It's been a week now since Summer Camp, but I am still thinking about it and feeling its effects so I suppose it merits another blog post. For the sake of continuity, I am going to drape the threads of my stories on the following pegs: Anchor, Community, Anticipation, and Agony. The purpose of these pegs is to unite the individual stories, though the only common theme really is that they all start with 'A'... except for community, of course. Oh well... I think I will just tell the stories and you can enjoy them as you like, whether or not they hang together or separately!
Stories one and two come from one of the camp speakers, Pierre. The first is about his experience as an anchor at a worship event. He had always thought it would be the coolest job--to stand up front as the band played, and then to hand the microphone to whoever came up to speak or share next. And it was pretty fun and important for the first bit, but then it became sort of boring... until he saw a guy coming up to share something and he felt God telling him to send this dude back: "he's not ready yet." Pierre didn't really want to do that, because he knew this guy was very shy and it was not characteristic of him to come up and share during the open mike time. But he told the guy that he couldn't give him the mike yet because he felt that God wanted to share more with him before he shared it with everyone else. Ok, so the guy went back to his place. A while later, he came back... and Pierre felt the same way about it. It happened three times!, and the third time Pierre felt for sure this guy would never come back.
But he did, and the fourth time Pierre felt God confirm that the guy was ready. This young man went on to lead worship in the Spirit's power for the next hour!
This story highlighted for me the importance of preparation time, waiting on God, persevering, and going forth in the Spirit's power. It also challenged me not to look down on my youth or anyone else's, because, guess how old this young man was? He was only in 10th grade! Wow! God can do mighty things when give up our own wisdom and strength and rely on His power.
Community. In this story, Pierre shared about one night when he was with some friends. All of a sudden, he heard a cat crying outside. It went on and on, sounding more and more like a baby crying. Sometimes these experiences of cats crying and sounding like babies is accompanied by a deep presence of evil, since there is a belief that evil spirits travel around at night in the form of cats. That was the case this time, as well, and all of a sudden Pierre found himself crying uncontrollably. He couldn't even speak! It wasn't until his friend called out aloud on Jesus' name that he could stop.
What struck me about this second story was how we need each other in the Christian walk. We need each other to stand by each other, to remind each other of God's promises, and to cry out to Jesus for each other when someone is too weak or overcome to do it themselves! We have an important ministry and responsibility to each other.
Anticipation: "The Kingdom of God is at hand!" Though it is not yet here in its fulness, we get to experience foretastes of it in our everyday life. I received one incredible foretaste at camp: I awoke with the six girls in my dorm for group time one morning, and the one girl had such a sore throat that she couldn't speak. It was all swollen, with white spots inside. Through gesticulations and hoarse whispers, she asked us to pray for her; so we all sat around her, laid hands on her and prayed. When we finished, she could talk normally and the spots in her throat were gone! I had never witnessed anything like that before, and could scarcely believe it when it happened in front of me. Wow! Thank you Jesus! Sometimes I become so inured to the brokenness around me that it doesn't even register as brokenness that shouldn't be that way. I find it breath-taking to think of what this earth will be like when God finishes reconciling ALL things through Christ Jesus!
Agony. As I mentioned, I am still feeling the effects of camp. The one day at camp, I was traipsing along past the bathrooms in my flip-flops (and shirt and shorts of course! But the flip-flops is the important element in my story). A heavy-duty mat lay outside the bathroom, wound together with metal wires. One wire was poking out a little, and it hooked into the ball of my left foot, pulling the mat along with me. My flip-flops proved no protection against this brazen prong! I stopped abruptly and back-tracked, sliding my foot off of the mat. It was a most unfortunate mishap, but not entirely unexpected I guess since I am incurably injury-prone. Anyways, a week later now it is still tender. But God has been good in that the wire was not rusted, I am up-to-date with my tetanus shot, it became a little infected but the infection has now died down, and it ensures that I fastidiously wash my feet each night :)
Stories one and two come from one of the camp speakers, Pierre. The first is about his experience as an anchor at a worship event. He had always thought it would be the coolest job--to stand up front as the band played, and then to hand the microphone to whoever came up to speak or share next. And it was pretty fun and important for the first bit, but then it became sort of boring... until he saw a guy coming up to share something and he felt God telling him to send this dude back: "he's not ready yet." Pierre didn't really want to do that, because he knew this guy was very shy and it was not characteristic of him to come up and share during the open mike time. But he told the guy that he couldn't give him the mike yet because he felt that God wanted to share more with him before he shared it with everyone else. Ok, so the guy went back to his place. A while later, he came back... and Pierre felt the same way about it. It happened three times!, and the third time Pierre felt for sure this guy would never come back.
But he did, and the fourth time Pierre felt God confirm that the guy was ready. This young man went on to lead worship in the Spirit's power for the next hour!
This story highlighted for me the importance of preparation time, waiting on God, persevering, and going forth in the Spirit's power. It also challenged me not to look down on my youth or anyone else's, because, guess how old this young man was? He was only in 10th grade! Wow! God can do mighty things when give up our own wisdom and strength and rely on His power.
Community. In this story, Pierre shared about one night when he was with some friends. All of a sudden, he heard a cat crying outside. It went on and on, sounding more and more like a baby crying. Sometimes these experiences of cats crying and sounding like babies is accompanied by a deep presence of evil, since there is a belief that evil spirits travel around at night in the form of cats. That was the case this time, as well, and all of a sudden Pierre found himself crying uncontrollably. He couldn't even speak! It wasn't until his friend called out aloud on Jesus' name that he could stop.
What struck me about this second story was how we need each other in the Christian walk. We need each other to stand by each other, to remind each other of God's promises, and to cry out to Jesus for each other when someone is too weak or overcome to do it themselves! We have an important ministry and responsibility to each other.
Anticipation: "The Kingdom of God is at hand!" Though it is not yet here in its fulness, we get to experience foretastes of it in our everyday life. I received one incredible foretaste at camp: I awoke with the six girls in my dorm for group time one morning, and the one girl had such a sore throat that she couldn't speak. It was all swollen, with white spots inside. Through gesticulations and hoarse whispers, she asked us to pray for her; so we all sat around her, laid hands on her and prayed. When we finished, she could talk normally and the spots in her throat were gone! I had never witnessed anything like that before, and could scarcely believe it when it happened in front of me. Wow! Thank you Jesus! Sometimes I become so inured to the brokenness around me that it doesn't even register as brokenness that shouldn't be that way. I find it breath-taking to think of what this earth will be like when God finishes reconciling ALL things through Christ Jesus!
Agony. As I mentioned, I am still feeling the effects of camp. The one day at camp, I was traipsing along past the bathrooms in my flip-flops (and shirt and shorts of course! But the flip-flops is the important element in my story). A heavy-duty mat lay outside the bathroom, wound together with metal wires. One wire was poking out a little, and it hooked into the ball of my left foot, pulling the mat along with me. My flip-flops proved no protection against this brazen prong! I stopped abruptly and back-tracked, sliding my foot off of the mat. It was a most unfortunate mishap, but not entirely unexpected I guess since I am incurably injury-prone. Anyways, a week later now it is still tender. But God has been good in that the wire was not rusted, I am up-to-date with my tetanus shot, it became a little infected but the infection has now died down, and it ensures that I fastidiously wash my feet each night :)
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