out of Bed

My third summer at camp was easily my best as a counselor. I was coming into my own not just as a counselor but as a person. My workshop was going better than I could have ever expected, I had great friends around me, I was in a great worship band…there really wasn’t anything going wrong for me. I knew this was in all likelihood my last summer…I felt God had put it on my heart that it was time to move on to what was next…so I was doing my best to savor every moment.

There was one week in particular where I felt I was really on top of my game. It was a week where a local children’s home brought youth over. Though this happened every year this was the first chance I had to work with these kids directly. I had a few in my cabin and in the small group I led that week. These kids had a reputation of being challenging…but I had found myself building great connections with them. The only thing I had been frustrated with that week was this one kid in my cabin. He wasn’t from the children’s home…he was from a church youth group…and he was always last to everything.

Every morning we would wake the kids up in our cabin, get them ready to go, and head to breakfast with the rest of the cottages in our area. Every morning this kid was the last to get up. He was the last to get dressed, and our entire group of cottages would end up waiting on him. I grew impatient with him. I spent the majority of the week getting after him…getting frustrated that he wouldn’t leave his bunk and get ready quicker. It was very infuriating and I definitely let him know that.

The week came and went. After all the youth left camp at the end of the week, the counselors would spend a couple hours cleaning, then each “camp” (elementary, middle school, high school) would meet up and have a short meeting before we all gathered together. In this meeting we’d talk about what went well, what we could do better…and it would inevitably become storytelling time from everyone’s experience that week. One counselor shared with me that one of the youth in my small group had been in her cabin. They had been talking during the week and this counselor had been sharing her past camp experiences…and how certain counselors made her want to come back every year. At the end of the week this youth reminded her of that conversation, and told her I was one of those counselors for her. I fell back into my seat and yelled in celebration! I had felt that way about so many counselors in my youth and to hear a kid thought that way about me was so encouraging…so satisfying and humbling in the best way. I didn’t get to hold on to that moment for too long.

Another counselor started sharing. She said she had the opportunity to hang out a lot with “this really cool kid.” She talked about having all these great moments and great conversations with him…she started to describe him and I realized she was talking about that kid in my cabin. The kid who I had been annoyed and frustrated with all week. The last kid to get up every morning. I was surprised she had such good interactions with him when mine had been quite the opposite. Then she said it.

“Did you guys know he’s homeless?”

She went on. He came with his youth group because it was all the community he had. They paid for him to go. He had been living out of his car for a considerable amount of time now. It hit me like a ton of bricks. This kid had been sleeping in a bed for the first time in months…maybe longer…and the only thing he heard from me all week was me yelling at him to get out of it.

I was floored. I couldn’t believe myself. I felt so much guilt and disappointment. My friends did what good friends do. They told me not to beat myself up…there was no way I could have known and that he still had a great week. But I knew I messed up. I knew this opportunity had been put in front of me to be a source of light to a kid while he was dealing with a lot of darkness…and I let him doen. It was very humbling in the worst but most needed way.

I learned something important that day. You can be doing the best job you think you’re capable of doing, and if you’re not careful, you can miss the most important thing that’s laying right in front of you. I learned that God will humble you when you need it most. I learned that you can’t do it all on your own.

From the accounts of what that counselor said about her interactions with that youth he had a great week. Where I had screwed up, she had picked up the pieces and done a phenomenal job. She made a connection, she encouraged him, and she made sure he had the best week possible. The best kinds of teams are ones where that happens. They pick each other up without even realizing it. The best ministries are team ministries. If we think we can do it all on our own…God will remind us how wrong we are.