I am a few days removed from the All Church Challenge, and have had a
difficult time determining how to summarize the experience. I have a
degree in journalism, and should find this task simple,
straightforward. But I don’t. I can’t seem to make my fingers say, in
500 words or less, what happened in Helena over the last two weeks. I
know what I did – I worked at Swim Camp. I put kids in groups, I led
the Little Red Wagon song, I dealt with a lost tooth, I gathered
lunches, I received a ton of just-out-of-the-swimming-pool hugs. I
know of several anecdotes about kids and volunteers, but they still
can’t convey how big the All Church Challenge was. I saw, over the
last two weeks, 250 outside volunteers come into this place and love
the people here. Many of these volunteers returned this year for their
fifth or sixth summers, demonstrating a commitment to Helena that
knows no distance, that is steadfast, unwavering. These volunteers
know this community, which I have only begun to know in the past two
months, as well as they know their own. They know what I have learned
– that the kids here are the most beautiful little people in the
world, that they grab hold of your heart and don’t let go, that they
teach you as much as you teach them. They also know that some days,
this job is not easy. That sometimes, you run into one who makes you
question your being here. I had that day a couple of weeks before the
All Church Challenge. When I left the Community Center that day, I sat
in my apartment and cried, knowing that one 13-year-old boy would
never like me, and would never let me love him. That I could do
nothing for him. It was heartbreaking. There are kids that aren’t like
this one, that beg for a ride on my back, that run to greet me with
hugs, and those were the kids that I found that day to remind myself
why I was here. But these volunteers blessed me with additional
perspective as I listened to their stories. The same volunteers that
had to kick R out of camp five years in a row watched him become
a group leader in the second week of camp. R is funny,
charismatic, and full of energy, but he has a smart mouth and a bad
temper. I can imagine how they must have felt in the past, watching
him walk away, believing that relationship was broken, lost. But this
year, these faithful volunteers found in R a new person, a
leader, someone with a great deal of potential. As they watched him
become mature, strong, bold, they demonstrated to me the importance of
the ACC and validated my expectation of change here in Helena. Because
maybe someday, when I return to Helena, I’ll see the same thing in the
kid who broke my heart. I’ll see him on his way to Bible story with 15
kids following him, I’ll hear him brag about how he’s disciplining
them. I’ll see him becoming the kind of person he can and should
become, full from the support of volunteers who are rising again to
meet the challenge of living a life of purpose, a life that is giving,
a life that shows love.

– Mollie Palmer, Student.Go Intern with Together for Hope