I was so excited to go but stressed out that not everything would be taken care of while I was there... Yet, God gave me His peace and a friend like DD that I could leave everything to for her to check on and/or do. Wahoo! If it wasn't for her, I would not have been able to enjoy the week like I did.
We got there reasonably late, and we got our cabin assignments. I found out that I was in B4, which is a boys cabin, and that Nick (Courtney's boyfriend), and Derek Danner were both in my cabin as well. By this time, all of the campers were chosen but 3, so that's who we got. I felt like God told me to let them choose first, so I did. Yet, I got the best camper of them all.
Matthew.
Here's a picture of him covered in red glitter. Matthew was a 10 year old boy that had a mental age of 5. I was told he was non-verbal, a hitter, kicker, screamer that sometimes wets his bed and only knows the word "No".
He was so precious. During the week, yes, he did sometimes hit me and others, and sometimes, it doesn't feel great to get backhanded, yet.... He was so sweet. There were times where he would hit me because I was talking to someone else... It didn't matter if it was an adult or another camper, he wanted all of my attention, even if I didn't think he was paying attention. One of those times that he hit me, I asked him, "What's wrong?" He replied with "nothing". He actually used the word nothing 2 times during the week and also used the word yes. His mom was so stoked. His vocabulary is growing.
He also made other accomplishments during the week like doing every single activity. He is a huge toe-walker. I tried to continue to tell him to put his heels down, but he almost had to stan with his butt sticked out in order to do it. Yet, on the 2nd to last day, we went down tons of stairs to get to the fishing and canoeing area, and he ONLY used his heels to go down them. It was awesome. Then, later that night, he was walking and using his entire foot as we walked back up to the cabin. I didn't ask him to put his heels down, he just did. It was amazing.
Some funny stories about him....
He was the first person to pee on the carpet in the Silver Lining (one of the buildings that Extreme Home Makeover built).
He straight up pulled down his pants and started to pee in the middle of the cabin while he was plugging his ears. The guys that were in there at that time totally cheered him on and loved it.
I will give more updates later... .but I wanted to start off my series of blogs regarding camp with my camper. The best one of them all. :)
1 comment:
Hi Hannah~
Thank you for sharing your time at Camp Barnabas, I look forward to hearing or reading more about it.
Reading about Matthew brought back fond memories for me of an 8 year old little girl named Alana, who I worked with for 5 months, though she would hit, head butt, scratch, etc. all the time, it was the sweetest, most rewarding job I ever had. She would tell me "need a hand," when she would feel herself losing control, she would say this because she wanted me to pray with her.
These children are such an incredible blessing and anyone who works with one of them has to walk away a changed person.
Thanks again for sharing.
By the way, did you know I will be in AZ...I'll be there from the 2nd to the 10th. Let me know if you have any free time to say hi while I am there...I would love to see you.
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