Camp Friends

Hi, Mary here!

I wanted to tell you all of an experience that happened to me that encouraged me.

I attended a bible camp with my sister this summer. At camp, there was no one there that I knew other than my sister. I was in a cabin that had room for 14 people- 2 counselors and 12 campers. In the cabin, there was a group of 3 campers that came together, a group of 2 campers that came together, my sister and I and the counselors. When we got to chose what cabin we got, that cabin was the only one left. When we were in line to chose, though, I saw a girl who was all by herself and I figured I could befriend her. She was not in our cabin though, and I was wondering why. I felt that the camp was going to be one of the worst weeks ever because I am not super outgoing and all the girls in our cabin had their friends. I did not want to spend the whole week by myself, though, or with my sister, I wanted to make more friends. I did not have much time to think about it, though, because the first camp game was about to begin. About 5 minutes before it started, though, our counselor got a message over her walkie-talkie -they needed a girls cabin that had 5 beds left. She looked around and counted our empty beds- exactly 5. So, this group of 5 girls joined our cabin and we had a full cabin. 

During the game, I decided to step out of my comfort level and speak to some of my cabin-mates and tried to make friends. Many others were shy at first, but I felt I really clicked with that group of 5. 

Later that week (still at camp), I was wondering why God did not allow that girl to come to my cabin. It took me about 30 seconds to figure it out- God did not allow that girl to come to our cabin, so there was room for the 5 girls to all be in the same cabin so we could be friends.

To this day, I still keep in touch with them and I am SO thankful for them. Even though I have no in-person friends with me, they are friends I can keep in touch with online.