A choir room transformed into a circus wonderland

The Day Before the Campers Arrive
Sunday, July 13

I counseled my first camp when I was fourteen (that’s thirteen years ago, Lucy Cox…) and have been involved with camps, retreats, and other events consistently since. So when I woke up this morning with a huge knot in my stomach, I immediately recognized the emotions that are standard the day before camps start. Nerves, fear, anxiety, hopefulness, and excitement show up without fail like Bungee to the nearest four-square game. But through my experience I have been able to manage it with a calmness backed by the belief that when working on events like Reading Camp (you know, the really meaningful and fulfilling type events), it always works out.

Rev. Joe Pennington’s sermon today talked about our service to Reading Camp and related it to throwing out mustard seeds into untilled land not knowing the return. He said that the talents, hard work, and service of the members in our NKYRC community are the mustard seeds that we are throwing out for these children not knowing how meaningful it will be for all of them but understanding that some lives will be changed.

And let me tell you about some of these talented people helping serve NKYRC. They’re clever and creative, blah, blah, blah. This is the most dedicated group of people I know. We had our POSM training today (which we all know how much fun that is) and 27 PEOPLE SHOWED UP FOR TRAINING. TWENTY SEVEN!!!! And that doesn’t count those of us who have already been trained. Nor does it count the people who have provided services that didn’t entail the training (like unloading the trailer or hanging ribbon from the ceiling). In total we have 54 people to help serve the first ever NKYRC. Did you hear that? 54 people throwing seeds for these kids we haven’t met yet.

And I would like to tell you about this particularly talented and dedicated family. Prevention of Sexual Misconduct training started at 1pm and decorating started at 2pm for those whom were already trained or couldn’t help throughout the week. A family came into the church offering their service. To quote the dad, “My wife signed me up to help while the boys are in training”. And with that they went upstairs to our reading room and transformed the room into a wonderful space for these children to learn in. This type of dedication is typical for our community. Ask for ten minutes, we get four hours and a choir room transformed into a circus wonderland.

We from NKYRC are nervous, excited about what the mustard seeds will produce, but mostly thankful for the support of our community and others who are helping throw seeds for the first time.

- Ringmaster Hillie Gaither is a volunteer camp director from Trinity, Covington with the Northern Kentucky Reading Camp