This past week we returned from our last camp of the summer!
This last camp was a lot different from the others. This camp was at a church in Karlovac. It was a day camp and the total number of campers signed up going into the week was 1...
Having only one camper signed up even as we entered the town that day was a little disheartening. How would we have an English camp with one student? How would that student feel? What kind of camp schedule would we have... basically the entire week had a BIG question mark on it. I am beyond thankful to have been apart of a team that was SO flexible and easy going. We ended up having around 10 students for the English portion and around 20 students for sports, the evening gospel talks and theme nights! The students were very engaged, they seemed to really enjoy themselves and asked great questions that caused others to really reflect!
(thank you to all who have been praying for the number of campers for this last camp. It was truly amazing to see the outcome!!!)
My prayers tonight go out to the Karlovac Church:
Dear Lord,
I am so thankful for the gift you gave us, in spreading your love, your truth and your friendship to those in Karlovac! Through this experience you taught us to hold on to our faith in you, that you, Lord, are the only thing we need to hold on to. Thank you for that reminder and for the security in knowing your strength. God I ask that the students we reached out to at camp keep searching to know you more. That they go back to the church and that they desire to have a personal relationship with you. I pray that the leaders at that church welcome them with open arms and that they answer the students questions by bringing them back to your Word. I ask that you help the leaders create outreach programs throughout the year and that these camps keep growing. Thank you Lord for all that you have taught us this past week, and summer.
Amen
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Back From Another Exciting Camp!
WOW!
This past week has been a great test of faith in pushing through difficult times.
I am not going to even try to compare the past two camps together, they were both completely different and both had great lessons to be learned.
This camp the SOMA team joined! It was SO excited to have my friends here, to serve with them, pray with them and just catch up! It really felt like I was back in the states. They worked so hard in providing great quality classes, hilarious evenings, and created great friendships with the students!
One of the students I was given to love on has a special story. This student had a VERY hard upbringing. In this week we had many moments of tears, frustration, confusion, confession, fear, disappointment and the list goes on. This student knew stories in the Bible but did not believe in God, Jesus as their Savior. It was very challenging for me to not answer back at every comment JESUS LOVE YOU lol ahhhh they really needed to know that! At the beginning of the week I was feeling pulled to this person but my heart was not in the right place. Some of the moments were bringing me to feelings of frustration, annoyance ect. One verse that kept being played in my head over and over and over was Romans 12:15 - "Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep." Rejoicing with those who are rejoicing is very easy for me but for some reason when it came to weeping with this person, my heart was truly not weeping. Through prayer and really searching my own heart I was given strength and love for this camper and truly wept in my heart for them. It was amazing the difference in how our conversations went. Throughout the week my main goal and prayer was that I would show Gods love, through my words and actions based off of grace, forgiveness, acceptance (the list goes on). I can honestly say, God definitely used me to shower this person with His love!
The best part about this story is by the end of the week this person came to the realization that they were running from God and that they did not want to. This person was given a Bible and when vsiting them after camp, I came to their room with an open Bible, WOW... moment of being speechless (which does not happen often:) This beautiful story has so much more detail to it and is a true testimony to God's love for ALL of us and if you would like to know more please ask and I can share it with you!!
Another exciting story that happened at this camp was a student became truly on fire for the Lord!!! He came into the week believing in reincarnation and saying God's name in vain and left our small group saying "I no longer wanna say GOD (His name in vain ) but AWWW GOD (in aww of Him and His love)." He really enjoyed our evening talks and the night discussions BUT what really hit home with him was his nightly debates with Ian and other students. He was given the question, "What is the meaning to life?" I kid you not it was as simple as that one question and digging into the meaning that changed this students life. SInce camp he has met us at church, plans to come to our Bible study tomorrow, found music that is appropriate to listen to ect. It is truly inspiring to see his love and excitement for the Lord and to think about how God can use him now!!!!
So much more has happened but so little time to write!
I hope you all are doing well and again thank you for the prayers! It is truly the greatest blessing to know how many people are thinking and praying about us over here!!!
This past week has been a great test of faith in pushing through difficult times.
I am not going to even try to compare the past two camps together, they were both completely different and both had great lessons to be learned.
This camp the SOMA team joined! It was SO excited to have my friends here, to serve with them, pray with them and just catch up! It really felt like I was back in the states. They worked so hard in providing great quality classes, hilarious evenings, and created great friendships with the students!
One of the students I was given to love on has a special story. This student had a VERY hard upbringing. In this week we had many moments of tears, frustration, confusion, confession, fear, disappointment and the list goes on. This student knew stories in the Bible but did not believe in God, Jesus as their Savior. It was very challenging for me to not answer back at every comment JESUS LOVE YOU lol ahhhh they really needed to know that! At the beginning of the week I was feeling pulled to this person but my heart was not in the right place. Some of the moments were bringing me to feelings of frustration, annoyance ect. One verse that kept being played in my head over and over and over was Romans 12:15 - "Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep." Rejoicing with those who are rejoicing is very easy for me but for some reason when it came to weeping with this person, my heart was truly not weeping. Through prayer and really searching my own heart I was given strength and love for this camper and truly wept in my heart for them. It was amazing the difference in how our conversations went. Throughout the week my main goal and prayer was that I would show Gods love, through my words and actions based off of grace, forgiveness, acceptance (the list goes on). I can honestly say, God definitely used me to shower this person with His love!
The best part about this story is by the end of the week this person came to the realization that they were running from God and that they did not want to. This person was given a Bible and when vsiting them after camp, I came to their room with an open Bible, WOW... moment of being speechless (which does not happen often:) This beautiful story has so much more detail to it and is a true testimony to God's love for ALL of us and if you would like to know more please ask and I can share it with you!!
Another exciting story that happened at this camp was a student became truly on fire for the Lord!!! He came into the week believing in reincarnation and saying God's name in vain and left our small group saying "I no longer wanna say GOD (His name in vain ) but AWWW GOD (in aww of Him and His love)." He really enjoyed our evening talks and the night discussions BUT what really hit home with him was his nightly debates with Ian and other students. He was given the question, "What is the meaning to life?" I kid you not it was as simple as that one question and digging into the meaning that changed this students life. SInce camp he has met us at church, plans to come to our Bible study tomorrow, found music that is appropriate to listen to ect. It is truly inspiring to see his love and excitement for the Lord and to think about how God can use him now!!!!
So much more has happened but so little time to write!
I hope you all are doing well and again thank you for the prayers! It is truly the greatest blessing to know how many people are thinking and praying about us over here!!!
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