Last Day!

This week was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The amount of serving hearts was a sight within itself. Every family who came to Shawnee this week had loving hearts for all of
the STM's and leaders. I don't think there was one kid who couldn't make me laugh this week, whether it was a joke they told or it was just a funny action. This week started out very quiet and slow for me because I was new to this, but by the end of the week I was talking to about ten different people at once. It was very hard to grasp the schedules of the kids. God showed me the right path towards many of the things I had to do this week. My campers name was Micah. He is 12 years old and a very open and loving boy. He is someone who can't tolerate a lot of noise and can't stay in one place very long. We were usually in a room with our group for maybe 10 minutes before we would have to leave. Most of the time we would walk around the lodge or spend time down in the quiet room. From what I have seen, he loves looking at God's creation. He has taught me how to more than just patient this week. He has taught me to take a step back and look at everything with a more open heart--not just a plain heart but a servant's heart. If they did this camp every month I would come back in a heartbeat. When everyone is together at this place it makes it seem like we are one big family because we all just interact together like a family. The activities this week have been amazing and planned by dozens of people. We had fun doing things like swimming in the large outdoor pool to going to the dairy bar to play putt-putt golf and get some pretty awesome ice cream. Today was the last day for all of the families and we had a great last morning together in the grandstand sharing stories of how Joni and Friends and God have impacted their lives at home. Before everyone left, every family got a balloon to take out to the front parking lot with them. At the same time every family released their balloon into the air to see it sail across the sky, which was a sight to see. I am very excited to come back someday and I hope we can get even more people to come too. Thank you all for your support this was an amazing opportunity for us all.

-Kevin Herwerden