Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Young Life camp is back...it is different because this week we are hosting Young Life's special needs ministry called Capernaum.

We spent all last week just hanging out and not really involved in what was happening on the property. I honestly can tell you that I get emotional every single time a bus pulls into camp for the first time, whether it is able bodied kids or special needs kids. It is just so exciting to know that kids have no idea what they are in for. But yesterday was special. I wasn't really prepared for how I would react when I saw these special needs kids getting off of buses and out of vans. The work crew was lined up at the head of the bus, giving high fives to campers. These campers weren't really interested in fives...they wanted hugs! After the kids who could walk got off of the buses, the work crew lined up at the lifts as kids in wheelchairs were taken off of the bus. Everywhere you looked, you saw Work Crew kids, Summer Staff and assigned team crying. Everyone's emotions were on edge.

The Capernaum director spoke to the whole team prior to the first bus coming into camp and he exorted us to, "Be comfortable with being uncomfortable." These kids know that we're uncomfortable, but they don't care because they are being talked to, listened to and touched. This is not something that happens to them back home.

They are an unseen population in their high schools and daily lives. Because people are uncomfortable, they are looked through and looked past. This is not the case this week.

I have to admit, I am uncomfortable. It is a challenge to get over myself and love on these kids. I am embarrassed when Asher gets shy or uncomfortable. I want this to be easy--I want to love Christ enough to see these kids as God does. But I do see the flaws and the spastic motions. I see the social interactions that take more work than it does during a normal week of camp.

But, I know that God loves these kids as much as he loves me and my children. I know that these kids are his masterpiece. I know in truth, but it is hard to see it when it in your face. The director encouraged us by filling us in on the fact that these kids know things about God that we could never see. They know these thing because of what they have been through in their lives; the rejection, the pain, the lonliness, the sorrow of a life that has been altered. They have so much to teach us about how to live without pretense, without embarrassment...with joy at being somewhere with others rather than trying to make it on my own.

It is really fun to have freedom already here at camp. I know that nothing that Asher does has to be quieted down. He can dance and sing and laugh-and he fits right in. It is really freeing to know that he might get as much out of club as some of the kids at camp. And it makes me sad because I know that there are parents that are at home that are getting one of the first breaks since their child has been born. I know that this is not what they had hoped for when their kids were born. What a gift to give these parents! And it is such a priviledge to be here this week to see these kids truly have the "best week of their lives." They will get to do things that they might never get to do again...and we get to be in on that! Amazing.