Stories from the Camp Nurse: Bonnie Murphy

Our camp nurses are incredible! 

Bonnie “Nurse BOO BOO” Murphy is from Henderson, Texas and has served faithfully at the Towers every summer for the past nine years. She and her family LOVE camp, as you can tell by the fun photos! Learn more about her passion for helping kids at camp and how she has seen many of the campers grow up before her very eyes. 

I am Bonnie Murphy, a nurse at the Towers. I am going into my ninth year at Pine Cove, but it is really hard to remember a time when I have not been coming to Pine Cove!

I have been a nurse for 17 years and my heart is with children. That is where I feel my calling is. My husband, Chad, and I have been married for 20 years, and we have been a foster/adopt family for 17 years. We have had more than 45 children in our home. We have seven children that have come and stayed. They are Kaitlyn (22 years old, living in Japan with her Marine husband Michael and our first grandchild, James who is 7 months), Kamryn (21), Sean (14), Gabbie (14), Charles (12), Maddie (10), and Jaylen (3). We also now have a sweet foster baby girl that is ten months old.   

The Towers is my home away from home. My husband laughs and says that most of the time I am more excited about camp than my kids are. The reason I love Pine Cove is that I love watching children grow in Christ, watching the counselors interact with the children and teach them more about Jesus, and seeing every child loved and prayed for. Each camper at Pine Cove is so precious, but my little ones at the Towers have my heart. I love all the staff at the Towers, and it feels like having a family reunion every time I come back. You can see how strong the counselors and nursing assistants are in their faith, how they love each and every child, and how they want the best for each wonderfully-made camper. 

The Towers age group is so much fun and keeps you on your toes! I love the campers’ sweetness, how they see the world, and their imagination. I have my “yucky medicine” that is so yucky but it makes you smile and feel better when you feel bad, have a little homesickness, or have a “boo-boo”. Everyone thinks that it is just an M&M, but it really is not so. (Just kidding!)

I know God has placed me at the right weeks every year. I love meeting parents and every week that I work, I find I am at that camp to help give the parents a peace of mind. One week, we had a child who was away from home for the first time. He had a heart condition, and since my son Sean is also a heart patient, the parents and I bonded over our heart babies and it gave us both a feeling of peace.

Pine Cove has helped my children grow in Christ. Each year when we head home from camp, we talk about camp and how much we have learned that week. My son, Sean, gave his life to Jesus his first year at the Ranch. I am always amazed at how much they learn and grow in Christ during just one week!

My twins, Sean and Gabbie, were with me my first year at Pine Cove. I have watched the kids that were in their age group grow up each year, and I still have a couple of them that run up to me each year and catch me up on their lives. Now they are in their first year at Shores. I have met other parents of foster and adopted kids, and I love learning from them. 

I enjoy every second at camp!