Hello Everyone! This month we welcome Alexander Richards as our Wednesday Words Guest Blogger. It is rather amusing since, today, I am the Guest Blogger over on our Sister blog for Senior Youth Camp!
Alexander is a long tine Day Camp Groupie and you will enjoy hearing his take on the world of Day Camps!
Welcome Alexander…
Mouldedby Day Camps
Hello readers! My name is Alexander Richards. I am the Day Camp “Gofer” (the spelling is often debated!) .
For those of you who have no idea what this means, my role is to go-for whatever needs to be done, whether this means picking up groceries or supplies, buying tickets for teams, picking up teams from all sorts of places, or driving teams to the bus station or airport at 5am……it falls upon me to do this. This is a very important role, and one that I do with great joy. In recent years I have also been happy to serve on the Day Camp Planning Committee and have been heavily involved in the training process of the Team. Some of you may wonder why? The answer to this is quite simple, but requires a bit of context to explain exactly how we got here. When I was about 8 years old (wow, I just realised that this is now over 20 years ago…..), my mom told me that I would be attending a Day Camp at the church where we were going, she was involved in the planning and would later go on to co-ordinate (and later serve on the planning committee). Given that I was 8 years old at the time, I did not really have a choice at the time, but I remember really enjoying the week of fun and silliness, and in the following few years when the day camp would come back It became as much about the stories of Jesus and his love for me. I also remember thinking that the Travelling Team were the coolest people on earth, and decided that once I was old enough I HAD to become one of them. I first did Travelling team when I was 15 years old, and went on to do it for 5 summers in a row. These were without question 5 summers that played a huge role in who I am today and played in HUGE part in shaping what my faith is today. The biggest thing I learnt, and if I am being honest had to be frequently reminded of is that no matter how many seemingly insurmountable challenges we seem to be faced with, with even a fraction of faith that God is on our side, all things are possible! At the same time, travelling all over the country, going from tiny fishing villages and a native reserve to huge urban areas and serving the Lord helped me discover that I was being called to a vocation of service for those in need. I know for a fact that many of the life lessons I learnt while on Team help on a daily basis in my working life as a Social Worker.
My involvement with this amazing ministry has shaped me and blessed me in more ways than I could have ever asked or imagined, and I would not be surprised to know that there are many that I don’t even know about yet! My involvement in this ministry has also introduced me to some of my dearest loved ones. This is in no small part due to the Lord blessing this ministry with strong leaders before me. So the answer is pretty simple: now that I am in a position to be one of them, how can I NOT take this opportunity to do so?