...There Your Heart Will Be :]

After the long and fun-filled week of training, Project Transformation began summer camp last Monday. Interns divided into our teams that morning and seized the first day fearlessly (most of us, anyways). My team, “P.Mound” as we call ourselves (formally Pleasant Mound United Methodist Church in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood of Dallas), conquered many challenges during week one of day camp…

Team P.Mound at our finest! These are the wonderful people I get to work with every day : )

          First, we had a temporary building to use for camp until the school at our church site finished out their year on Wednesday. While every other team set up their site all day Sunday, we were doing that at the crack of dawn on Wednesday morning before camp started at 8:30. We began the week with about 25 kids, and on Wednesday, there were 70! Ahh, yes, that morning was a bit chaotic...but we made it through the day! Our kids are incredibly well-behaved (so far!) and they just love camp, especially during the first two days when there was a ratio of 2 kids per intern. They definitely liked the attention!

          The next challenge came Thursday morning on I-75. On our way to site, the carload I was in passed another one of our teammate's cars on the side of the highway. Since Josh was pulled over on the left shoulder during rush hour, we figured that his car had just broken down, and that we were in a world of hurt for camp that day. We called to make sure they were okay, and they only told us that they were fine and were getting towed, and would be at site later on. The rest of us tried to remain calm when we realized that our staff had just lost one-third of our interns, leaving the elementary portion of our program with only 4 people in charge of 50+ kids, and without our site coordinator. Luckily, the passengers in the car showed up just 10 minutes before camp began! We were so blessed.

          After the day had ended, and we headed back to campus, we heard the real story about what happened on the highway. Apparently, Josh was driving in the RIGHT lane and cars in front of him were about to crash, so he 360'd across four lanes, and slammed into the cement barrier of the shoulder, facing forward (looking as if they had just pulled over). Seconds later, traffic rushed by them. The entire carload felt as if they had escaped death by inches, and we all knew that God was working for us this week.

Day Camp

Our theme this week was "Goal'd Rush," tying in our Gold Rush theme with the principle of "going for your goals." We focused on the verse "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matthew 6:21. Every single kid knew this verse by Thursday! We also played a fun song about storing our treasures in heaven:

          Another blessing this week was our high school volunteers. During this first week, they couldn't have been more helpful to us. Most of them had gone through the camp themselves when they were younger, and planned to spend the summer volunteering with Project Transformation. Some of them even hope to be interns at PT in a few summers! We are really pulling for that to happen, too!

When asked what treasures they stored in their hearts, our 1st and 2nd graders answered, "Family" and "Friends" and "God." They also said they treasured Ariel, my fun-loving co-intern! While these are all things that I treasure deep in my heart, I have found a new treasure: Texas.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Until next week!

:]

Shelley


P.S. Here's my address until August!

Shelley Gudobba
c/o Project Transformation
547 E. Jefferson Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75023