I am back from two weeks of counseling at camp. I was taught
a lot about myself in those two weeks. This verse was one of the few that I kept
going back to during these weeks and after reading it you may guess how my time
at camp went.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4 (NKJV)
This was, in a technical sense, my first time cabin leading. My first age group was ten to twelve. Within the first 24 hours of my first week, one of my campers was sent home. That was tough. I felt like I had failed in some sense, I just pray that in the short time we had her, that the love of Christ was shown, the gospel presented and her life impacted for Christ in some small way. When she left though, it felt like a weight was taken off mine and my co-leaders shoulders, we were free to give our attention to the rest of the girls in our cabin now, which as it turn out, they needed every last drop of it!
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning, there was no conviction, no movement of the Spirit in these eight girls' hearts...... Wednesday evening devos........ the questions came like a flood and they didn't stop till those girls got onto the bus on Friday evening! My co-leader and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes, break-through! We talked a lot about heaven and hell, the reality of the spiritual world, creation vs. evolution, how we were all given a choice, we even touched on gay marriage! Jesus used this to get me searching for my answers, why do I believe what I believe? I knew all the sunday school answers but these girls wanted more then that, and when they would ask these questions, all the creation vs. evolution debate answers that I thought I'd memorized, left me, all the biblical references left me, I was just like 'OK God, your words not mine' ....... He came through every time!
This second week was different in a lot of ways. My cabin ages were four to five years younger, they had a very hard time listening, and they were always on the move! I would go to sleep exhausted and wake up exhausted every day, those kids took it all out of me! I didn't become as attached to this group as my first week. I felt like I was constantly degrees away from boiling point, if you get what I mean. As some of us counselors were talking we all said that the kids seemed to be getting worse and worse! What was going on?!?!?! Then Wednesday night the Holy Spirit came on the camp. Boys that were known from running in circles all day stopped and started to pray and open up with the male cabin leaders, kids dedicated their lives to Christ, our cabin was silent as my co-leader gave devos, and Thursday at lunch one of my campers and I had a one on one where she asked questions about the gospel that I never thought I'd hear from her! Camp seemed to go better after that for me, knowing that when I am weak He is strong!
The last morning staff meeting that we had was really special! We went around telling stories of how Jesus had moved that week at camp, then we went to the top of the hill and stood in a circle in the early morning air, and sang songs of praise and prayed....... the song Holy Spirit really felt special as we sang it!
I have lots of stories...... hail breaking windows, staff zip lining without harnesses, hurting my hand, cannonball contests at the pool, nicknames, archery injures (animals were harmed in the course of this week!)....... and much more!
