Hi reader! Warning, this will probably be pretty long. Let’s start with a question. One of the most popular religions in the world is Christianity, am I right? Many people that ’believe’ in Christianity don’t actually believe it. Like what my church teacher says, many of us just come to church because we’re forced to. He says, ’We don’t really want to come. We would rather stay at home and play video games.’ It’s not that I didn’t like church, I did.  I really did. It’s really fun, and most of the people there are nice. Well, maybe some churches might seem boring, and I used to think that the beginning was boring. The priest would talk and talk, and I wouldn’t listen.

Remember when I said the church was fun, and most people were nice? Let me tell you why it wasn’t  ’all’, but ’most’. In my church almost everyone was nice. Except for this one girl. I’ll call her.. Savanna. Savanna really disliked me. I have no idea why. She still does. She would call me gross, and insult my clothing. Then, she would act all innocent and friendly. I couldn’t do anything about it, because she pretends she didn’t do anything. Or, she’d make its sound not so bad. I couldn’t tell anyone, especially since her dad was the owner of the church. Yep. You heard me correctly.  Owner. Of the church.

We don’t fight or yell at each other or anything, don’t worry. We just... don’t get along. I don’t know why she doesn’t like me, but I’m fine with her. But she does get in my nerves sometimes. But here’s where the story begins.

It was 2018, and our church always holds a Summer Camp. Every summer, the church people would have Summer Camp at the exact same place. The summer before the story happened, I went to summer camp. It was ok, and the cafeteria smelled so bad, I almost threw up. Well? I remembered that I didn’t have anything to do near the end of the summer, and I also knew that my friends were going. So? I begged my mom and dad to let me go. Eventually, they allowed me join Summer Camp. 

Summer Camp was 4 days and 3 nights. I was pretty excited. My dad had dropped me off at church, we were lining up for the bus. The bus ride was pretty boring. But I do remember saying, "Wait- Clara? Hi!" She looked at me and said, "Oh, oh! Hey, Rebecca!" We weren’t really awkward. In fact, we started talking so much, that my friend next to me fell asleep! Eventually, we arrived. It was a mess. Kids everywhere, teachers yelling, and curiosity. Let’s skip the craziness.

So we were finally assigned to our cabins!  I was in a cabin with my friends Tiffany and Clara! There were also two other TA’s, Teacher’s Assistant. There were two more girls we didn’t know, and another girl we knew, but didn’t talk to. The girl immediately asked the TA if she could switch cabins. They agreed, only if somebody else would switch from the other cabin. So, they switched the girl with one of my other friends, Katy. Pretty awesome!

The two other girls weren’t really shy. They were sisters, one of them was a year older than me, and the other one was one year younger than me. The younger one was called Hailey, and the older one?  Uh, I forgot.. I’ll call her Chloe. We became friends really quickly, and just on the first night, I and Clara grew closer than ever. On the first night, we played a weird version of a game. It started when I chose the bunk near the door.  It was the bottom bunk and pressed against the wall. It was like against the corner. The head was fully covered by the wall, but the side was only halfway covered, giving me an awesome shortcut to the door.

So, it was night, and the TA’s were outside doing TA stuff. Guess what we were doing? We were jumping around and yelling. The light switch next to the door. You can guess what happened. I stretched, and my hand hit the light. I stretched, and my hand hit the light. The lights turned off, and everyone started screaming. I was laughing my head off. It was awesome. I hadn’t had so much laughter come out of me in a while.

Then we played this weird game we all made up. It somehow had something to do with Five Nights At Freddy’s, Marco Polo, and Weeping Angels. Don’t ask. So, Clara walked around us recording us on video. I turned off the lights, and everyone froze, and then they screamed. After that, Clara got an idea. So, every time Clara off the lights, people would move and do whatever. When the lights were on, everyone froze. Then I got an idea. When she turned off the lights, I crawled as fast I could towards her. She turned off the lights, I crawled as fast I could towards her. She turned on the lights, stared at me, and we both laughed like lunatics. 

Then, I should mention something. I may have insomnia, so I couldn’t sleep. At all. One the first night, I stayed up am the whole night. When it reached 5 o’clock, I decided to get up. I wanted to change first but didn’t want to go into a disgusting bathroom. So what did I do? I changed right there, in the dark. I zipped open my suitcase while praying that I wouldn’t wake anyone up. Thank goodness, nobody woke up.

