Some special kids

"I want to go to camp but there is no money" is the most common quote heard around December, when summer camp time is drawing near here in Lima. So many super kids would love more than anything to go but there literally just isn't any money. It costs about $25 a week per camper. Most also pay anywhere from $1 to $40 in travel expenses to get to camp.

Some kids have no hope of going and they just accept it. Some kids work and save every penny to go. Some kids make sweets or food and sell it. Some kids work around their church to make some money. Some kids pray and wait. Some kids ask other family members or friends for money. Some kids give up a meal or a hobby to save money for camp.

There are kids who arrive at camp with the clothes on their back and only one other change. They wash their clothes each day and hope they're dry by the next morning. There are kids who arrive with no sheets, pillow or sleeping bag. They sleep on a dirty thin mattress. There are kids who arrive with no soap, shampoo or towel. Usually, it's because they don't have any.

Kids have cried when it was time to go home from camp because at camp, they get 3 meals a day. Kids have cried the last day because they were returning to an abusive situation. Some have cried of fear to tell their parents of their decision for Christ.

It only takes a little more than $25 for a young person to go to summer camp, a week that could very well be the week that changes his life forever. The sacrifices made by some to go humble me and encourage me. These are some seriously special kids.

Miriam

Camps in Peru

Hungry kids, lonely teens, pastor's kids, gang members, neglected children, seminary students, rape victims, homosexuals, girls who have had abortions, church kids, abuse victims, pregnant girls, children from single parent homes, spiritually mature young adults, prostitutes, alcoholics, drug addicts, Sunday school teachers, teen mothers, .........just some of the precious souls we see each summer at church camp in Peru. Some of their stories would make you weep of shock and sadness. Some of their stories would make you weep with joy.

Brent started going to camp as an infant, sleeping next to him mom in the girls' dorms and being passed around from person to person who wanted to hold the chubby white baby. He grew up going to camp every summer with his parents and eventually as a camper. He worked in a summer camp in CA during college, took youth groups to camp in the US and has been either director, camp speaker or both every summer that we have been in Peru for the last 10 years. To understate it, he loves camp.

My first camp was at the age of 9, at the church gymnasium. Every summer after that until I graduated from high school, I went to summer camp. After I married Brent, we went to camp every summer with the youth group we were working with. Since being in Peru, I have gone to camp pregnant twice, twice with an infant and always with all of my kids. I learned quickly that this was a huge part of my husband's life and saw firsthand what an opportunity to see God at work it was. Now I wouldn't miss it for anything.

The spiritual battle at camp is almost tangible at times. I believe many young people are able to hear God's voice more clearly when they are removed from their daily environment and placed into one where they are bombarded with love, God's Word and surrounded by people who intensely want to see lives changed.

My own life was changed at camp as a teenager. Brent's life was changed at camp as a teenager. We have seen hundreds of lives changed at camp. It is a worthy ministry and we hope one that will grow by leaps and bounds in Peru.

The next few blogs will be about camp in Peru ~ there's too much good stuff to put it all in one!

Miriam