By Maddie, Kids in Motion Teen Counselor

“I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me.” This song, which we taught our campers at Kids in Motion this year, was a perfect representation of our attitudes this week. It wasn’t always easy. I had campers who wouldn’t listen. Sometimes conversations would go way off topic when teaching lessons. However, there were encouraging times, too. One day, all of them memorized the Bible verse and they got to say it in front of the art class. We got close as the week went on, and I found myself transformed into a human jungle gym. I loved seeing them understand the messages I taught them even when I had a hard time teaching them. My assistant counselor cleared things up for me more than once, and that part was a little discouraging. Yet, at the same time, my assistant and I made a great team, and I could tell that what we said together really got through to them.

We taught them about Jesus being the Living Water, which was our camp theme. We explained that he is what makes us clean spiritually, that he loves us enough to take our sins away on earth so we can be with him in Heaven. We taught them that no amount of works we do can cleanse us from our sins. We also taught the difference between well water and living water. “Well water” is the toys we get that we won’t always play with, and the living water is Jesus, who is our ultimate fulfillment forever. Of course, I had one camper who insisted he’d play with his Star Wars Legos for the rest of his life.

My campers cracked me up. Our week was full of crazy days like “crazy hair day” and “backwards day” and my favorite: “dress like your parents day.” During the week all the different groups were simultaneously competing by memorizing Bible verses, by answering Bible trivia, and by dressing up. At the end, my group (the Bubble Guppies) won and each camper got to throw a whipped cream pie in my face. They loved it, and it was the perfect end to the week – though it took me two days to get the smell of spoiled dairy out of my hair.