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If I have no campers, do I still call myself a counselor?
It’s an awful feeling to be a counselor at camp and to not have any campers to
call my own. I find myself counseling in manuals, curriculum, safety
procedures, games & activities, other staff members, but not yet in that
quintessential being: a camper. Maybe I can build an imaginary cabin and call
it my own, but I fear Fr. Stephen would have to let me go at that point. So
until our campers come, we’re all preparing for the time to come and getting
more and more excited. The countdown: 19 days.
If I had to describe the planning process that goes into a
camping program, at least from my end, I’d call it ripening. We start with what we accomplished last year in our
program, prune off what failed and graft on what will help us. Fr. Stephen,
Pani Daria, myself, Ileana, all the staff members, we pray for one another and
revisit our plans over and over and when we do, we are watering our Camp Program. When all of the staff arrive and staff
members who are already here put on their counseling hats, we’ll start to see
our plants growing skyward; BUT, only
once the campers arrive will we start to see the fruit of God’s labors. We pray for good fruit, as Christ says:
“every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit.” (Mt
7:17) but we plan for as many scenarios as we can and ask God to take care of
the rest.
So if I have no campers, do I still get to call myself a
counselor? Maybe. But I once heard a troubled new teacher being told “you don’t
get to call yourself a teacher until your children are learning.” We ask God to
guide us in our planning, to strengthen us in our preparations, to trust in His
will with eyes to see and ears to hear, and to help us to counsel even now. May
God watch over all of our campers, whether they’ve arrived already or they have
yet to come!
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