Children, Children, Everywhere!
People comment to me all the time that now that preschool’s out, we must spend our summers relaxing! That couldn’t be farther from the truth! Once school is over, and I say goodbye to my 50 preschoolers that attend for our Weekday Preschool, we open the doors and our hearts to up to 85-100 new children which range in age from preschool all the way through 6th grade. Trinity has a thriving Day Camp, geared for those entering Kindergarten through rising 6 th grade. We are a safe place, a loving home away from home. We welcome these children with open arms, knowing many of them do not have a church background. We have some who are in foster care, some whose parents are going through a divorce, some with messy custody issues. Our goal is for each of these children to know that they are loved, to know that God loves them, and to know that we will do anything to protect and help them. The Day Camp is all day long, 5 days per week. That makes for a really tiring week! This many children on campus get loud, and it gets messy. Forgive us if there are some things we forget to clean up. Please forgive us if they break something, or lose something. We are ministering to children in the basic way, by showing them God’s love all day long. They will test our patience. They will get annoying. They will aggravate us tremendously. They will even make us angry sometimes. BUT. Through this, they will see the width and depth of our love for them, and for this community, as we show grace and mercy time and time again. I quote for the children Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love for the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!” Certainly if God’s mercies are new, so should ours be! Each day is a new opportunity to shine brighter.
To work here isn’t just collecting a paycheck. It’s an opportunity to be a missionary for Christ. Our staff is comprised of 8 college students and three adults who seek to glorify God through our service to the Camp. We begin each week with a devotion by Jared Collins, our College Pastor. We set our minds on the goal, like in Philippians 3:14 “I press onward toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus”. Our staff knows that to work here, we will be empowered through Christ himself! We don’t need to rely on our own strength, but rather the strength of Christ who works through us. So while you are all enjoying your summer, relaxing on the beach, sleeping late – please pray for our staff. We are laboring along, like Philippians 2:16- “…and then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain”. And while we speak God’s word plainly to the children at our camp, pray that it takes seed and root in their hearts. Isaiah 55:11 reassures me that God’s word will not return empty, so that His purposes and desires will be accomplished through us! Praise God!
