God is Amazing

Table Rock Wesleyan Camp holds a very special place in my heart.  It’s the place I received Christ as well as the place I accepted my call to the ministry.So, whenever I get the opportunity to go, I’m there.  I just love the feeling I get when I step foot on that campground.  I went this past week as a counselor for the middle school camp.  I always love going to camps as a counselor because it’s just a totally different perspective.  I used to be the one praising and worshiping.  I still am, but now I get to step back and watch these kids do it and it just moves me.  Now I do go expecting God to move, but I never thought he would move in the way that he did last week.  I spent all of last summer going to camps and I’ve gone to Table Rock for the past six years and in all those camps, I don’t think I have every experienced God’s movement as I did last week.

Christian Chapman was the speaker and he was amazing.  He didn’t play around and his sermons were usually to the point.  There was no beating around the bush with this guy.  It was very obvious that he was lead by the Spirit every time he spoke.  Leading up to the time of camp I was really struggling with my relationship with God.  I would sin, then pray for forgiveness and then the next day I would find myself back in that same sin.

Wednesday was when God got me.  To be completely, honest I don’t even remember what the service was about, but it was obvious from the get-go that the Spirit was there with us.  I remember stepping outside the Tabernacle during worship and just placing my hands on the building and praying that God’s spirit would move.  I remember standing outside and feeling the wind blowing in from my left at one moment and then a few seconds later blowing right back from my right.  It was one the strangest things I had ever experienced.  I prayed that God would just reveal himself to me and that he would move in the lives of these kids, and boy did he ever.  I remember that after he spoke, Christian gave an altar call and I went up to pray because I felt that I needed this.  At this point I was fine.  Then a camper came up and placed his hand on me.  I was still fine at this point.  I then got up to sit on the stage and just placed my hand on this young man to pray for him.  I heard his sobs and that got me going.  I got down to pray with him and heard him praying for me and I lost it.  I cried harder than I had ever cried in my whole life that night.  God just really hit me with the fact that I’ve been dilly-dallying around with my Christian walk for 21 years and that it is about time that I actually take it seriously.  To long have I lived a life of sinning and praying and then doing the same sin shortly there after.  I realized that I struggle with fully giving things up to God and that this is why I struggle so much with sin, because I try to take it on myself, instead of giving it to God.

Now I will admit that I may be hyper-sensitive and that I cry a lot, but I wasn’t just crying, I was weeping.  It literally hurt.  I also felt that my sister and I reconciled some differences.  We sat for well over fifteen minutes crying together.  And it’s weird: nothing was said in this time, but I felt that we both had really forgiven each other for all the fighting.  It was such a good feeling.  It is really hard for me to explain in words what God did for me on Wednesday, but right now I feel closer to God than I ever have before.

Something else that God really got me with was my call.  Seeing kids worship just seems to reassure me of my call into youth ministry.  This past week I found myself holding back tears as I glanced through this group of teens just praising and worshiping God with their whole hearts.  It’s amazing what God can do at camp, whether it’s within a camper or a counselor.

I may have a chance to counsel again this week at Senior High Camp, but I’m not sure.  James told me that he would call me if he needed another counselor tomorrow morning.  Of course I am also leading worship this coming Sunday, so keep that in your prayers as I prepare the music for that.