Working for the Lord: Part 1

I really wish I had the chance to write last week when I was at Lebcamp, but the point of Lebcamp was to leave the "world" outside and be one with Jesus. And boy did that happen! Sometimes you wish a missions trip or church camp could go on longer than one week, but reality is, we can't shut the world around us out forever.

I'll back up a bit and let you know what I'm rambling on about. Last week my church put on a youth work camp. The camp lasts for a week and the youth go out in crews to different work sites in our immediate community. The work ranges from painting to building onto houses. The youth spend the rest of their time in fellowship at the church.

Last year was the first year I was able to spend the entire week helping out. For the two years previous, I was only able to help out a day or two. Well did God rock my world!!! Seeing the kids grow in their faith, going in my faith, and everyone getting to share the experience together- it was awesome! I had a wonderful time with my crew and getting to know the youth at our church was great too. In fact, I continued working with them throughout the school year at the middle school and high school youth nights during the week. To say the least this years Lebcamp was highly anticipated for me, and God didn't let me down.

So this past week I got to know six new wonderful youth and one new "adult." I put adult in quotes because Josh and me talked all week about how hard the transition from youth to adult can be once you exit college. Josh was one of the many blessing I had. He was wonderful with the kids and had my kind of sarcastic sense of humor, so we got along just great. Both of us talked about how this week was really the beginning of a wonderful friendship. How awesome is our God?!

Although the week was full of blessing, that doesn't mean it was a week without a little struggle. Monday had been a hard day for me. I'm a crew adult and we're really there for support and encouragement. Each crew has a crew leader, a youth, who is in charge of keeping the kids on task and making sure things are getting done. Well my wonderful fearless leader, wasn't quite fearless yet. She was struggling, and me seeing this I jumped right in. At the end of the day I felt like I hadn't done the right thing. I spoke with Jason, the youth director, and he gave me some pointers. So on day two, after a night of prayer, I set out to be the perfect supporter. Well we almost got there. But I felt so frustrated because yet again I had to step in. I felt like I wasn't doing what God needed me to. I felt like I had let our crew leader down and myself.

Wednesday was a our "mystery" workday. This day was exactly what the crew needed. We went to a nursing home. There we put together a skit and put it on for the residents. Then we got to play a trivia game with them. We just got to relax. It was like God was telling us to chill and enjoy each other, and we did just that. By the time Thursday rolled around the crew leader was getting the hang of leading and I was feeling comfortable hanging back and encouraging her. On Friday I wasn't able to be there on site, but from the reports everyone gave me our crew leader kicked butt. God really worked with her and I all week. She is a wonderful young lady, who I know will go on to be a wonderful leader someday in whatever she does. God really showed us how relying on Him can change us all in just one week.

Lebcamp 2010

Well I've gone on long enough. There is more to come though, look for part 2 and I will let you know how our resident, Mrs. Clark, glows with God's love!!!