Camp for me in a nutshell has been this: Week 1-Food Prep, Week 2-Dishes/Program Help, Week 3-Ropes Assistant, Week 4-Dishes/Program Help/One on One, and this coming week, Week 5 is Ropes Assistant again. The theme this year is Out Of This World from the verse "Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world.'" (John 18:36a) It's been such a blast. I've noticed this year that the staff are being put in a lot of roles that we wouldn't normally be put in. Like people who've been counseling mostly are being put on dining hall or custodial. Stuff like that. I counseled the majority of the summer last year, and this year I've been in the kitchen a lot. It's been cool to see how God's used this to his glory even when I couldn't see how doing dishes could possibly further his kingdom. I've gotten encouragement notes from countless people telling me how they think it's so awesome how I continue to be willing to serve God in any position, and always with a smile. All glory to God! My smile is from him, and it's to bring him glory.
I want to tell you guys about week 2. Ha, oh week 2! It was absolutely crazy. I have so many stories, so here we go!
It was Thursday night and my friend C, who just so happened to be my "boss" as the Dining Hall Coordinator that week, was having a rough night emotionally and physically. All week she had been having problems with her foot and had been limping. Thursday she messed it up in chapel by jumping and had shooting pain every time she took a step, so instead of limping, she hopped. So she came back to dorm, and we were talking, and J comes to our room and says that God was leading her to talk to C. We ended up praying for her, and J prayed for her foot, and C got up and started walking around...normally! I had not seen her walk normally all week. Then she started jumping and dancing! It was incredible! We went and told the connectors who were in the lounge in dorm, and they said, "C, you need to go pray for B's knee!" And so we went into another room, they had their lights off already, and we told them that we had to pray for B's knee. Prayed, healed, bam! Then we prayed for K's leg which had been giving her almost unbearable pain all week. Healed! This was all on Thursday evening from about 11:30-12:30 at night. It was so random, but so, so, so good!
I thought that Thursday was like, the cool day of the week where God was working and that things were just gonna be done the next day. So on Friday morning at breakfast, R's feet were giving him a lot of pain since he's not on his feet that much normally. A group prayed for him outside, and as I was walking down the road, I heard yelling and screaming. First thought: He's healed!!! Yeah baby!
This other girl who hurts herself a lot had almost broken her toes that week and was on crutches. A few people prayed for her, and she walked out of the chapel without crutches. People were going nuts! We were so excited! She went outside and her campers were like, "Where are your crutches??" Her response, "Guys, I don't need them, God healed my foot!" The campers were so pumped.
At lunch we were sitting at a table talking, and I heard about this one on one camper who lead 4 other campers to Christ! What?!?! God is so crazy!!!
There was a camper who broke her elbow that week and couldn't make her arm go straight at all. She was prayed for at archery, healed! She was blown away. She had full movement of her arm. Insane!
At the next activity of archery, there was a group of boys there. One boy had an ear infection, and so the other campers started praying over his ear. I saw them walking back from archery, about 5 boys, laying hands on each other and praying while they were walking back to their cabin. I ran into the Cove and was like, "You guys will NEVER guess what I just saw!!" This was honestly the coolest thing ever, because at the start of the summer, the summer camp director was talking about how cool it would be if this summer, campers were praying for other campers. And then, BAM! God shows up!!
This other staff member's wrist had been messed up for about a year, she was prayed over, healed!
Another girl, N, sprained her wrist. Prayed over, healed!
One of the coolest things I have ever witnessed was this: at one of the last chapels, the speaker went up to dismiss them, but first he said, "Okay guys, in a few seconds, we are just going to let out the biggest cheer we have for Jesus!" He counted down, and then whole chapel just went nuts! Usually when they tell the kids to give a shout for Jesus, it lasts like, 10 seconds. This time, they would not stop! I kid you not, they were just screaming for Jesus. And it was awesome! It was a glorious sound.
We've also had so many kids accept Jesus as their Savior. It's so sweet! During week 1, the count for kids who became Christians was 21. Week two was 18. We're now half way through summer camp, 4 weeks down, and in those 4 weeks, 70 kids have accepted Christ! How incredible is that?! And we're only half way in!! God is so good.
Please continue to keep camp in your prayers, for both the campers and staff. I know that God is going to continue to work in awesome ways. If you guys have any prayer requests, shoot me a comment or an email (xo_arial_xo@hotmail.com) and I would LOVE to pray for you! I've got a prayer list on my iPod, and I would be more than happy to add you to it.
Huge blessings! Love you guys!
Ariel
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