Camp Reflections

Over the last week I had the amazing privilege of being a counselor at Generation Joshua's iGovern East.  There aren't enough words to describe how amazing this week was.  One of the things I have always appreciated the most about Generation Joshua is the focus that is put on God.  Anyone can have a teen camp.  It takes an extra amount of God's grace to pull off a teen camp that teaches kids how they can be involved in government while still modelling to them the importance of staying focused on God.  Sometimes (most of the time) showing a group of homeschooled kids how to lay down their pride and how to excercise humility is an extremely hard task.  Having 140 different teenage personalities together in one camp is like......Well I can't even think of something that it is similar to.  Let's just say it is very interesting!!  One of my favorite things to see is the changes that take place in lives when you start showing these different personalities the biblical reason for not being prideful, showing humility, and most importantly modeling the love of Christ in a way that makes people wonder what you have and where they can get it.  In politics that is an extremely hard thing to do.  Honesty, integrity, and honor aren't looked upon in a favorable light many times.  Being set apart from the world for Christ's glory is misunderstood by many.  Teaching the kids how to be all of those things without being offensive is hard.  Most of the time you are operating on about 5 hours or less of sleep.  In order to teach the kids the things that I have mentioned, you must model each of those things.  Modeling Godly attitudes and behaviors on little sleep is a challenge.  The only way you are able to do it is with God's help. I pray that the experience these kids had and that with the lessons they learned they will be able " to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

I am going to switch gears from campers now to the staff that I was blessed to work with.  They were INCREDIBLE!!  It is amazing to me how you can pull 20 people together, many of whom don't know each other that well and walk away at the end of the week feeling like you lost your best friend.  It is a powerful testimony of what the power of the Gospel can do and how it can draw people together.  Each and every single one of the people I worked with this week impacted my life in some way or another.  I love the way that I am challenged to grow and think by these people.  If you are reading this post and you worked with me in the past week, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!