A counselor and her camper, 2013
I have been working on this post for quite some time now, starting and stopping and finally just erased the whole thing to start over. A few years ago, Ben and I became involved in Royal Family Kids, an organization for foster kids that started in California and blossomed into something so amazing. It has become the highlight of our year and that thing that we make sure we save up all of our time and energy for. I will save you all of the details of how we became involved and focus on the heart of the ministry: kids.
I don't think we ever were prepared for what that week would mean to us. But my personal experience was with a little 9 year old girl who couldn't decide if she liked me or hated me, but at the end of the week, after I thought for sure I had done nothing in her life, tried to not leave my side to go back to her foster home. Please understand that as a foster parent myself, there could be absolutely nothing wrong with the way foster parents are providing care for these kids, but her being on her 4th foster home in the year, the only constant thing in their lives is change. When they are given a week with God's people who love them, focus on just them, and spend the entire time with only the goal of having fun and showing them Christ's love, it is a hard thing to separate themselves from.
We spend the week fishing, swimming, crafting, singing, playing, dancing, laughing, crying, holding hands, sharing meals together, and just being a part of each other's lives. Any counselor or staff member can tell you the experience is unexplainable. There is a movie available on Netflix, CAMP (this is the link to Royal Family's national page with the CAMP trailer,) that can give an inside view of what happens at RFK. However, to fully experience it, you have to participate!
I have spent a few years now fundraising for our local RFK and have found that the best way to raise funds is to just simply share my own experience and a few videos. My birthday was January 4th and I have decided to spend the month of January raising funds for camp in order to highlight "Everybody's Birthday," a celebration we share with all of our campers who may not have had a party for another year of life. This past summer at the birthday party, my mother-in-law and her church provided brand new book bags for all of the kids. While they received multiple amazing birthday presents, I watched in amazement as one little girl sat holding and hugging her brand new book bag. It was cute, but there was simply nothing special about it, except it was hers. No one else had used the book bag before, it wasn't a hand-me-down, it was just a pink checked book bag. I thought to all of my years of school when my mom bought me book bags, probably a new one every year but because it was such a given I don't really remember for sure.
God has truly blessed my family richly through this camp, my family IS my family because of this camp! Ben and I became foster parents because of our experience! This experience costs us about $600 per camper, and we take about 40 or so campers every year. Will you take some time to watch this video? My prayer is that you will watch the video and find a way to be involved. We can always use hands the week of camp or prior to with preparation, and of course we need to raise the money to bring the kids to camp! If you are interested in finding out more about how you can help or give, please contact me at elizabeth.moore4.30@gmail.com or go to this page to give a donation.
I am always interested and willing to give information or provide you with more reasons on why this camp is amazing! Please let me know if I can share with you or your organization!
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