Arts Camp - Week 1

Hey Everyone!

This post is another deviation from the "main" purpose of the blog, but not from making a better story.

As most of you know, I am helping out with a Sports and Arts Camp this summer up in Ambridge where I work. I am Arts Camp Director, for more information go to this previous blog post. We started last week and it went, in my opinion, extremely well. I, unlike all the other leaders, do not have any previous experience with Ambridge Sports & Arts Camp (AS&AC). I helped out with a version we did in Peru, but never here in Ambridge.

In many ways it has been much more challenging in Ambridge. In Peru, all of the campers wanted to be there and were happy to do all of the activities. We often had to stop them before they completely finished their portrait, painting, sculpture, etc. In Ambridge, it is a little different. Rather than being excited about everything and willing to do anything, you really need to get the campers into what their doing. You need to be overly excited about the project, so that they can get excited.  But the bigger "problem" is that they are done with everything so quickly. Not that they finish everything quickly, but that they get bored with it and want to move onto the next thing.

It really scares me how telling this is of our culture. We all are aware of this trend, always looking for the next big thing. (Small Side Note: What is up with silly bands??? If you don't know what they are, be blessed.)

The campers are incredibly creative, for sure, but I don't think that they have been pushed in their creativity enough. When we arrived in Peru, we were told not to expect the campers to really go for it when it came to free form activities. One would probably do something and then everyone else would copy. Our team found this to be entirely untrue. They all jumped right in. Here in Ambridge, some of the campers do this. They start creating their bead animals. But others want instructions for everything or want you to show them exactly how to do it, like its math. That has been a struggle for me with some of the campers, getting them to let go and create whatever the heck comes into their heads.

This is another thing that scares me. The campers, at least not all of them, don't seem like they know how to just be creative children and teens. How to say crazy and silly things or draw with their wildest imagination. I feel like this could be because of three reasons. 1. I am not prompting them well enough that they are able to be creative. 2. They don't feel comfortable making something, i.e. they are self-conscious, etc. 3. They simply don't know how because they have never had the experience to be free, especially through art.

Those are the two areas Arts camp needs prayer the most. They boil down to figuring out where the campers are personally, and showing them who Jesus is so they can learn the freedom of how to worship him through art. Please also pray for rest, as the camp is terribly exhausting for all of us, and for knowing how to reach the "problem" campers.

The campers are simultaneously a huge blessing and the best birth control.  I say that in the most loving way, seriously.