Finally back!
Well, technically I've been back for two days already, but I've been resting and recuperating from the strain from Camp Cedarcrest for Boys. As it turns out, when Pastor Norman said that he wanted me to "help watch the kids," he actually meant "become senior Cabin Leader for 11 9-13 year-olds." I was watching them from 6:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night, and the few hours that I would have gotten sleep were taken over by the incessant attempts to pull pranks.
On average, I got two hours of sleep a night, I would guess. Not nearly the amount needed. To add to that, I also had to help them make a PowerPoint presentation (they were expected to draw each slide by hand, words and all, which lead to quite a few headaches on my part as the children alternatively "couldn't think of anything to draw" and "just wanted to take a short break.") I also had to provide the devotionals for my cabin, in which I only did it twice, since the other times were either taken up by one event or another, or the service itself went over the time and I decided to get some sleep rather than try to bring the Gospel to a group of sleep-deprived preteens.
Add to that a large amount of Praise & Worship songs (which I don't like, due to their repetitive nature) and just plain wacky (like the Song of the Meatball, the Song of the Auctioneer, and the Song of the Little Bird; for each of them, I could almost feel my IQ dropping by listening to them.) There were a few hymns and such, which made me feel better, but not by too much.
The other bad experiences were put into a mini-comic that I made there, mostly to help me maintain my perspective and my sense of humor. I might just scan them and put them up somewhere: I think they're pretty funny, and my drawing's definately gotten better than what it was before (though it's still not as good as I'd like it to be.)
Now, don't get me wrong: there were some very positive results of this trip, both for the children and for myself. However, those are of a more personal nature, and certainly not for me to put in a public journal. Still... there were some positives, though I'm not entirely sure whether they were worth the week's worth of time and the investment of my energy. I would also like to end on the note that the camp director was expecting the volunteers (all the way from cabin leaders to cooks) to pay the camp for the privilege of watching the children for one week. No wonder there was a shortage of help. :-/
On average, I got two hours of sleep a night, I would guess. Not nearly the amount needed. To add to that, I also had to help them make a PowerPoint presentation (they were expected to draw each slide by hand, words and all, which lead to quite a few headaches on my part as the children alternatively "couldn't think of anything to draw" and "just wanted to take a short break.") I also had to provide the devotionals for my cabin, in which I only did it twice, since the other times were either taken up by one event or another, or the service itself went over the time and I decided to get some sleep rather than try to bring the Gospel to a group of sleep-deprived preteens.
Add to that a large amount of Praise & Worship songs (which I don't like, due to their repetitive nature) and just plain wacky (like the Song of the Meatball, the Song of the Auctioneer, and the Song of the Little Bird; for each of them, I could almost feel my IQ dropping by listening to them.) There were a few hymns and such, which made me feel better, but not by too much.
The other bad experiences were put into a mini-comic that I made there, mostly to help me maintain my perspective and my sense of humor. I might just scan them and put them up somewhere: I think they're pretty funny, and my drawing's definately gotten better than what it was before (though it's still not as good as I'd like it to be.)
Now, don't get me wrong: there were some very positive results of this trip, both for the children and for myself. However, those are of a more personal nature, and certainly not for me to put in a public journal. Still... there were some positives, though I'm not entirely sure whether they were worth the week's worth of time and the investment of my energy. I would also like to end on the note that the camp director was expecting the volunteers (all the way from cabin leaders to cooks) to pay the camp for the privilege of watching the children for one week. No wonder there was a shortage of help. :-/