The day was normal. Nothing really happened. The cafeteria smelled the same, and we did some activities. We could go swimming, laser tagging, do archery, zip line, and something called a leap of faith. Leap of faith is kinda like bungee jumping. Expect you climb up a pole like in zip lining, then jump off, with a weird string tied to you. I actually wanted to do that, but my friends were scared. We decided to meet later on at the swimming place. After waiting in line, they closed. I didn’t even get to go. I walked towards the swimming area, which was close to our cabin. I walk in, and none of my friends are there. I just stood there, not knowing what to do. All the people there I knew, but they were a lot of years older than me. I decided to go in the pool for 5 minutes, then I got the heck outta there.

After the pool incident, I walked back to the cabin. I swing open the door, and there was Clara, sitting on her bunk, on her phone. We talked until it was time to go to another church thing. Then I realized something. No, I wasn’t mad at my friends for going to laser tag instead of the pool. I realized something else. They were all getting along perfectly fine without me. They didn’t acknowledge me or ask me anything. So for one, I kept my mouth shut and sat there quietly.

That was the 2nd day. The third day made me regret what I thought about my friends. Everything was pretty normal, water balloon fight, and nothing else. But every, before our ’Lights Outs’, there is something called ’Praise Night’. Right before it, there is another class. To be honest, I was pretty bored. I understood it, I just got bored. I usually listened quietly, and occasionally whispers to Clara. But she’s kind of emotional, she said herself. With her personality and trait, it doesn’t fit too well together. She started crying quietly during the class before Praise Night, and I tried to help her. Eventually, a teacher got her out of the classroom to try to figure out what was wrong. 

There was nothing wrong. I knew that. But I couldn’t have told the teacher, so I just sat there. The class was over, and I got up to try to find Clara. I found her, and we were just chatting before Praise Night. Praise Night came, and we sat there quietly, kneeling like we were supposed to, and bowed our heads down listening to the songs. Then Praise Night was over, and it happened. Don’t worry, nothing bad happened.  It just scared everyone. I got my water bottle and realized it was cover in ants. I quickly told a teacher, and they were washing it.

While they were busy doing that, I went to find Clara. Couldn’t find her. Must have went back to the cabin. I couldn’t find any other girls either.  So I wandered around, and turned back, and saw nobody. I saw a person, not from our Camp, and asked him if he knew what was going on. Then he said, "Somebody found a rattlesnake, and everyone went back to their cabins." I was scared- no, I admit I was terrified. Usually, they had cars to drive us down the mountain-like hill, to our cabins. But there weren’t any cars left, and I was alone in the night. I didn’t have a flashlight either. While I was looking for a teacher, I bumped into Katy.

I was so relieved, and we were both terrified. The guy then said, "Oh,  nevermind they got rid of the snake. You’re fine." We both relaxed. Then freaked out again. The cabin is far from the church, and we both forgot our flashlights. We decided we had to do something. So we headed out, and walked to the cabin, dark and far. At one point, Katy walked into a bush. That’s how dark it was. We were getting closer to the familiar light of our cabins, and we ran the entire way back.

We flung open the door, and Tiffany screamed. "OH MY GOSH!! You guys scared us to death!! There was a snake and we couldn’t find you guys, so we thought you guys went back. Then you guys weren’t here and we weren’t allowed to leave, and we were freaked out!" We calmed down eventually, and I told them everything. Then it was all normal. I talked with Clara, the rest of the grouped talked as well. I fell asleep quickly.

Don’t worry, we’re almost down! One more day. Everything was normal. Until Praise Night. They had asked everyone to move up in front of the stage and to sing along. And that’s what we did. But these songs were different. These songs hit everyone’s heart. Like, it was.. really fascinating to watch. Everyone was crying, and Savanna, teachers, I mean everyone. Even me... everyone was crying, and I was painfully crawling towards all my friends, trying to comfort them. I myself was so close to crying. The last straw was when I tried to pat Tiffany’s shoulder. She slapped my hand away, and said, "I don’t need your help." I just nodded and crawled back to my spot.

They kept repeating this one verse.

"You’re all together lovely

Altogether worthy,

Altogether wonderful to me."

After a while, I finally broke. I started crying and was desperately trying to hide it. My friends noticed, and they were awkward to comfort me. They weren’t used to this, and they were also crying. Then I said, "Geez, I bet all of our noses are red like Ruldoph!" Everyone started laughing and crying at the same time.

The next morning was normal. Packing, talking and laughing. But I kept wondering what made me snap. Was it Tiffany? Or the fact that everyone was crying? Or was it the lyrics? It must have been the lyrics. I thought about how the church had made me cry, the rock, cry. I finally came to a satisfying answer.

It was God. He had moved my heart to prove to me his worth, and my worth. He had proved we were all worthy, and that I also was worthy. And I’ll always remember that.

By _-Kimi-_.

By jayjayqueens.

Next Chapter: 23 - Hazi - Why am I not good enough?