All You Need is Love

6.12.2016
Sunday brings a day of worship followed by shopping in the market that consists of local craftsmen that bring goods to the compound and set up a "pop up" market.   I have two darling new friends new friends, Mary and Eunice  and they sat with me at church again this morning. Mary is about six years old and promptly fell asleep in my lap about three minutes into the service. 

The rest of our Sunday was relaxing as we prepared for another big week to come. When you sign up to work on Summer Staff you are scheduled for one week to actually be a Camp Life "regular" volunteer ~ meaning, you act as a leader to one of the groups of 10 girls.  So many Summer Staffers are participating in camp this week that we will be lower than usual in our staff numbers!   Prayers that it goes well! 

I am really enjoying the new group in our villa!  And, we have already had an interesting experience. Last night, our fire alarm went off erroneously around 9:00. It took about ten minutes to figure out how to work the unfamiliar machine after we realized that there was no fire. My poor parents. I terrified them, unintentionally, I might add. I texted them when the fire alarm was blaring "the fire alarm is going off".  I intended to let them know when we had everything settled back down, but when I plopped back in bed, I promptly fell asleep.   When I opened my eyes in the morning, I was greeted by numerous text messages  with varying degree of anxiety and panic and even a few missed calls. Apologies made, lesson learned!

Tonight we listened to the alumni testify about previous Camp Life experiences. Listening to grown men and young adults alike stand up and talk about how these Zambian children have transformed their lives is unbelievable. Interestingly  there were many fathers that stood up and began with sharing that they were reluctant to come in the first place.   Each of them expressed gratitude for the children in their respective groups and . And now they return for their children. A women I sat with at dinner said that last year her girls literally knocked her to the ground, knocked her "down with love". I loved that. These kids really do knock us down with love, both literally and figuratively. Their love is pure. They simply love you from the moment you step off the bus.
 
It's such an awesome reminder of how we should all treat each other. Just love each other. The day to day stresses of life make it harder than it sounds, but somehow these extremely vulnerable children love unconditionally. All the things we are here to teach them, and yet, another lesson that they are teaching us.