Camp.
Wow. There is just no real words to describe it really. It is amazing, but that just doesn’t seem to cover it sufficiently.
How do you describe seeing teenagers go from “just” teenagers, to teenagers so in love with God they can barely contain themselves?
What word would you use for that?
Is there a word that can adequately express the feeling of the Holy Spirit over a place? The expression on a face or the posture of a body in total love and abandon to our Mighty Creator?
To see bondage and sin they carried into the room…..
….drop like balls and chains to the floor….there is not even words in our human language to express it. There is nothing.
I was able to counsel with numerous young ladies throughout the week, and make close bonds. I do believe I have a few more “sons” and “daughters” to add to my family. LOL Several just wanted to come home with me….and I would take them in a heartbeat.
I have to say, I thank my Father God for allowing me to do this. For giving me the words to say, the verses to share, the prayers to pray, I thank Him. Without Him, I am nothing. I would be just another person on this already crowded planet using up air and making more trash, with a one-way ticket to hell. His mercy saved me. His love made the way possible. And I am in awe He would use me.
There were moments I felt overwhelmed and quite a few times I cried over the magnitude of it, and when those times came, I prayed.
And He answered. I didn’t have my “Grumpy Day” this year! I didn’t have the day I was so tired I couldn’t function without a headache and biting someone’s head off! So thank you to everyone who lifted me up in their prayers! They were NEEDED! I was clear headed and focused on the tasks I had in front of me!
My sweet friend that teaches Sunday School with me, my partner in crime, was unable to go this year, so a stand-in had to be found to help out as much as she could.
I have another partner in crime. ๐ That’s all I’m sayin’….
But I knew several ladies had things they were dealing with, a few ladies who are probably not saved, and all of them needed a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit, so every service, I sat by someone different. And some services were minutes apart, so I’d have to get up and move in between. LOL I wanted to be available to anyone who needed me. I was able to pray with most of them one on one, and those who I missed, I prayed with in small groups.
Oh, and somewhere in the mix…..I took photos. I’m not sure how God worked that out, but He did, and they were SO worth the extra time and stress to do them!
I do have to share this, Austin turns 14 tomorrow, and I was hoping he would be changed and recharged through the week. And Saturday, I’m trying to upload photos on the computer, and Austin sits down next to me and tells me that God wants him to find new friends. His old ones were not a good influence on him at all and encouraged bad behavior. He wanted out of their “band” (I use that term VERY loosely LOL) and he had already called them all to cancel his birthday party scheduled for this Friday.
He also asked me if I would redo his Ipod and take ALL the songs off of it and start fresh with ONLY Christian, praise and worship music. And I did. Gladly.
And all day yesterday, he had his earphones in and a song in his heart. And by “in his heart” I mean, being sung at the top of his lungs. And he’s reading his Bible everyday and memorizing scriptures. He confessed some sins to me, and I let him know I would encourage him in anyway he needed me.
And today, we sat during naptime reading our Bibles and discussing it. I turned him on to the horrors of 1 Kings with the dogs and vultures eating the dead bodies in the fields and in the streets of the cities.
(It’s cool to a 14 year old boy LOL I do what I can)
So thank you for your prayers! They were needed!
Shameless plug: if you are in need of a Youth camp, Faithweek is it. It’s incredible! If you need a Youth speaker, Brad Fogarty out of Atlanta. Find him, look him up, book him, or just pray for him. His website is on the right over there —————->
If you are in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area and need a church home, Eastwood is it. Don’t come unless you want to experience God. Well, gosh, come even if you don’t, I don’t see how you can miss Him there.
This is longer than I anticipated….so I’ll leave you with the photo from before. I took this early Saturday morning with the sun streaming through the trees, dew still on the ground, and just a little fog hanging around to make it all look surreal.
I think it was God rewarding me for not killing anyone. ๐