The Kingdom of God is at Day Camp
Ashley Sanford has the privilege to serve as a Day Camp Ministry Coordinator this summer. She is from Smyrna, Tennessee and attends East Tennessee State University where she studies Social Work and Spanish. Her favorite part of the job is being a part of an organization that has seen and contributed to the lasting impact of God's love in the area. Ashley loves to hike, read, travel, and play music!
When we think of the kingdom of heaven, what does it look like? What does it sound like? Who is there? How are people loved, cared for, and supported?
As a Day Camp Ministry Coordinator this summer, I have the privilege to witness firsthand the ways that God lives and moves through the kids of the Grundy County area. Each day and week reveals a new layer of the impact that is made not only on the Day Campers, but the YSM campers that experience the program, adult and youth alike. We encourage the buddy system, not only for safety precautions, but also so that each child is able to make a deep connection with another youth that makes them feel special, loved, and seen.
At Day Camp, we strive to meet the four needs of each child that we serve: physical, spiritual, social, emotional. Through our program, we meet the physical need by serving lunch every day, the spiritual need by teaching and modeling God’s love to each camper, the social need by introducing new and kind people into their lives, and the emotional need by being present and willing to guide each kid through their new emotions.
Our job for five days is to shower these children with as much love and grace as we possibly can, but what I quickly learned early on in the summer is that they teach me more about the kingdom of God than I could ever hope to teach them.
While the program already lends itself to making space to focus on love, support, celebration, connection, growth, and grace, it could not be made visible and clear without the presence of our campers and our Day Camp kids.
The way the kids so quickly trust and fall in love within a span of a few days is evidence that connection does not require qualification. The way they celebrate each other proves God’s love is infectious. They play together, they laugh together, they eat together, they fall down, and then they get right back up. This pure joy and willingness to show up each and every day excited for what’s to come is what keeps our program alive.
This year at Mountain T.O.P., our theme is Share the Light. We have been talking a lot about how sharing our light does not cause it to diminish. In fact, it expands. We are called to live in abundance. To share our light and all that we have. Only then will the kingdom of God truly be clear here on Earth.
Well, friends, I have seen it.
I have no hesitation when I say this: I have witnessed the kingdom of God right here in Grundy County, Tennessee. I have witnessed it with the kids and their buddies and the adults that are so willing to support me and the program in any way possible.
I have seen it in the way that every morning, the van drivers share with me how eager each child is to hop in the van to sing along to music, and every Friday when each child and adult is holding back (or not holding back at all) tears as they say good-bye to all their new friends from the week.
Day Camp has taught me that it is quite possible to create this environment where each person feels safe and connected everywhere. All it takes is the strength to share and offer all that you are and all that you have to serve the people around you, and trusting that God will guide those gifts wherever He sees fit. Luckily for me, I get to live and work in one of those sacred places all summer long. How blessed I am to have the privilege to be a small piece in the beautiful work that God has gifted to all of us, in the form of a summer camp deep in the hills of the Cumberland Plateau.
