While I value beyond measure everything the Lord teaches me in each season of life....i don't want this blog to just be a devotional each time.
That just doesn't match my personality. I am crazy and random. I want this blog to reflect just that!
So...sometimes I will be serious...others will just be funny or random...and others will be a bit of both!!
I just got back from taking 9 girls to Young Life camp in Fraser, CO. The camp is called Crooked Creek Ranch. It is absolutely beautiful and I am in complete awe that the Lord has blessed this mission with such beautiful camps all across the world.
The girls who went on this trip we all girls who have either grown up in the military or have lived in a military community their whole lives. Either circumstance leaves these kids with a inconsistent friends because of the constant moving and a heart of steal protecting them from letting anyone in, who will eventually leave. Walking into this "Military Young Life" ministry, I can honestly say I had no idea how hard this would truly be in comparison to my "Multicultural (or Urban) Young Life" experience in Nashville. Not that one is harder than another....they are just really different.
So my prayer walking into last week was that God would go before me and give me more than everything I needed. He did indeed answer that prayer.
9 girls...none of them Christians...none of them with stable home lives....none of them really ever hearing about the greatest love story ever and the hope that is found in that. I got the front row seat of watching the Lord break down walls around this girls. I got to see fruit spring up as it "clicked" in there sweet hearts that THERE IS indeed a God who loves them MORE than anything they could imagine and there is NOTHING that could make Him love them any less. Hearing this, these girls broke. They couldn't believe that there was that much forgiveness. 'The more you get to know him, the more you will want to be like him"....this came out of my mouth at least 5 times a day. They had this misconception that the God of the universe, the God that their YL leader Erin so DEEPLY loves. I told them that he doesn't want them to come to him being perfect, but instead, just as they are. Whoa. "You mean we don't have to quit drinking, smoking and all the other stuff BEFORE we come to him", one of my sweet girls asked. Nope. Come as you are. He loves you as you are, BUT refuses to leave you that way. He wants the BEST for your life and will go to ANY cost so that you can have HIS best.
9 girls...none of them Christians...none of them with stable home lives....none of them really ever hearing about the greatest love story ever and the hope that is found in that. I got the front row seat of watching the Lord break down walls around this girls. I got to see fruit spring up as it "clicked" in there sweet hearts that THERE IS indeed a God who loves them MORE than anything they could imagine and there is NOTHING that could make Him love them any less. Hearing this, these girls broke. They couldn't believe that there was that much forgiveness. 'The more you get to know him, the more you will want to be like him"....this came out of my mouth at least 5 times a day. They had this misconception that the God of the universe, the God that their YL leader Erin so DEEPLY loves. I told them that he doesn't want them to come to him being perfect, but instead, just as they are. Whoa. "You mean we don't have to quit drinking, smoking and all the other stuff BEFORE we come to him", one of my sweet girls asked. Nope. Come as you are. He loves you as you are, BUT refuses to leave you that way. He wants the BEST for your life and will go to ANY cost so that you can have HIS best.
Sure, the emotions of feeling unworthy of his love, a love that would sacrifice his own life to save them and give them life and life the fullest were present. Sure, they felt like they have screwed up WAYYYYYYYYY to much to ever come home like the prodigal son did. But at the end of the week, they walked away knowing that although his love is undeserved, it is there and he offers it freely, if we would just reach out and take it. And they did! 6 out of the 9. They stood up at "Say SO", Young Life's way of giving kids a chance to live out what Ps. 107:2 says "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy", and proclaimed that they had decided to come home to the Father. I was OVERWHELMED by what the Lord had done and honored to get to see the fruit, which is something that any Young Life leader will tell you, is not always a guaranteed perk in this ministry. Thanks for all your prayers!!
Now on to the funny stuff. No doubt I am a leader who will ALWAYS get in trouble at camp. This year I seemed to escape it though. Every night we had wrestling matches and sumo fights, which required the kids to take pillows from the cabin outside the cabin (which is NOT allowed)...and many more things that cannot be mentioned :) . I had so much fun with these girls. I thank God for the other leader, Jenny, who joined the team 2 weeks before camp, and was clearly the adult in our cabin when I was just as stirred up as the girls. She definitely had fun with us too...she just brought me back down to earth when I was SUPER hyper. Here are just a few pics of the chaos and fun!!
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