Ricardo Ramos

The summer was filled with service and challenges. One of the most rewarding summers of my life. I worked with ages ranging from 6-14. The goal was to bring the Faith to children of all ages through the beauty of play. I primarily taught classes of 20 children with a focus area on basketball, soccer, baseball, painting, crafting, and more. Working from 7 am-6 pm providing children with care, love, fun, and the Faith was truly life-giving. The pay was minimal but the reward of seeing a child's face light up while answering a Catholic trivia question or scoring a buzzer-beater was the true reward. The program also offered daily mass religious talks and adoration for the camp staff. This aspect of the program allowed me to sanctify my work.

My official job title was a young apostle. I prepared and gave two faith talks for around 80 teens and led a small group of 10 students every week on Sunday. Being given an outlet to share my faith as well as hear about others was a true gift. Many of my students were non-practicing and asked many difficult questions. The most rewarding challenge was answering each question to the best of my ability while welcoming anyone regardless of where they were in their faith journey. Seeing myself and others grow in their faith simply by opening up and asking questions was inspiring.