Sunday, August 07, 2011

Philly Teen Camp 2011

A week can seem like such a long or short time- depending on which perspective you look through. What just happened this week now seems like a dream.

A very incredibly awesome dream......

Since Monday, I've been at a teen camp for all the Nazarene churches in the Philly district. To be honest, I wasn't that thrilled in going because I didn't think that teens would really respond to or care about God.

I know that's really dumb of me to think that, but that's only because I never took church seriously while I was a teen so I thought that everyone else was like that.

I was there to be a counselor and I was really scared to have such a responsibility.

What if they didn't like me? What if they didn't want to listen to me talk about Jesus? What if I got impatient, angry and acted out at them?

I was so afraid that I would somehow be a bad example to them, so I prayed and asked that God would speak and move through me each day.

What happened next was incredible...

When God moves hearts, the following result is just amazing to watch. I watched teens with broken families, low self-esteem, heavy addictions, hearts filled with pain and fear, surrender their lives to God.

I watched eight boys and girls get baptised because they decided that they wanted to be done with their old lives. They decided to follow Christ to the end. They decided to deny themselves and pick up their crosses.

I had so much fun hanging out and doing all those fun activities with everybody.

That when it came time to leave, I found myself wishing that camp could go on for another week.

God had put such a fierce love in my heart for those kids that I seriously just could not bear to say goodbye.

Yes, I was tired, sore and completely out of my comfort zone, but I was also overwhelmed by the love that the presence of the Holy Spirit had brought.

There really isn't much else to say. God showed up big time at camp and I grew so much.

Praise Him! Jesus Christ- for what He has done for us on the cross!!!


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