YFCamp 08

I returned from YFCamp a couple of weeks ago, and it has taken me this long to get to a place of relization as to what really happened at camp. I went as a last minute addition because we had too many girls going and not enough female adults. It was middle school camp and even though I do high school ministry because I know camp is always an amazing experience I wanted to go when I was asked.
In my cabin were 7 awesome and fun girls!!!! Camp consisted of the regular camp activities, swimming, ropes course, tubbing, kayaking, and a game room. The game room was usually the place to be as it rained many times throughout the week putting a damper on all outside activities. Cayerio a band from Memphis, Tennessee performed, and a man named Gilbert delivered a piercing message each night. The theme for the week was "Be Real". Being real I learned isn't super hard for most middle school girls especially when they feel comfortable and are around their friends. Six of the seven girls in my cabin went to the same school so they were very open and honest anytime there was small group discussion. And God certainly moved in the lives of each of the girls.
Traditionally camps climax in the mid-week for the Gospel presentation, but at YFCamp the climax begins mid-week with an emphasis on brokeness, and each girl was given the opportunity to release what brokeness they had in their lives, and then continued the next night with the presentation of the Gospel. Now I am not sure when the last time you were truly broken was but this took a lot of time and energy. I remember middle school being horrible and it being a very tough time for me, but at camp I had to come face to face with it and help these girls see that God was there to get them through this. Before the end of camp 6 of the 7 girls made committments to follow Jesus, and really make Him Lord in their lives realizing they couldn't get through it alone. PRAISE GOD! Middle school sucks, and is hard for girls. The real point to this story is not just about the girls and God but about me and God. This was sooo hard to do. In helping each of these girls I realized that even now there is brokeness in my life that needed to be dealt with.
Sooo to sum up YFCamp.....It was exhausting and challenging, but God met the students and me there and it truly was a place where things changed.

Liberty

So I have been reading this book by Elisabeth Elliot called "The Liberty of Obedience." The book starts out with a great story about a tribe in another country believing that any person from the outside world were cannibals because the other tribes around there area were cannibals. With this they viewed any action by any outside human being to be a trait of a cannibal person. This story brought up some interesting questions and this was just the beginning of the book. The next chapter possed the question "What is mean't by the appearance of evil?"
This really challenged me to think and consider what things that I view as "sin," what things are "worldly" and "holy." When I paired these thoughts together it brought together what a real Christian world-view must be like. Because every culture, and time is/was different, and every persons weakness' are different, sin can change...wait a minute that doesn't sound right? Which brings us to the next chapter discussing sin. The previous chapters had presented a lot of questions regarding sin, and scripture to support boths the sides of legalism and grace. The chapter that I just read helped to clear up some of the questions that had been formulating. Things of "this world" are exactly that things....therefore they in and of themselves can't BE sin. So that leaves only one factor to BE sin...me. I don't really know why this lesson was soo eye-opening to be. I guess to me in my mind it was the perfect mixture of grace, and the truth of the Word. Just as pastors, both past and present have always taught me that the Bible is not just a list of Do's and Don'ts. I knew this but here is where the Need for grace comes into play even if I obey the list of do's and don'ts to a T it could become sin depending on where my heart was because it is me who is a sinner not my actions soo I have to depend on God's grace and forgiveness because I don't know if I can ever be more than I am...which is totally dependent on HIM.