The halls were quiet. The girls were doing devotions in their rooms. My group was taking their turn using the "on the hall showers" in the dorm one of the great joys of camp living. I was filling my water bottle for the hundredth time that day because it was a heat wave week at camp. It had been a long day and I was ready for my head to hit the pillow.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the other chaperones who was staying with girls from our church on the floor above us. She quietly approached me...and then before I realized what was happening...she pulled out a cowbell and rang it right in my ear! Before I could say a word, she ran into the bathroom and rang it outside the shower stalls. The girls, my girls in the showers, started screaming their heads off. Then the cowbell waving chaperone quickly scurried up and down the hall clanging the cowbell with all her might before running back up the flight of stairs to her own floor and her own room to hide.
The girls in the showers were screaming. The girls who had been quietly reading their Bibles, praying and doing devotions with their chaperones were rushing out of their rooms with wild eyes full of questions. The chaperones were looking at me like they were going to kill me while I was mopping up the water from my overflowing water bottle that went flying when the cowbell first rang in my ear!
All I could do was point to the stairwell and say, "It wasn't me!"
For the next hour we laughed like crazy after I ratted out the guilty chaperone. The girls all thought it was a fire alarm when they first heard the cowbell. They couldn't believe a chaperone would run up and down the halls clanging a cowbell during quiet time when everyone was getting ready for bed. After all we were supposed to be doing devotions and showering. Isn't that breaking the rules?! What kind of chaperone would do that?
The real kind. The fun kind.
In a moment of madness this one chaperone won the hearts of about 50 girls and the other women chaperones. We all loved the unexpected. We all loved the craziness of the moment. We all loved this new friend who was willing to take a risk and bring the fun factor to our floor after a long day when we were tired and maybe for some a little homesick.
The clanging cowbell reminded me that sometimes I get so caught up following the schedule and rules of camp as a chaperone. I try so hard to make sure that everyone is where they need to be and doing what they need to do that I forget to just have fun with the girls. I guarantee it changed the way that all of us lived the rest of that week of camp. (I was even seen clanging a cowbell later that week!)
And what are the girls going to remember from their camp experience? I want them to remember what they learned in Bible study. I want them to remember messages from worship. I want them to remember intimate moments with a great and loving heavenly Father. But I also want them to remember that there are some women in their lives that love them and want to hang out with them long after camp is over. I want them to remember that along with the more serious times of study and focus, there are those moments to be spontaneous and crazy. I want them to remember to live the abundant life in Christ.
In the end I hope these girls remember their time at camp as one where they grew in their relationships....their relationship with God...their relationships with friends...their relationships with others they didn't even know before camp. And if it takes a clanging cowbell to help make it happen...so be it!
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