You love me! You really love me!

I wrote yesterday about the difference in our travel regimen this year as compared to last but today I was thinking that our presence here also seems to have greater affect on our friends over there.

Last year, outside of teams we were visited by only 4 people we knew (and 3 of those were our parents) and had 2 part-summer interns.

This year the numbers are staggering.  As best I can figure we are expecting visits from at least 10 friends and will have no less than 8 (possibly more) interns as varying points during the summer.  4 of those interns will even be here outside of the actual summer camp period - either before or after camps.

We may also end up with 4 groups or individuals who come to work on the camp itself, as compared to 1 last year.

Contrary to the title of the post, I don't really think it's our continued presence that has caused this.  I honestly don't know what the difference is.

I heard once that economic downturns tend to have an effect on charitable giving by the middle class - an INVERSE effect.  Apparently when faced with news or experiences that shake us out of our comfort zone, we tend to actually give more generously.  I don't know if we are seeing an example of this, but hearts have been opened to the ministry here and it's a huge blessing.

Thanks for your efforts and God bless.