High School Camp

How do I write about the last week?  There are about a hundred different angles to choose from.  With North Americans, Koreans, Bolivians, and more I could write a linguistic study on code switching.  A reflection could probably be written about the dark screen of hypocrisy found in Christians schools and the lights that shine through.  I could write an entire blog post on my joy in being able to play Ultimate Frisbee again.  


But I think I'll say that camp was a special time.  These students sit in classes together for months.  Students and teachers alike spend plenty of time together living life.  Something special happens when the regular living of life stops, though, and people retreat to spend time doing something different.  Something really special happens when that something different is seeking God's face together.


I counseled the eleven senior girls this week.  When they pulled their hard-cased, bright-colored, shiny suitcases into a dank, cement floored cabin with smelly foam mattresses on triple bunks, the divisions were glaringly obvious.  Two very different groups of girls with only a few sharp words spoken across invisible boundaries.  I began to dread the four days I had been looking forward to.  Until the specialness of being at camp to seek God began to work its magic.


The invisible lines didn't last long.  On Tuesday a few girls were moving from their self-designated lunch tables to sit by their classmates, by Wednesday there were only two girls on each spectrum of the group that weren't caving in, and by Thursday even they were laughing and chatting with the rest.  Thursday night they all sat in a circle crying, lamenting that this friendship had waited for the last three months of their school career to happen.


I shared the gospel this week.  I stressed the need for Christ's lordship in our lives.  I used a lot of words, and I don't know how God will use them, because the girls seemed pretty unresponsive to anything I had to say.  But this God did.  He brought the senior class of my school together, and I pray that they will serve Him with all they have.


So, overall, it was WONDERFUL for me to be able to get away from the routine of teaching this week, and I remember that I love being a camp counselor and many other things in life.  I pray that it was wonderful for the girls I counseled to come together, and I pray that they get serious about what they believe soon.