Camp week one

I have spent this past week in wet tennis shoes with fifty 8-12 year old girls and whatever other Dominican wildlife there is(rats, lizards, tarantulas, etc) bathing in river water which has its distinct odor or the rain. The things that were wet at the beginning of the week are still wet because of the consistent rain and lack of sun. With all that this week of camp was absolutely fantastic.
I was a counselor in cabin 5 which is the cabin with the oldest girls at camp. We spent a lot of time laughing and enjoying ourselves and by the end of camp almost all of them were saying they didn't want to go home and there were even a few tears involved. I was surprised by that because so many of them were daily complaining about being sore from the previous day's activities and being tired.
For three days straight it rained throughout the entire day. It made it a bit more difficult to do our activities and we had to do some creative changes like switching the afternoon competition from softball to hockey inside the cafeteria with benches making the sides of the court and using the top of a five gallon water jug as the puck. We also spent part of that day having an arm wrestling tournament. It turned out to be one of the best days.
With all the rain it was also really cold (mid-seventies) but I was really happy I had brought my sweatshirts because I wore them daily or at least nightly. In thw nights we had all the campers together for some singing and Bible time and dramas, one of which included me pretending to have lice and having butter put into my hair as the "cure." I would say that I will never do that again but we're doing the same skit this next week, but at least I know when we will me doing it so I don't have freshly washed hair destroyed by butter.
In each of these nights the Gospel was presented. We also had devotionals during the daytime that also had a clear Gospel message and throughout the day we were giving many opportunities of teachable moments. One afternoon after lunch during rest time one of the girls in my cabin who is a Christian came up to me and said "Bethany Glenys wants to become a Christian so I told her to go talk with Juana but she's scared and wants to talk to you" so i called her over and I was a little nervous because I wanted to clearly explain what her decision meant and make sure that she understood but my Spanish isn't perfect, but I was reminded that God is not restricted by me or my knowledge. I prayed with Glenys and she accepted Christ into her heart. We went and talked to Juana to tell her what had happened and get Glenys a Bible. Seeing this happen was huge because most of the time I didn't think any of the girls in my cabin were even hearing what was being said in the nights, the teachable moments or in devotional time, but God was working and He still is. Be praying for Glenys that someone will come alongside her and disciple her and also for the other girls who heard the Gospel.
Camp was definitely exhausting and difficult even getting back to town was difficult as we had to send the cabins one by one to cross the river since it was so high from the rains that the bus couldn't get through. In the end everything worked out and there is no place I would have rather been.
Tomorrow starts our second week of camp with the older girls and I'm hoping to get some sleep today so I can be well rested for that. Be praying for the kids that will be coming that they will have open hearts and also that the rain would hold off for a while and that if it doesn't that we would have rejoicing hearts in all we do.