I already know it's going to be hard for me to put youth camp into words. About a month ago, Hollie asked me to be a leader at the middle school camp. Automatically, I said "well sure! That sounds like a blast!" Almost immediately after, I was FREAKING out. I would be in charge of 16 middle school girls?! That is a lot of girls! I've always been one to work with little kids and I tried my hardest to stay away from middle schoolers. They're intimidating. Then, I started to worry not about them, but about me. How am I going to be able to talk with them about Christ? I know during worship they're gonna come to me crying and I'll have no clue what to say. So I started praying. By the time the bus pulled out of the parking lot Monday morning, I was PUMPED.
I went into camp knowing only about 5 of the girls really well. Thankfully, we got the cabin all to ourselves so we could have some real talk whenever we wanted to. Camp started out with lots of rain, thunder, and lightning. The students were stuck in an auditorium for about 3 hours. However, when it came time for church time that night, I was asking the girls what their favorite part of the day was. Here's the part that completely floored me. They said that they liked being stuck inside all day and not being able to do the banana boats or zipline. They all confessed that they were so focused on that stuff that they forgot about why they were really at camp. Can you believe that 13 and 14 year old said that? They blew me away.
The speaker at camp was absolutely phenomenal. His name is Scott Venable. A year ago, he felt that God was calling him to start a church in Chicago. I didn't realize this but Chicago is technically an unreached people group. How crazy is that? Only 3% of the city is Christian. This guy was not afraid to tell it like it is. He preached the gospel without holding back. Check out his church here: http://mosaicchicago.org/
The band was also pretty awesome. It's a band called Theophany out of Austin. They had a good mix of their own songs and popular songs right now that everyone already knew. You can check them out here:http://theophanyworship.org/ Be sure to look at the song Look What We've Become.
I also got to pray with some girls on the first night that I knew absolutely nothing about. I was able to talk with them, encourage them, and tell them about Christ. After we were finished, I was completely stoked. Nothing that I said came from me. I know for a fact that Christ was using me to speak to these girls. At camp, I learned that the things these kids are thinking about their relationship with Christ is totally above anything I would've thought about when I was 14. These kids are wanting to live in Christ, not just for Christ. It makes me soooo excited for what God has in store for them.
All of these girls seriously stole my heart. I woke up Saturday morning and missed them! I couldn't wait to see them at church on Sunday just so I could talk with them some more and give them a big hug. We all laughed together, cried together, and spent hours talking to each other every day. We formed Godly friendships that will last and we all grew in Christ together.
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