On the first night of work camp the amount of energy in the gym is unbelievable. With hundreds of screaming and shooting campers. Then out of nowhere the sound level drops.  The time to learn what we would be doing for the week with our crew was finally announced. Once we have our assignments, we still have to wait until the morning to meet our residents.  On Monday morning, my crew and I were ready to meet the man we were going to be helping.  When we walked up to the house, there was a man and a woman standing outside of the house. Neither person was the man we were going to be helping.   Our crew was going to be helping a 97 year old man.  A study by the University of Michigan’s panel of income dynamics says 68% of people who donate or volunteer are more likely not feel helpless. I am one of those 68% when I am at work camp every summer. This past summer I experienced my third and my most unique work camp which was one of the most significant events in my life. That week in June I had a blast. While I was having fun, I also was helping someone and through him I felt God’s presence.
I could never have dreamed of the challenges that I was going to face on my trip last summer.  I did however, imagine all of the fun I was going to have.  Going into my third work camp, I knew how much fun and work there was going to be. This time in particular I had a life changing experience. From the minute that I sat down in the car that was to take us the 745 miles to Chandler, OK I was surrounded by my friends.  When we arrived in Chandler we found that another youth group that had been on the last trip we went on was there. I couldn’t wait to see all my old friends that I hadn't seen or talked to in forever. My crew leader was the same person that I had the first time I went on one of these trips.  This alone made me realize that God must have wanted me there with her because she was a really amazing leader, and I was so blessed to have her as a leader two times.  Even with all the people around me that I already knew there was also a lot of new friendships made that week.  I had a girl on my crew, who was in college, who taught me that I needed to be myself and to find trust in others.  Her outlook on her life really changed how I looked at my life by the end of the week. After a week of hard work, our crew was working together like a well-oiled machine, I will never forget the feeling I had when the most impossible project got done. The project was completed because we were working together as a team.  From the moment we meet on Sunday night, there was a connection between the six of us, I have never felt that connection before. We all were really hard workers and had a lot of fun working on the project. The task at hand was still not forgotten though. We were there to improve a 97 year old man’s home.
One of my biggest goals in life is to help as many people as I can.  These camps are always a place where I get to help people and see it happening right in front of my eyes.  The residents I am helping are sitting right there and I get to see their faces light up with smiles. Cristal’s smiles started when the crew first arrives at her house and then throughout the week as the crews are working on her home.  Coming in to the camp, I didn’t know there would be a resident that was not going to talk very much or spend very much time with us.  Communicating with my resident was difficult for me and the other kids on my crew. This really made it hard to keep working on the house but there happened to be a crew next to our house with wonderful resident.  Their resident Cristal was so loving and grateful not only to her crew but also ours, for the help we were giving to her neighbor.  The smile I got in return for all of my work was from Cristal.  She showed me that despite any hard times someone goes through, they can always make it through and come out with a big smile.  Without her willingness to share her smile, the week would have been a lot harder for me.  Others in the community where grateful to us for what we were doing for the town.  The thanks that I got the community members made me feel like I brought hope to a community that had slowly lost it. Through the people we were helping, and the community I felt God bring us together to help the people of Chandler, OK.
One of my favorite parts of the work camp program is that there is four scheduled times of our day to are been devoted to devotions and praise God. In these devotions, people open up and show their really self.  When this happens it is life changing, everyone relaxes and start to share more and more throughout the week.  By the end of the week, it is hard to go home to a place where there is no time of day set away for devotions. The week of praise really helps me connect with God, my friends, and myself. It is hard to grasp the idea that God is working through me and that I am teaching other about him.  For the first time, I listened when someone told me they could see God working through me. I don’t know why it clicked this summer, but I realized I was being the hands and feet of God. This is really changed how I looked at my life, and how I was handling people in my life.  Just the idea that God has brought all those people together to help one community makes the week life changing.
I have grown to love work camps because they show me that God is really with me, and is showing his love through me. It is a week of fun and helping others.  Work camps are a week in my life where I can get away from everything and expand my love for God. I have been to three work camps and this last one has been the most memorable.  So many people touched my life I was able to see God in others and myself.  With the help from my friends, new and old, I was able to have a fun trip. I was also able to help a 97 year old man who needed his house fixed. I have a lot of fun helping make peoples homes new.  I have seen God in people and they have seen Him in me.  On the last night of work camp, the words of a woman made me realize how much we really are the hands and feet of God during these trips. Work camps have had a huge influence on me and how I look at my life.  Even though my 97 year old resident was hard to talk to, I still got to see him love the new layer of paint we put on his house and the new deck we built.  I  had a very different experience at camp this summer than many of my friends. But, despite the hurdles my crew faced in the week, we had a blast and were one of the 68%.