if you missed the last couple of posts, this summer i was blessed to work for a month at a young life camp called windy gap. all of us on staff payed our way to get there, and weren't payed a dime for the work we did. our staff community became a family that reflected Christ to the 1500 high school students we served over the course of the month. the four weeks we worked there the Lord taught me so much about Himself and about how much He loves us.
the last week of camp, i experienced what was one of if not the single greatest moments of my life. we had an incredible couple of weeks, and i honestly didn't know how the Lord could bless my month any more. and then, He did.
that last week, we had a camper get caught with a very large amount of drugs in his possession. the camper had thought he would get bored and need a quick fix or two, and thought he would be able to get some extra cash by selling the drugs when he got a free minute. he hadn't sold or used any of the drugs through the whole week because he had been having such an incredible time. when he was caught, he freaked out. he thought he would be kicked out of camp and sent to jail. instead, he was forced to work with me and my work crew during one of our shifts. when the guy came into the kitchen he looked bewildered. he was happy he wasn't going to jail, but he was trying to prepare himself for the judgement he would most certainly get from a bunch of church-folk who were serving at a Jesus-camp! of course we would punish him, look down on him, and seem awkward or worrisome around him. when he came into the back, he was thrown off. these people were working, hard, and did so with smiles on. they danced, sang, and joked around as they work. he found that he actually enjoyed something about it. they treated him like family. i was never more proud of my work crew than the way they responded to this young man. he was literally openly astonished by the way they loved him. the Lord was present while he was in that hot, smelly, humid room.
we wrote our favorite Bible verses and notes of encouragement and placed them in the same fake peanut butter jar the drugs had been stashed in. the young man's leaders gave him the container later in the week.
and then, there was thursday. during the campers quiet time outside, as we began to sing and signal the campers to go back to their cabins, they all began to shuffle down the hill and into the buildings below. all but one. he was flat on the floor, sobbing, and absolutely incapable of getting up. all he could say was "my girlfriend is dead." we all prayed for him, and worshipped on that hill with passion and brokenness, joy and desperation. then one of my friends half-carried him to his cabin. the Lord began to tell me to take care of my brother, so i began to write him some encouragement, and grabbed a book we were given before we began work crew training. when my friend came back, i asked what his story was. he told me this:
he was a junior in high school. a few months ago he and his girlfriend, who had been his best friend for seven years, had died. they were running one day, and her heart gave out. without warning, the week before prom, he had been stripped of the closest relationship he had on this earth. he was a Christian leader at his school, and he would soon be working at another young life camp the next week.
once again, my team blew me away. they all wrote the boy encouragement of their own, and we placed them in the book. i waited all friday, but couldn't find him. finally, i gave up searching the camp. that night, during the big group meeting, who would be the first person to come in but the guy i'd been searching for all day. i was able to give him the book and notes. he took them with a confused look, and left the room.
finally, that friday night, i went into one of the cabins. the guys there listened to my testimony, and began to ask all sorts of questions. one of the campers in particular was obviously struggling. you could tell he knew the Lord was good, but had no idea how to survive in a world that is so overwhelming. you could also tell he was unsure whether he should talk about his issues openly. he kept mentioning them vaguely or generally, but never in detail. i left the room feeling blessed by how much they had all asked and how the Lord had moved, but i also felt like the work was unfinished.
and then came saturday.
it was my last day of work crew. we were all finishing up our last chores, our last dishes to wash, our last tables to set. and then, i passed the kid from cabin time again. i asked him if he wanted to talk more about what was bothering him, and to my surprise, he actually said yes. i looked for a chance to talk to him the whole morning, but couldn't find a chance. then, as i was just getting off to rest with my friends and get some ice cream, i saw him again. he was sitting with another one of the boys from cabin time, alone at a long table, and there in between them, was an open chair. i took the Lord's invitation. as i sat down, i silently prayed Jesus would take over. we began to talk about darkness, and his pain. his life without a godly father, his fears of the lure of alcohol and drugs in his home. his struggle with kleptomania. as we talked, i would answer a question, or ask one of my own, only to have an answer from a corner of the table or a voice beside me that i hadn't noticed before. after some thirty minutes, i realized that the table that had been empty before was packed, and there were guys sitting in chairs around us as well. i hadn't even noticed. the Lord had been speaking. i had been listening to what was coming out my mouth as much as they had. it came out without me thinking, and the words weren't mine. i realized that are time was up, and that some of the guys were getting tired, so i said goodbye and left.
as we sat in for our last big group session of the month, i watched something beautiful happen. the young man who had begun that week planning how to sell drugs spoke how the Lord had changed his life. then, as i left the room, the boy to whom we had given my book came up to talk to me. his eyes were bright, and he was grinning from ear to ear. he came up, called me by name, hugged me, and told me how the Lord had blessed him that week. he was thrilled. soon, he would be serving others at a young life camp of his own! as he left, a young man from my talk that morning came over and thanked me for talking with him. as he left, another one of the guys from that morning came up, and one by one, they all came out of the crowd of campers leaving for the buses to thank me.
as i walked back into our meeting room, i couldn't hold it in. right there, in the middle of the room, in front of all the other staff, i broke down. the month had been incredible, the week had been beautiful, and that saturday had been one of if not the very best day of my life. and i hadn't deserved it at all. the Lord had just decided to bless me in His time.
that's the funny thing about moving out in faith. the Lord never does things how you expect Him to. He rather enjoys showing us just how much He can blow away our expectations. our problem, i've found, is not that we hope for too much, but too little. we serve an infinite God who loves us and lavishes gifts on us we are absolutely unable to repay. we are allowed to be a part of the heavenly dance that will echo through eternity.
"7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.9“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" -matthew 7:7-11
praying that you see the Lord fill you up beyond anything you could imagine! God bless!
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