Kayla: So Jesus died on a cross and people whipped him and cut him and hurt him right?
Leader: Yes.
Kayla: But why did his dad let him do that?
Kayla is 5 years old and this is her first summer at Camp Victory. During the first week it was clear she was the ring leader of the 5&6s group. A leader would ask them to sit, Kayla would laugh, and so would they. A leader would say please listen to the story, Kayla would start her own story and they would listen to her.
One day Kayla (yes I changed her name) was in the office on time out. She was on a very long time out because she had been on so many that day already. I asked her if she would like to look at a book with me since she had been sitting so nicely. She said yes. We read together a book called "The Light of the World: The Life of Jesus for Children"
After finishing the story Kayla asked me some questions and I was able to explain to her why Jesus came to Earth and who he is. I told her about why he had to die so that our sins would be washed away. I told her that anyone who believes this and decides to live for Jesus will be washed clean of their sins and go to heaven to live forever with Jesus when they die. Kayla immediately said... "can I do that now?"
We prayed and told God that Kayla wanted to live for him...
The above quote is from last week. Kayla is constantly asking questions about her heavenly father and his son Jesus. She's not perfect, but she knows she is loved, and she is trying to live the way God would want her to.
So many kids have given their lives to Christ this summer... Greater things are BEING done in THIS city! The Holy Spirit is working through our staff this summer and kids hearts and lives are being changed. Leaders too! I've heard so many testimonies of staff who are striving to leave behind their old lives and live for God. One by one this city is changing, and I am blessed to be a witness to it!
BElla
This is me today. Well not EXACTLY the picture was taken a few weeks ago, but this is how I feel today. I have reached the part of summer where I need to step onto my tightrope (or whatever that thing is called that im walking on in the picture... guard rail?) . Summer is almost over, 1 more week, and it will fly by for sure! So now I need to start planning for after-school program again. I cant completely forget about summer camp though, thus walking the line between the two.
Summer has been so amazing and God has provided and worked in so many ways! Yesterday I was talking to one of my younger kids who has serious rage issues. He was angry because he was taken out of the skit because he wasn't co-operating, and so he was wailing at the side of the room while said skit was being performed. Once he had calmed down and we had worked out the details of what had happened with the skit we began to discus his anger. "Does God want us to just be happy all the time?" he asked. This is something I have wrestled with so much as a leader to these kids. So often I see leaders (and even myself) get upset at a kid for being angry, its easy to do. A kid is freaking out at the side of the room where you are trying to get the rest of the kids to have fun, kind of frustrating! I've prayed a lot about this and was reminded of the verse in Psalm 4:4, and Ephesians 4:46 that says "In your anger do not sin". I told Jack (yes I changed his name) this verse and I said to him "God doesn't say "don't get angry", even God gets angry, but he does say that when we are angry we must not sin." Then we talked more about what that meant. Throughout the conversation I was amazed at how much of our Bible study teachings Jack was spouting out to me, showing me that he had really thought about each lesson and was trying to apply it to his life. He told me about how much God loves us, and how He loves all of us, and how we are all brothers and sisters and need to love each other.
Jack is 7 years old, he has grown up with a brother who has the same dad and different mom and they are the same age. His family gets very angry and they express their anger by yelling (a lot). I believe Jack's dad has been shot twice since I've known him, and this makes me wonder what kind of life he is exposing his children to.
God is working in Jack's life and he is working hard. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to see this work, and to be able to nurture it. God has also allowed me to talk to his dad and start building a trusting relationship there. Please pray that God continues to work in both of their lives. Pray for safety in their community, and for peace in their family.
As for me; please pray that God shows me how much time to give to each area of ministry that I need to focus on. I've been fortunate enough to have some amazing reunions with past interns and catch up with them and maintain those relationships. Their visits have reminded me of the importance of investing that time into my present interns and their struggles and joys of ministry and life.
I praise God for each of you who hold me up in prayers and support my ministry. Thank you for allowing me to continue to share God's love in this community!
HIS grace and peace,
BElla
Damien is coming to visit today!!! Thats him, with his girlfriend Dahbia.. . so cute! He's staying with me for a whole week and helping at camp and everything!
So, what are some fun stories you have from the summer so far Lindsay?
Well, funny you ask that... (ok so im blogging to myself now, how sad!)
haha, yesterday one of my interns walked into our main activity room to find Joshua standing barefoot with one sock in each hand totally engrossed in what he was doing. she approached him and said "Joshua, you need to put your socks and shoes back on now" he looked up at her, and with a deer in headlights expression said "Im juggling."
The older boys have been amazing this summer, I had two guy leaders on my staff for the first 3 weeks who really invested in them and lit this fire inside them and now they are always asking about God, and the Bible, and they are SO hungry to learn whatever you can teach them. Today on the bus ride home from our trip I pulled out my Bible, which was immediately snatched from my hands by Ben and Junior. They asked why I hi-lighted stuff, so I explained that these were verses that had stood out to me and I wanted to be able to find them quickly. So they asked if they could hi-light verses too. I said they could if they showed me the verses first. So Ben found one in Exodus about the Hebrews preparing for the passover. It was great I got to explain the whole story of Moses and what the passover was and what happened all the way to the promised land, and they were totally captivated the entire time! Praise God! We talked a bit about trusting in God's Promises and how its hard to trust a promise when it takes a while to come true, but God's promises will always come true because God doesn't promise things that won't happen. It was one of the best bus conversations I've ever had!
Love BElla