A Week At A Glance
Disclaimer: Every camp is designed to uniquely meet the needs of the children in their local foster care system, so each camp is going to look a little different. Although our camp has changed before, this is typically what a week at RFK NELA looks like.
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Saturday- We meet the campers, ages 6-11 at Victory Baptist Church and we all go to camp together. When we get off the van the big brothers and sisters and many more are cheering with signs for their Littles. The experienced campers love it, the new ones are a little shell-shocked lol!!!
The Littles go straight to their bigs then on to centers and play!
We fish and swim right away because that is what they talk about the most.
We spend valuable time in Bible study with Aunt Amber and Nurture Group with aunt Shelby and Uncle Damon. In this time, we learned about Joseph and the hard things he went through in his life, but also how God used those hard things to save his life and the lives of his family. We even learned our scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6.
One of our favorite times for the week is "we are family" where we make a giant circle, turn the music on and dance and laugh and then someone goes in the circle while we guess who their family is at camp. If they don't have bio family then their bigs go to them. We take pics and have the most amazing time.
This is when I tell the littles that our camp is special and all the littles have been in or are currently in foster care. They love knowing this and really open up to one another. It is truly heart warming.
That evening we had our big Bayou Bash! The littles dressed up as princes and princesses. We had live zydeco music (accordian) by Mr.Shane Bellard and beignets handed out by Princess Tiana. The littles all got crowns and masks and had sooooo much fun. We were also presented our treasures, our Bibles.
Every night we were led in worship by the best youth band ever- The Springs.
We close each night with lots of love, stories read and prayers said.
The first day was fun-packed and absolutely perfect. The littles are worn out, so bedtime isn't much of an issue.
After lights out, the bigs stayed up half the night playing basketball and rocking on the front porch.
Sunday- RFKNELA goes to church!
Yep, we all got up and got 25 kids ready for church at Victory Baptist Church.
Bro. Grant preaches a sermon inspired by our scripture for the week: Proverbs 3:5-6. The kiddos really do lesson and can tell us all about it. It is a precious time for us.
Then of course we have to have swimming and fishing and all of the crafts and games.
Bible study, studying the life of Joseph is our focus for the week. This Biblical example is so powerful in the lives of our children. They have been through so much because of the actions of others, but God. He is so good.
Nurture group is also daily. This is a wonderful time facilitated by our amazing TBRI Practitioners and gives our kiddos proven coping skills to hopefully make their lives better.
On Sunday evening we had gun safety. Yep, you read that right. Gun safety.
Our news headlines are all too often about gun violence between teens in are communities. I have felt the call to address this at our camp. Many of our children are extremely vulnerable to this and have either already experienced gun violence, or are highly likely to. It's heart breaking and we have just the people to help them with this.
Officer Chris Crawford came and taught the kiddos what they should do if they find a gun or see a gun. We talked about the preciousness of life that is given to us by our God and how we are to respect that for our own bodies and others.
It's a hard subject, but we pray that God will use this to save lives. We don't know His plan, but we are obedient to His call.
Then they all got to have target practice with a BB gun. They all love this. It was a beautiful night for it.
We close out each busy day with live worship with the best youth band ever, the springs. Then we go back to the cabins for lots of love, story telling and prayer. Our campers are usually exhausted so it isn't much of a problem.
Having the privilege of praying with them and tucking them in is a gift.
By night 2 we feel the close bonds that have formed. It is truly an amazing thing that could only happen as a gift from the Lord. He created us with a great need for connection. We are so grateful for the honor of camp.
Monday- It’s every body's birthday!!!
The kiddos have all settled in and gotten comfortable and have developed a love for camp, their bigs, and a deeper understanding of Christ.
They have heard (and remember) the stories of Joseph and how his own family betrayed him and meant to harm him, but God. God had a plan for Joseph. He saw Joseph and showed him favor because through it all, Joseph refused to sin against God. How inspiring and encouraging for our campers and all who hear it.
This is also EVERY BODYS birthday party!
Every camper is celebrated in a big way! They get their own cake with their name on it. (Some have never had that).
They get to open gifts just for them.
This year we were exceptionally blessed by a group from McClendon Baptist Church that gave every child a beautiful hand made quilt. They were truly beautiful and the campers LOVED them.
We all sang a loud and somewhat off key version of happy birthday and then the big mess began!
We tell the children that we love them because Jesus loves them. He called us to be there to show them His love.
As with every day, we closed out with amazing worship with The Springs Band and a wonderful and funny skit by The Springs Youth.
Then off to showers and bedtime filled with love, stories, singing, and prayer. This is one of the easiest nights because camp isn't new anymore, and it isn't about to be over. Not yet.
The love of the volunteers definitely grows exponentially day after day. By day 3 we feel as if we have known them their whole lives. We feel so protective of them and never want them out of our sight. We feel compassion that knows no depth and an ache that we've never felt for a child we've only recently met. We see these babies through the eyes and heart that only a love for Jesus gives. What an honor to be used by Him to love on His children. Join us.
Tuesday- About half way through the day the kiddos figure out its their last full day with us.
They ask a lot of questions: Why can't we stay longer? Can we come again next week? Can I come live with you? Will you be back next year? And MANY more, but here's the kicker: Do you promise you'll never forget me??
We all start to feel the end of camp blues. I do wish life could be so wonderful...camp life...all the time.
So, we make day 4 memorable. We plan downtime and special moments and time to just BE. This is the "soak it all in day".
Along with the every day activities like Bible Study, nurture group, swimming, fishing, centers, crafts....we squeezed in some fun times.
On day 1 the dorms are told they have to have something for a talent show on Tuesday. I so WISH I could show you the precious videos of these kiddos shining like stars. They are soooo proud to be on that stage, in those costumes, with that mic...and most especially, with their big brothers and big sisters and making them PROUD! It is such a sweet, sweet and empowering time for our kiddos. We had runway models, skits, songs, cheerleaders, and so much more. Making moments matters and lifelong memories.
On Monday, the littles were given a box to decorate as cars for their drive in movie. They had so much fun designing their dream cars from special art work down to personalized license plates. They were soooo proud of these cars.
So on Tuesday, they got to go to shower time early and have worship early so they could bring their brand new quilts and pillows to the drive in movie in their luxury cars!
They were so precious getting all cozy in their PJs and settling in to watch The Princess and the Frog to go along with our Louisiana Bayou theme. They were an attentive audience.
Having this time of calm was imperative to the last bedtime of camp. On this night, they don't sleep as easily. They want it to last and last and last.
So this is how we roll the last full day of camp, slowly and intentionally with lots of extra love.
Wednesday- As you can imagine, the last day is so hard. It's also so sweet.
We don't plan a lot for Day 5. We spend a lot of time of just being together.
Our wonderful photographers take pics all week and make amazing memory books for every camper. The counselors give them their books out on the front porch and sit with them and go through them page by page and relive every moment. This may possibly be my favorite moment.
There are rfk campers from other states who are now grown that still have their memory books and have always taken them when they moved. They treasure them. So it's a pretty big deal to them.
We also give them MP3 players loaded with their Bible verses, Bible lessons and RFK songs. They love these too. They have camp all year.
We load the vans and head back to Victory. Once there the caregivers are invoted in to watch the littles perform their songs and get their certificates.
Our photographers create a sweet slideshow for us all to relive the week together.
The 11 year olds get special gifts and recognition as graduates. We don't love this moment. There are usually lots of tears. But we do encourage all of our campers to attend other church camps and we will even help pay for them.
There is actually a camp for older rfk kiddos (12-15) called TRAC. We don't have one in our region and we'd LOVE to help another church host one. Contact us if interested.