Serving

So this past weekend I went to Okizu as most of you may know.. For those of you who don't know what Okizu is it is a camp that supports families of childhood cancer. The weekend camps are for families and in the summer they have SIBS week (for the sisters and brothers) and ONC (for the patients). So I headed up Friday after an escape to San Fransisco with some friends. After a very long drive (4.5 hours just to get to Roseville) I made it to Okizu right before it got dark. I got to hang out with some kids before the meeting and than head to Lumi where we slept outside under the stars!
Being a family camp counselor we have tasks like watching the kids during parent discussion group, sit with a new family at meal time, run an activity, teach a song or serve smores during camp fire (I picked the song of course) , and help out during the dance.
So I really just want to talk about the amazing families I met during this past weekend and some new friends :).
When I first got their and unpacked my car I made my way down to the arts & crafts room to hang out with some kids. One of the first kids I met was a 4 year old girl. She was adorable! She made me a necklace and I found out that she was actually an ONC child and was going to be in my group. She had the nicest family. I was able to talk to her parents about their story and their daughters and share them mine.
One of the first families I sat next to have two children. There child who had cancer was 12 years old and had a pink wig on. She was awesome! I was talking to her about her wig and she told me she wanted an orange one, but her mom got her a pink one. I shared with her my love for the color orange. Both of us just talked about all the oranges things we had. I was able to hear her parents talk about how this was there first time at Okizu and how much they loved it.
One of the families that stood out the most would be the one I sat with at dinner. Their 17 year old son had recently been diagnosed with leukemia. I talked to them about how I had a brain tumor and how we both had been diagnosed with different things I was able to relate to being diagnosed with somethings at that age and having to hold off on applying to school and all. I was able to talk with the parents for a while and like it was so cool cause they said they could see how I had such a big heart for working at the camp and the families. Which was such a God thing because God had put that passion in my heart at a young age and it is some awesome that others can see that passion. I love how God plants seeds in others and also helps you grow as well. I met some many other families which I could talk about forever....
I also met some new friends as well. Christmas and Blank. Okay those aren't their real names but we go by camp names.... ( mine is Laughin) We all had our mats outside and spent a lot of time talking and found out we all lived right by each other and had a lot in common. I played apples to apples forever and also got to meet a lot of other people and hear their story. I really liked it a lot because I never really get a chance to be around people who have gone through similar situations.
I enjoy serving but this weekend got me fired up and wanting me to help out more and more. It was also a reminder of where God wants me and how rewarding it is to put others first. I am hoping that I can go back for SIBS week and/or ONC if not I will be at family camp for sure labor day! What was also awesome was watching the commuity that was built over the weekend not just with the counselors, but the families. They would all just sit , talk and support each other. Kids would be running around playing mafia, games, carpet ball, etc. I could go on and on about this..
Jesus says that we must love our neighbor like our self. So find that passion and go with it! It is so rewarding in so many ways I cannot explain!