Last Day of Camp

June 26th, 2009
Today was the last day of Camp Hope and it felt like such a blessing from God to be there and witness it. Today we passed out more than 250 pairs of shoes to all the campers; shoes that we received from two girls from the Teen Mania trip and their church. It was amazing to see the children’s faces light up when stepped into the room of bright and shiny shoes, and then to realize that they could take a pair home! One boy, while helping him try on a pair of new sneakers, jumped up and shouted “fresh, fresh!” and did a dance of joy. Some children had shoes were broken, had holes in them, too small for them to wear anymore, and some worn out beyond belief. Some kids had no shoes at all and they wore their new shoes out of the tent! Later on, while some of the kids were playing football, I watched other children switch from their old shoes to their new ones and dance joyfully.
I also got the change to love on a boy who never got to attend Camp Hope this week, but was there everyday. Everyday when I walked around from group to group, I would see him listening to bible studies, playing football with them, or just watching them from afar. I always stopped and greeted him, shook his hand, even took his picture one day and showed him. But the language barrier was a problem so there wasn’t much more I could do with him except play. On the last day, I was wandering around the field as the sun was setting when he found me. He wrapped his arms around my waist when I said “hello” and then took my hand. I started pointing at the sunset and said “pretty” and he replied in njanji which I think was the word for pretty. Then I pointed to the moon and asked, “what’s that?” and he said “muez”. We continued to name the stars, the sky, the sun and anything else we could find; all the time he wouldn’t let go of my hand. When I finally had to go back to My Father’s House, he wouldn’t let go of my hand. He walked back with me almost to the house. It was hard for me to explain that it was getting dark, and I had to go home, especially since I wanted to get to know him better. He eventually understood that he was supposed to return to his house, and went his own way down the road. It was amazing to bond with a child, even though we didn’t speak the same language.