Day 23: A Little Camp With A Big God

Another Sunday under my belt. Making this the 3 week mark of my Alaskan advernture. Boy, has it been one too! Wednesday pretty much was the beinning of my summer with 28 K-2 children ready for 3 days of sugar, energy, camp fires, and Jesus. 28 is the most kids that have ever signed up for K-2. Blessing! I was paired up with Bleu (Rachel) and 8 2nd graders. Leading up to Wednesday our team was being led through counselor training by Colby (Mark). Now this was no training that I had ever been used to. It was full of learning how to really ( I mean really!) love these kids like no other. Up here it's not that every other child has a story, but every single one. From domestic violence to alcohol and drug abuse. It's messed up up here. If you were just thrown into the camp with no training or anything, you'd be in awe of how these children act. But once you hear their stories and learn how to work with them, it's still a challange but a good one. Now that we have the young ones through, we will now start having full week camps. As Colby would say, "I need God more than I need sleep."

The team continues to grow in Christ individually and through that, together. It's a true brother and sister bond with all of them. We cook, laugh, cry, and serve our Lord together. Now don't think that it's been all cookies and Jesus. We are all seeking rightousness, therefore digging up past unforgivness and sin in our past that we had forgotten about. We've held on and in order to get it out and give it to Chrsit, He has to cut it out in order for healing to take place. God is teaching me so much. I have realized that in most of my prayers I'd been asking for Him to speak to me when He's been speaking the whole time. So I changed my prayer to, "Lord, remove distractions from my mind, mouth, and actions. Allow my eyes to be opened when You speak." It's crazy what things happen when you start to pray more. The town up here has been amazed at our team's bond and love for Jesus Christ. Every Sunday Pastor Mark asks for praises and prayer request in front of the whole church. Every week someone thanks God for the summer missionaries. Today, Mr. Terry, Pastor Mark's dad, praised us for our devotion to serving and thanked us for helping him put up a metal shed that he wouldn't have been able to do. He said that we have given him hope for this generation and the ones to come. Hello, heartfelt anyone? I felt it in my soul. I know God is using us in mighty, mighty ways.

The other night we had one of our last team training sessions. We do role plays in them using us in the palce of campers and conselors and have to figure out situations and look for solutions biblically. It sould easy, but don't be mistaken. The last one delt with Gouda (Abby) being the counselor and Bleu (Rachel) being the camper. Gouda went out of the room so Mark could explain the situation to Bleu. In came Gouda to a crying camper outside the cabin. She was a mess, crying, actually sobbing and takling about  how ugly she was. How she didn't feel worthy of anything good and was questioning why God would make her so ugly. Gouda embraced silence and asked God what to do in a situation like this. Remember the whole team is watching her along with Pastor Mark. We all had different situations that happen every year. It took a while and through it Mark spoke truth to us. After the skit, one of the boys, Motz (Joshua), raised his hand. Mark jokingly said, "Potty break?" and Motz got quiet. He said, "Not really. I would like to pray for these girls." Thinking he meant the campers, I nodded. "No, I mean the ladies on this team that will be dealing with things us boys would never have to face in a million years." Right then my team of 8 and Pastor Mark bowed our heads as 4 young men in the room went to the Lord out loud with their request. Some of the statements said in the prayers almost made me weak in the knees. I have never met such godly young men in my life. I lost it. The flood came. The AMEN was said by Pastor Mark and he asked if the girls would go in his office. I was shaking, crying, and felt broken. Mark turned to us and stated that he had never seen anything like that in his whole carreer and we are such a blessed team to have such strong christian young men  on our team and asked what was going on in my head. I asked him a question that I'd never been able to form before in my head. I said, "How are we supposed to speak truth to these girls through love and the bible if we've always struggled with believing it?" We're not alone. I can't tell you every word he said, but I can tell you that he spoke truth to me in the words of Christ. Crying is not something I hold back anymore. It's a process of brokeness and being filled over and over again that creates grown in Christ. I've never felt so honor to be broken before my King in my whole life. But then again, I have never sincerly seeked His throne like this before.

So with another week of camp ahead of us I ask that you pray for this team, and the kids that are coming this week. I ask that you'd pray for our strength to not come form ourselves but from a mightier power. Only God. In frustration, let us not turn to each other but to God. I'm ready for whatever God wants to throw at me. This team has become my family, and no matter how far we may be apart our hearts will never be separated.