Child Fellowship Camp Tells Kids ‘That They Count’

Sometimes, says Nancy Thomason, she and her workers are met with suspicion. She remembers the defiant young mother who stood in the doorway at Los Angeles’ Jordan Downs Housing Project, adamantly refusing to allow her son to leave with the volunteer.

“You’re not taking my son anywhere,” the mother fumed, even though the boy’s grandfather had earlier given his permission for the youngster to attend the day camp that Thomason’s Child Evangelism Fellowship group brings into inner-city housing projects during the summer.

“We went around and around,” Thomason said. “Finally I told her that she must really care, and that’s why she is so concerned about her son going to camp. That’s when she started to cry. Large tears rolled down her beautiful face.”

Thomason heads the Los Angeles office of the fellowship, a 53-year-old international organization. This week, one of their visits was to Avalon Gardens. Volunteers organize children’s activities and games, but more important, Thomason said, “They teach the children that they count. . . . I just think these children need a constant, ongoing assault of love.”