I’m not one of those kids who grew up going to camp. In fact, I never went to one. I didn’t really feel like I was missing out and I was perfectly fine with my track record for a long time. Then my siblings began going to week-long Bible Schools and Youth Camps – a place to learn, fellowship, and make memories. Most of the time the age range for these types of things goes from ages 15 or 16 to mid-twenties.

When my siblings would get home from these events I would enjoy listening to them talk about their experiences, but once again, I didn’t really have a desire to attend one myself. (This was because of a multitude of reasons, including health, personality, and a bad experience I had at the one youth-themed event I did go to when I was thirteen.)

Then my next-younger sister went to a youth camp and after hearing her stories I began praying about going to one myself. Fast-forward eight months and my youngest sister married the brother-in-law to one of the guys who helps lead the Youth Camp I’d been praying about. By this time I was really wanting to go to one – but I didn’t want to attend as a student.

It took a while for me to work up my courage to ask, but I finally offered my services as a cook. And thus set into motion a week that totally threw me out of my comfort zone, was utterly amazing, and very much not what I was expecting.

Although I didn’t attend many of the teaching sessions because I was staff and therefore working in the kitchen, I still learned a ton – both from listening to others talk about the sessions, and from forcing myself outside of my comfort zone. I also realized that my comfort zone while away from home consists mainly of my siblings and so I might have trailed after them like a puppy every time they were around. (This is the part where we pretend like they’re the older siblings and I’m the youngest instead of the other way around.)

When I sat down to write this post this morning I looked through my phone for pictures and then remembered that I basically didn’t have my phone out at all during the week, so pictures are pretty nonexistent. I did video the students singing though, so if you want a 30-second look at that part of camp, then yay. 🙂

Youth Camp was wonderful, stretching, and a lot more fun than I had thought it would be. It was also rather exhausting and I’m still struggling to catch up with life now that I’m home. But guess what? I’m already looking forward to next year, and that’s a big win. 😉

Have you ever gone to a camp?