Camp
Whew.
Summer is coming at us fast!
We hurried home from our grand adventure just in time to turn around and send the girls off to church camp.
They have gone the last three years and it is always a priority and highlight of our summer
My one regret is that we didn’t get a family picture this year.
It’s amazing what can happen in just 4 days.
Aubyn came home last summer asking if she could be baptized. After talking to her about this decision and making sure she understood what it meant, we called the children’s pastor and she was baptized that Sunday with the whole children’s ministry around her and cheering her on.
We didn’t expect the same level of intensity as last summer, but we were eager to see what God had in store for them and for them to have a blast with their friends.
(I’d by lying if I didn’t add that we were excited for them to be away from home too! It’s like camp for all of us!)
They were all smiles when I picked them up and over lunch they shared about seeing a young person going to heaven and talking with Jesus and another friend getting her prayer language.
And Embry, the girl we’ve been praying for with her food sensitivities, God decided to use camp to poke some holes in it. What I thought would scar her (a blind taste test of soy sauce, strawberry milk, V8 juice, and a Starbucks drink) was the thing she couldn’t stop talking about.
I never would have imagined!
All the things I thought they would be going on about…Wave pools. Zip lines. Water slide. Rock walls. Mud runs. No parents…they skipped over to talk about where they saw God move.
I fail daily as a parent and as a spiritual leader in my home, but thank goodness for our church community that comes alongside us to help carry that load and help disciple our kiddos.
I asked Aubyn the day after which camp she liked better, our church camp or another one she’s gone to a couple of times.
“Our church. Definitely.”
Then with sadness in her voice, she said, “Mom, the other one doesn’t have Jesus.”
I’d say that’s when you know you’re doing something right, but that’s not from me or Justin (no offense J-Dawg).
That’s Jesus working in her life.
That’s the church leaders, the children’s ministers, and the volunteers who pray their hearts out for our kids and who are always pointing them back to the love of Jesus.
The children’s ministry has signs and shirts that say, “There is no junior Holy Spirit” and they live that out. They talk to the kids and show them how the Holy Spirit is present in their lives, not just the adults.
And they live that out. Joyfully.
Which is helpful for a mom like me who unfortunately gets her priorities out of whack.
In all the hurry of getting them to camp, I realized after the fact that I only focused on the material things they needed and didn’t stop to pray for their hearts and their journeys.
Which is way more important than any costume I may or may not have packed, a lunch that may or may not have made it on the bus, or any item I may or may not have labeled…
