I spent the last four weeks as a SaLT at Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je.
As a SaLT I might be working in the kitchens and assisting a counselor, or solely assisting a counselor. It depends on the week. I expected to learn a lot, but I expected it to come through morning devotions and chapel services. Which, in some cases, it did. However, the majority of what I learned about God and myself came through seeing other people work with me. Before I never really had a goal for who I wanted to be. I mean, I wanted to be more godly, and more pleasant to be around. But both of those things are very broad and simple goals. At camp I met so many people that showed me the kind of person I want to be, but I want to focus on two right now. Their names were David and Matt.
I'll start with David.
The first thing I noticed about David was his ice-blue eyes. The second thing I noticed about him was that he remembered my name. I assumed he had many other things to worry about, so the name of one of his SaLTs was not one of his priorities. In fact, I don't believe I ever introduced myself to him. I don't know. But somehow, he remembered my name. And it actually surprised me so much that when he called me by my name for the first time I didn't answer because I didn't expect my name to be remembered.
Because of this, I came home from camp with this goal: To be the kind of person that remembers names.
I've heard it said that the reason we can't remember other people's names is because we're too preoccupied with telling them our names. That really convicted me, and I think about how I'm so used to people not remembering my names. So when David did remember my name, it impacted me.
I want to be the kind of person that remembers names because it means that I care about the person enough to remember who they are.
Another thing about David is that he actually cared about how you were doing. He wouldn't just ask "How ya doing?" as a passing greeting. When he asked you how you were doing he stopped and looked you in the eye and listened to your reply. He wanted to hear about your problems
I dunno. Just, I saw that he genuinely cared about everyone he came across.
I want to be like that.
The second person who made an impact on me was this other SaLT named Matt. I'm not sure if I can actually convey the greatness that is Matt in this blog post, but I'll try.
Matt was supposed to be in Lodge kitchen. However, all three of the other kitchens needed help at some point during the week. So Matt was running all around camp helping out in all four kitchens all week. So he must have been incredibly tired, right?
But he didn't complain. In fact, I didn't even know that he was in the other two kitchens until all the other SaLTs started giving him shout outs for it.
I know for a fact that, if I were in his position, I would make sure that everyone knew that I was also helping everyone else out and I am so tired but look at how great I am for helping.
Matt showed me true humility, and I want to be like that.
There were so many amazing people at camp, and I learned so much from watching their example. David and Matt stuck out to me the most, but I could list so many other amazing people. Because of David and Matt, I learned that I want to be more humble and more intentional in showing that I care about people.
Much love,
Amanda <3
