Camp time at OCSI!

October 17-19th was the OCSI Middle School Camp. Myself and five other CCBC Okinawa students went to help out for three days as camp counselors. This was, by far, the highlight of my time in Okinawa and the most rewarding. (photo credit above: Tamiko's blog)
OCSI(Okinawa Christian School International) is a non-denominational American Christian K-12 school in beautiful Yomitan, just north of the Bible College. Those who attend the school are either asian kids (mostly Japanese) whose parents want their kids can learn English, or they are American military kids. About 91 students went on this camp and trust me, it felt like a lot more kids than that! We arrived at lunchtime, got settled in, and played sports games to get the kids in different grades to spend time with each other. Okinawa's October rain kicked in, so we went indoors and did crafts until dinner time.
For dinner, all the kids got together by cabin and made their own Japanese curry outdoors, over an open fire. It was a pretty collaborative effort; each student chopped vegetables and meat, made their own rice, cooked, ate, and cleaned it all up. That night, we headed to Chapel and guest speaker Pastor Brian gave an amazing series during the next few days on great leaders of the Bible. Afterwards, we headed to the cabins. I was solely in charge of eight girls and had to get them settled in and lead evening devotions. They were all well behaved and had no major problems to deal with the first night.

The next day, we had Chapel and then helped out with other camp activities until lunchtime. In the afternoon, we helped organize and lead some water games and races (photo credit above: Logan's Blog) Later that night, the students and staff all pitched in to cook an awesome BBQ dinner and lead their cabins in some skits and a S'more bonfire. The next morning we had Chapel and headed back.
I went to serve at this camp to lend a helping hand, praying it would glorify God. In the end, I felt like I made a million mistakes and failures. But through each of them, I learned more than I thought I would; about leadership and being a good witness to these kids. I felt like I was blessed so much more than the kids were, at times.
My favorite moments were talking with the students one-on-one. Many of them have not made a true commitment to Christ yet and my heart became burdened for them. If anything, I wanted them to know with all my heart that they were so blessed to be able to go to OCSI and hear about Jesus everyday. My prayer is that these kids will know Jesus personally and know Him soon.