RFKC

I know I did have a small post on my experience at Royal Family Kids Camp, but I wanted to expand on it. This experience has really changed the way I see things and if I feel this transformed I should share it.

My job at the start of camp was to be Sheila the sheep in the chapel skits, to be on the Breakfast Club team and to help with registration and riding the bus up to camp with the kids. However, as we often learn in life, nothing is set in stone and there is always more work to be done, and if you are able… do it! So I helped set up the Tea Party, decorating the room and then helping serve while it was happening. I helped be on bedtime/cabin duty every night, tucking in the kids and praying for them, sometimes reading a Bible story and talking about what they had done that day.( I think that was probably my favorite part of camp.) I helped in any way I could, I wanted to serve, I mean how often do you get to take a week off from thinking about yourself and just get to exist to serve. Support staff turned out to be the perfect position for me. Nothing is more refreshing and worth doing. I enjoyed every moment of camp, even when I was awake at 6:30am (not being a morning person this was a test of faith) or taking many kids to the bathroom.

What I want whoever is reading this to understand is that this camp is more then camp. It is a role model of how we should treat each other all the time. Taking the time to talk about toast for 20min if that is what someone wants to do. Celebrating ever achievement big or small. Loving each other unconditionally. I don't think it matters if you are a Christian or not, we should aim to live this life, wouldn't you love to feel true LOVE every moment, succeeding or failing!? I know I would, and I was so lucky to get to spend 5days practicing that and applying to these kids who rarely see that kind of love. The year leading up to camp was spent learning and getting trained on how to properly support these kids, giving up hours of time to attend meetings or reading the manual on my own….not once did I ever feel that something was not worth doing. Everything mattered. At camp, taking someone to the bathroom, swimming with them in the pool, acting as a sheep…it was all important and worth doing. I blew out my knee from walking everywhere. WORTH DOING!

I still cannot believe that these beautiful, talented, caring, loving and selfless kids are in the circumstances that they are in. How did we let this happen. Where did we stop loving our own creations, abandoning our children. I adore all of the kids, which says a lot. I would adopt them all if I could. Each child blew my mind. I had kids tell me such deep insightful things, they spoke into my life, at the age of 8 and taught me life lessons. I have never seen such selflessness, and I want to grow up to be as beautiful as my campers were. I want to shine in my talents, and share them with others. I want to have the bravery that each of these kids had, the confidence to get up on stage and be silly, or let out emotions that they had kept hidden for years.

I…look, once you see faces, learn names, hear stories…you cannot look at the foster system the same way ever again. 200,000 kids in the foster system. I know 36 of them. I know their names, their favorite food, their talents, their hopes. I know them. They aren't just numbers anymore. They never will be again, and I know that there are still more kids who are faceless and name less. That must change. I am no longer content to live in a world where we can assign numbers to children, as if they were just another figure in research, that is not good enough for me anymore, and I hope that it is no longer good enough for you.

When you hear a kid say that they like camp because it is the only time their birthday is celebrated and they don't have to share a bed with someone else…. You cannot look at anything the same. We spent a whole day celebrating everyones birthday and I had never had so much fun and joy playing with and watching the kids be celebrated. The best part was at the end of the night when they went to their rooms to find birthday presents wrapped and on their beds. It filled my heart and broke it. Plus being on cabins duty, I had the amazing honor of having all the boys in the boys cabin show me their gifts, tell me about them. They didn't just tell me they showed me, they wanted me to play with their toys to, they wanted to share the joy that they had found in their gifts with me. These kids have nothing….yet when they did they would give it to us, to me. I remember how I'd show my presents the gifts (that they gave me) on Christmas and they would smile and be pleased. This time I had kids showing me and wanting me to be happy too.
The kids were so giving, I received bracelets and letters, hugs, I have never been so popular in all my life. I still cannot believe that some of the kids took the time to write me a letter, or made me a gift every single day and would teach me things I didn't know.

Why can we not do this? Why….
I miss celebrating everything, big or small. I miss showing unconditional love. I miss tucking my kids in every night, praying for them and hearing them tell me all the fun things that they did. I miss how much they would fight over who's table I would sit at for lunch. I miss having them run up to me and tell me something exciting, as if I was their mom and they just wanted me to know. I cannot put into words or write it in a way that you will completely feel what I now feel. But I hope you get a glimpse. If you want to be involved, have your heart broken to be put back together better then before, please email me.
music4sb@gmail.com