Kids at Camp Cowen
Have you ever been to Camp Cowen in Webster County? Did you go there as a kid? Have you volunteered as an intern or counselor. Maybe you worked there over the summer as parttime staff. Perhaps you didn’t stay overnight, but dropped off some kiddos for their week-long adventure. Just visiting the campus is a blessing, but spending time in a cabin, meeting new friends, having more fun than you can express in a letter home all the while learning about Jesus is unfathomable and unforgettable.
This year at Camp Cowen, the kiddos will learn about praising Jesus. I get the privilege of being a counselor at the Older Midler Camp that starts tomorrow and concludes on Friday. We have around 170 campers signed up, so there’s no doubt it’s going to be a fun and exhausting week. We are all guaranteed to receive many blessings as well.
What I want to bring to light is who these campers are. We’ll be working with kids in 3rd through 5th grades who range from 7 to 11 years old. I don’t have statistical data to support it, but I honestly believe kids that age could run, jump, skip, play tag, chase butterflies, fly kites, ride bikes, swing, swim, skip rocks, catch frogs, jump in puddles, make mud pies, pick flowers, roll down hills, climb up trees, wade in a creek, dig holes, and so much more for days on end, never stopping to take a breath let alone a nap. When you combine all that pent up energy they store in those kid-sized bodies with ginormous levels of curiosity, an uninhibited free spirit, an impressionable mind, and a tender heart filled with innocence, there’s no telling what could happen. Add in a pinch of orneriness, a dash of obstinance, a hint of irksome here and there, all served up with tad bit of grouches and grumbles, and four days can feel like a whole year when you’re trying to get 20 campers in a cabin to stop giggling and go to sleep. But during those serene campfires and last-day goodbyes, all of a sudden it feels as if the days went by in a snap of a finger.
After describing the possible craziness, ludicrousness, and ridiculousness us adults may face over the rest of this week with 170 kid campers, you may think I’m asking you to pray for us. (Well…. we are quite outnumbered and definitely covet your prayers, but that’s not who I’m focusing on right now.) I encourage you to pray for our campers. Boys and girls from all across the state will converge on Camp Cowen with full intentions of driving all the counselors mad with jokes, pranks, endless questions, and continuous loss of clothing, Bibles, water bottles, and everything else. They’re coming for the fun, the friends, the pool, the games, the singing, the crafts, the late-night-giggle-frenzy, the cooks parade, the campfires, the four square, the gaga pit. On Friday, they will go home with a cool T-shirt, only half of the stuff they brought, and wonderful memories. But they leave with something else…. planted seeds.
Help us water these seeds by keeping these campers in your prayers this week. Pray that in between all those fun and games and songs, the excitement and fellowship and craziness, the giggles and gaga and goofiness, they don’t just learn about Jesus Christ, but it sticks like a half eaten Tootsie Pop tangled up in a little girls long curly hair.
In time, these 7- to 11-year-old campers will grow up physically, emotionally, and spiritually to be adults with their own spiritual gifts and callings. Many will become the camp directors, counselors, van drivers, letter-writing parents, interns, staff, cooks, and cleanup crew. In the church, they will be our pastors, youth pastors, family and children’s ministry directors, deacons, elders, trustees, officers, committee members, piano and guitar players, paise band members, audio/video technician, choir director, choir members, website and social media director, Sunday School teacher, women’s Bible study leaders, men’s Bible study leaders, Children’s Church leader, VBS director, VBS volunteer, kitchen volunteers, international missionary, state-side missionary…. the possibilities of how they will one day serve God and His church is endless. But it will be nil without the planting and the watering of the seeds. God may not bring the increase if we don’t do our part!
You may not have the opportunity to physically join us in all the loud, exhausting, seemingly unending, oftentimes wet, potentially muddy or slimy fun and excitement this week. But rest assured it will still happen…. for four whole days!! So pray…. and pray hard…. for these kids who will become the future leaders of the next generations. Pray fervently and with expectation that God will hear and answer. God is at work and doing might things. Let’s jump right in there and help Him do mighty things with our young people!!
Below is a list of scripture you can use for each day of the week. Meditate on His word and pray for the Camp Cowen campers each day.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6.
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. Proverbs 11:25.
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24–26.
