Camp - it's a reality check!

In just a few days - Monday to be exact - we will leave for youth camp. For those of you who know me, you know that the last weeks/ indeed months have been consumed with youth camp plans and preps. (My Aspie trait coming out - live and breathe one thing!) Our camp is not the biggest and I'm certain not the best, not the cheapest, not the most expensive. We don't have big name speakers or big name groups. We aren't the "funnest" camp and probably not the "coolest" camp. So what is different about our camp - besides the fact that it is ours?! I guess if I had to explain it with a word - we're "real"! One mom was on the phone with me at the psychologist's office treating her daughter (who is coming to camp). I guess it is a compliment when she said that he looked over all our materials and thought sending her teen was an awesome idea and one that would be very beneficial for her. We strive to make every moment a God inspired one (and that doesn't mean we don't have a TON of fun!!). We try to think through EVERYTHING and pray about EVERYTHING!! We try to consider EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY! And at the end of the day - we strive to not just talk about our Christianity - but live it. Other camps have teams - so do we. Other camps play games and compete - so do we. We also use the very counselors who eat, play, and sleep in the same cabins with the campers - to be the ones to get up and share what God lays on their heart. We have to "live" it before we ever get a chance to teach it. We get real - very real. The campers have heard me say a million times (at least), "I don't care if you have an experience with God - I only care that you have a relationship with Him!"

So next week after WAY too many hours of planning and praying and prep work - we will take a group of teens to the woods and starve the world and feed them Jesus for 5 days. We have teens coming that are white, black, spanish, asian and everything and anything in between. We have teens coming that have grown up in church their entire lives and some that have only gone a few times. We have teens that come from affluent homes and ones that come from poverty. We have teens all the way from the Bahamas flying in and many from our own "backyard". We have teens struggling with lying, and gossip, and cutting, and promiscuity, and pornography, and drugs, and gangs, and severe depression, and alcohol. We have teens that are in abusive environments or simply neglectful ones. We have teens that it breaks your heart to send home and a couple that don't even have a home to go to and currently live in a shelter. We have teens coming that don't believe in God, or religion, or Christianity. We have teens that "look" the part - go to church every time the doors are open - some even in leadership - and still have no idea what it really means to have that relationship with Christ. I know this - because I can give you names (in many cases - several of them).

We also have teens that are spiritually mature and floundering because our local churches have to be so evangelistic in their approach that they miss out on the deeper discipleship. So we have a "Timothy track" where teens that have exhibited spiritual maturity and leadership qualities have a small group workshop every day and are mentored individually every day.

Next week will hold little (or no!) sleep, sunburn, mosquito bites, hopefully no ER runs (our record is 4!), in depth theological discussions at 3am, basketball, volleyball, team devotions, scripture memorization, swimming, canoeing, human foosball, scavenger hunts, campfires, hayrides, softball, "team goofy games", "S.A.C.'s Got Talent", workshops, worship, rallies, tears, lots of tears, confessions that you never dreamed or wanted to hear, and the most awesome presence of God that you could ever imagine.

This year is tough - Satan has fought extra hard and he will continue to do so. But God fights harder and better and He wins! But we'll probably be a little bruised and battered for the process. And I think that is how God uses us best. Next week we will be privileged to work with some of the most passionate youth workers I've ever seen. People whose testimonies are not to be believed! But they stand and can say - "I've been where you are - I know there is hope." One teen told me through tears - "IF I can just make it to camp - I think I'll be ok." We're not the best or the most organized or even the most fun. But we are real - and this year we are praying that God will do a reality check on each of our lives!

So next week if you think about it - say a prayer. It is the greatest thing we do - and the hardest! We just pray that God will be honored!