"O’Doyle Rules!"

If anyone has seen the movie Billy Madison with Adam Sandler, they understand the title of this post. My time up at Mt. Hermon these past couple weeks was a great experience. Although at times very tiring (A few different sessions I was teaching with a fever and snot filled nose) and mentally/spiritually draining, it was a very fulfilling experience.

Back to the “O’Doyle Rules” quote from Billy Madison…In the movie the O’Doyle boys are the bullies of the local school who are about twice of the size of the other kids and whose faces are filled with zits. I tried to hang out with the students as much as possible in my time up there. One of the kids was the exact personification of an O’Doyle boy. All week long he would sock me in the shoulder or dig his chin into my back. At one poing when we were all playing water polo he nearly drown me…he was just screwing around and always had a smile on his face, but I was getting pretty annoyed. It was obvious he was a really insecure kid that was just extremely socially awkward.

The last day of the week that he was up there, I saw him in tears sitting on a bench with his counselor. I was later able to hook up with his couselor and hear a bit more of his story. It was a pretty tough one, but he was now sharing it people that cared. The “meat head/bully” front he was putting on was being broken down.

Although I often have different philosophical thoughts and opinions in regards to summer camps, I couldn’t help but acknowledge some of the ways God was made evident in my time up there. The counselors modeled service and humility like I had rarely seen in my life. I was the “speaker” who was supposed to have it all together, but in alot of ways I feel that God did most of the speaking to me.