BELLE VIE: this girl sees spirits

Barton Bible Camp Blog Series: day three. MONDAY!

It’s Monday at Barton Bible Camp and our first full day was GREAT. Yes, everyone is already exhausted. And yes, it’s hard to remember everyone’s names. But really I’m just happy that all these kids are happy. It makes my heart smile to know that the girls stayed up late and woke up early just so they could have girl talk and makeovers. Those are the kind of things I remembered as a girl at camp, those are the kind of things that give these kids lasting memories and friendships.

I counsel with some of the best counselors in the world.

The absolute best part of the day was my two and a half hour nap. I guess I will admit to being an awful counselor and skipping the bible classes for the kids so that I could sleep longer. But the way I see it is my nap prepares me for the rest of the day with the boys and girls.

And of course drama has to be drawn into every situation with these kids, so at the beginning of the week we are having girls crying over the boys who refuse to be their date to the bonfire. Big deal. It’s where a guy asks a girl to go to “the bonfire” with him which is Thursday night, and they get to sit together. A mess is what this whole date thing has become. Who likes who and whose with who, my brain just can’t handle this constant change of pairs. These girls are boy crazy.

Tonight was the night of mega volleyball. All the kids screamed with excitement as they ran towards the sandy area that would soon decide which team was the best. The counselors and I supervised because supervising is what we do best, ya know. But then I saw this girl sitting alone, awkwardly drawing shapes in the dirt with a rock. She was a loner and she was in desperate need of a friend. I walked over to her bubble that she had put around herself and sat down beside her, asking her question after question to try to get to know her better. I found out she was obsessed with art which made sense considering her withdrawn, melancholy personality. When she told me she wrote poetry, she told me she wrote down angry feelings. I explained I wrote depressing and sad feelings down, we both told each other why we felt the way we did. It was nice to have a conversation with someone who understood how writing everything down makes all your pain go away that sometimes becomes bottled up.

Our conversation soon took an interesting turn when she looked at me and said, “I see spirits.” I’m convinced it was her facial expression that really made my mouth drop a little lower than it should have. This girl talked and talked about these ghosts she saw frequently in her house, with no head and a human body. There are pilgrim girls in her hallway, her Aunt Shelia lives by her shower (whose funeral was years ago), and there is a man that watches her eat in her kitchen. She told me only her mom believed her, because her mom sees them too. I continued to nod my head as she continued to talk my ear off as if I was the only person who gave her the time of day. Ghosts are not my specialty, but I still wonder about this girl who claims to see spirits. She told me about the angels she has seen, how they help the people in this world. She explained how the ghosts in her nana's house are angrier than the ones in her own house, and the way she has watched door handles move in an empty house. I'm not one to tell her what she's seen and what she hasn't.

It was a nice conversation, a talk that made me think. Her name is Jalyn and she is an absolute sweetheart.