From the journal of Olivia King

July 16, 2021 | Achuzat Sara During the course of KH, some kids are extremely welcoming, well-mannered, polite and ready to immediately build a relationship with you. But some aren’t. I experienced the latter with one boy over the course of camp. He would constantly shout at us, even sometimes throw things at us and we assumed he didn’t care about us being there. If anything, he wanted us gone. It’s so tempting to think that the kids who act out or worse, completely ignore us, don’t care about our efforts. And as much as the KH coordinators told us otherwise, it’s hard to believe this isn’t true. However, this week I was proven completely wrong. After talking to this boy for a while, I began to walk away, thinking he wouldn’t care if I left, and as I stood up, he said ‘wait, don’t leave me’. Those four words really struck me and I think encapsulate what KH is all about. All kids want is to feel cared for and loved but throughout these kids lives many people have left them. Us ‘not leaving’ can make all the difference in the world. Leaving KH this week to go back home highlighted this even more for me. Kids who I’d barely had a conversation with, or kids who seemed so uninterested in us being there, ran up to me, telling me how much they will miss me and how much fun they had. Sometimes chessed is instantly gratifying and you really feel appreciated straight away. But KH taught me that chessed that isn’t as gratifying in that same way, is just as important and that even if you don’t feel it’s being appreciated, it always is.