Tuesday I got to go to Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, NC...this is Kyle Petty's camp dedicated to giving kids with special needs an exciting camp experience. I'm part of a project that is donating a lot of goods & services to their organization, so they hosted us and we held one of our group meetings there. They were gracious enough to give us a tour of the property and even feed us! You can see more about their mission/facility/etc HERE. On the tour they showed us one of their typical promotional videos which shows all of these kids having the absolute time of their lives, despite whatever physical or emotional baggage would typically hold them back. I actually started to tear up towards the end. Let me back up a little...When I worked at Rockbridge (YL camp in VA), I had the opportunity to help pioneer some of the challenge course access systems for kids with special needs (ie: how do you get a child with physically debilitations through a ropes course so he/she can experience the same thing as the rest of her cabin mates). My partner in this effort was a local leader from Maryland named Suzanne, who, through this experience and others like it, would turn out to become a long-time dear friend. Suzanne worked with a YL ministry called The Capernaum Project, which focused on sharing the Gospel with kids with special needs. My contribution to the task was the physical logistics...working knowledge of carabiners, cables, ropes, etc. We tried several different methods that ranged from basic brute force to sophisticated rigging with pullies and wrap around seats, fumbling through the process as we went. The physical part, no matter the technique, turned out more often than not to be incredibly draining and required a coordinated team of people. The emotional part was always rewarding, no matter the sweat, no matter the tears, no matter the cost.
Even above all of this, though, Suzanne shared something with me early on that has stuck with me beyond all else: It's not "Special Needs Kids," they are KIDS with special needs. We always want to label things so they fit nicely into our little categories we file away...and we do that with people, too. The last thing these kids need is a label...they are Kids, just plain kids (who just happen to have special needs and need a different kind of love and attention). I still remember our first sweet Sarah who was wheelchair bound and had VERY limited mobility and VERY limited communication. It was awkward at first, trying to figure out the right system, who should be where, how do we do this? But one step at a time, we did it. The next one was easier, and the next easier than that. Each time, the reward was much greater than the cost.
So I sat in that dark theater, entranced by the video which showed giant smile after ecstatic giggle, thinking back to when these seeds of compassion were planted in me years ago. I couldn't help but get a little choked up. We later had lunch and were even able to spend some casual time with Patty & Kyle Petty (yep, Patty Petty). He's a huge NASCAR star, yet is the so unassuming and approachable. You can tell that it's not about boosting an ego or "look how great I am"...but it's about KIDS.
I think we're the needy ones.
