Wednesday Words-Laura Hamilton

I was first introduced to Day Camps 25 years ago, as a parish helper.  Prior to this, I had no church involvement (and certainly did not have a relationship with Jesus), but I decided to help out simply because I liked little kids and because a friend told me that it would be a fun way to spend a week.  Little did I know what I was getting into!  In the subsequent years, I participated in Day Camps as a parish helper, a travelling team member, and a Training team leader.  Day Camps is also what connected me to the wider ministries of Crosstalk (Senior Camp, Focus, Crossroads), in which I was deeply involved for many, many years.

When I think of how Day Camps has influenced my life, there are three main areas that come to mind.  Faith formation; personal relationships; and Christian instruction.  Regarding Faith Formation, as mentioned, prior to Day Camps I had not set foot in a church since my baptism!  I had not met Jesus, the Bible was unknown to me, and prayer was a foreign concept.  Day Camps was my first exposure to the love of Jesus and His desire to change my life.  While I do believe that He would have ‘found’ me one way or another, Crosstalk is certainly where we met and where our relationship began.  During my time on Travelling Teams, I learned to trust God and to lean on Him in the far reaches of the Gaspé Peninsula – and saw the wonderful fruits that will come when we hand ourselves over to Him!

My time on travelling team is also where I met friends and forged relationships, many of which have been maintained over the past 25 years.  Not only does Day Camps teach you to rely on Jesus, but being on a small team together, travelling the country, requires that you learn to rely on each other.  What a gift that is!  My understanding of what it means to be a part of a team… appreciating
each others’ strengths and gifts, respecting other perspectives, challenging each other, building each other up, having FUN together!… this has its origins in my time on travelling teams, and I have always remained grateful for that.

Finally, Day Camps was hugely influential in teaching me how to teach children about Jesus.  Being a Day Camp team member is not just about singing A-La-La-La-La, telling Baaaad Lamb jokes (hee hee!) or even about leading devotions.  These are important, and do make up the Day Camp experience.  But I think that the most important thing I learned from Day Camps is the small ways in which our actions model the love of Jesus to kids.  Making sure the shy little Scrambler feels just as much a part of the morning presentation as the exuberant Pathfinder.  Ensuring that every child feels encouraged, and never shamed, in their participation.  Getting on our knees and acting ridiculous to show the kids that it is okay for THEM to have fun!  Everything to relay that Jesus loves them and rejoices in their presence!  As I now have my own children and have taken on a leadership role in Sunday School at our church, these are the things that I am working to pass on to others… and while I have gone on to do multiple degrees in social work and child development, when I am in that Sunday School room it truly is what I learned in Day Camps, more than any lecture hall, that I draw on.  My husband (Greg – also a Day Camp alumni!) and I regularly debrief the morning’s church service or Sunday school session, and almost always talk about it in the light of what we learned doing Day Camps… that we are still doing this more than 20 years after the fact is a clear indication of how influential this experience has been!