YoungLives at Camp Buckner

I got to spend last week hanging out with this amazing group of women and loving on a group of ten adorably cute babies while their moms got to hear about Jesus, worship and get a chance to be a normal teen for a bit rather than a teen mom.

One evening while at a friends house, Mari, who has a passion for YoungLives in Carrollton, was telling us about how they wanted to take some of the teen moms that she helps mentor to camp but they didn't have enough childcare workers. I had never heard of YoungLife or YoungLives before, but Becca and I looked at each other and had one of those conversations where nothing is said out loud and then turned to Mari and said "Well, we can hold babies for a week so these moms can go to camp" we had no idea what we were really signing up for.

Becca and I were placed in the Orange nursery, which was for 8-10 month old babies, with six other volunteer childcare workers, including Stefany who volunteers regularly with Carrollton YoungLives. Nearly everyone in our nursery had never done a YoungLife or YoungLives camp before. Charnel, our nursery leader, was a camper 5 years ago and has come back every year as a childcare worker. Getting to hear her story about how YoungLives has changed not only her life but her daughters life too was inspiring. This year was Charnel's first year as a nursery leader, and she did such an epic job pulling us together as a group.

There were ten sets of chubby cheek babies in our nursery that we got the pleasure to cuddle, love on and most importantly got to pray for. Every morning and every evening for a few hours those ten moms left their babies with strangers, something most of them had never done before. Considering that, it amazed me how well those moms handed their babies off to us. There was one mom in particular who had never left her child with anyone before. EVER. Every time I talked to her she asked how her kid was doing in the nursery. I told her that her child was one of the babies that never cried or was fussy. I'm pretty sure she thought I was lying to her because she asked me anytime I saw her outside of the nursery.

We did have some rough nights in the nursery thought. A lot of the people were suffering with their allergies and so were the babies, so there was some mucus filled vomit that Becca handled like a champ. When we weren't able to but the babies down, we had to wrap them to us so we could help out with the other babies and save our backs too.

It was a hard, long week, but it was very rewarding. On the last night, while the moms were picking up the babies for the last time, they were telling us about their week and giving us thank you notes. One of the moms was so fired up about what she learned she could not wait to share. She told us that she learned about Adam and Eve, about Jesus and how all her sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus. She then said that she was frustrated that she wasn't told any of this sooner and she said "I can't wait to tell her mama when I get home!". 

Some of the moms told us how much they loved getting some time to just "be a girl again".

The last day of camp they have a believer walk for new believers and those recommitting their life to Jesus. It was great to see seven of the babies we had been loving and praying for during the week make that walk with their mom, knowing that those babies will grow up hearing about Jesus and His love for them.

It was a sad drive home knowing that I won't get to see those chubby cheeked babies and their smiles anymore, but then I realized that I might get to see them one day again in heaven. I am glad to be home recovering from a sinus infection I got there but I do miss those babies and I find myself rocking and bouncing my dogs when I hold them.