Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: AMAZING (04/19/18)
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TITLE: The Wow of the Pow Wow | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dianne Janak
04/25/18 -
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Camp Mystic, nestled in the beautiful hill country of central Texas, along the Guadalupe River, became my home away from home every summer for all my teen years. It was my heaven on earth that gave me the strength to endure my dysfunctional home. Alcohol was my dad’s drug of choice, and I sought a getaway Shangri-La.
Camp was full of friendly competition between the Tonkawas and the Kiowas, the tribe names borrowed from real Texas history, and I had always loved sports. Deciding to put my whole heart into the sports part, I was soon to realize God had bigger lessons for me.
The first week I was chosen to pitch for the intermediate Tonkawa softball team. One day before a game, I wanted to practice pitching but couldn't find a catcher, so I just got a few balls and pitched into the fence. One of the counselors saw me, and was impressed apparently, because I got voted best camper of the week. I was pleased and surprised, unaware that that simple recognition would ignite some hostility against me. It bought me three enemies who seemed bent on ruining life in our cabin of twelve.
I have no recollection, after sixty decades, of any fault of my own, but perhaps my memory is and was delusional.
My friends caught them reading my diary without permission, and laughing. They started to mock me every time they thought I was doing or saying something they thought disqualified me from my award. The pressure was intense, so I wrote home to my praying Nana.
Her response challenged me to think of times I had prejudged someone, but changed my mind when I got to know them. My list was not short. This was her not so subtle answer. We needed to get to know each other.
She encouraged me to pray and ask for God’s direction. God gave me a step at a time, and I had to just trust Him as we went.
I organized a “pow-wow” for the six of us to meet on a hilltop. The climb up was awkwardly silent and tense, even though each girl had been eager to come. That in itself was a miracle.
I opened in prayer as we sat in a circle Indian style. To my shock as well as theirs, I started us out with an icebreaker, that was on a positive note. God had control of this. We went around the circle and shared something we liked about each of the others.
We laughed together at some answers, like “you have a cool bedspread.” The positive game started to melt the ice our distrust had created.
I knew it was time to face the confrontation I usually avoid. I shared how the laughter after reading my diary was hurtful to me. I surprised myself by forgiving them and asking for their forgiveness for anything we had done to create the tension. Believe me, that was unplanned. There was a palpable change in the atmosphere.
We were listening and sharing why we came to camp and what our expectations were. Maryanne, had a brother with polio, and her parents had to always tend to his needs. She felt left out at home, sometimes, and came to camp to make new friends.
Leslie shared her Nana had breast cancer, and the whole family was coping with her impending death. When she started to cry, we all comforted her.
I told them about my need for camp to be a peaceful place, because my home was crazy stressful. When my voice broke, I knew I had changed. I was trusting three girls whom I had believed to be my enemies. After tears, there was laughter, relief and a peace we all had been looking for.
We group hugged, and walked down the steep hill planning how to play a joke on our counselor with a fake spider I brought.
The change in us, the kind that only God can orchestrate, was nothing short of amazing.
True story
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