"A Week That Changed Many Lives"

Every summer the church I go to attends a camp called Beach Week at a Christian retreat in Panama City Beach, Florida. This camp is for freshmen through seniors in high school and is led by college students and adults. I have been attending this camp as a student since I was a freshman, but this year was my first year to attend as a counselor. At first I was a little hesitant because change can be awkward for me sometimes. I requested freshman girls to be in my cabin because I didn't know if teaching any other grade would be appropriate considering I am only a few years older than them. When I went to the Beach Week meeting and was handed my material I opened my folder only to find out that I was placed with juniors and seniors. Not going to lie, I was definitely intimidated at first, not only was I placed with the age group I was afraid of having, I was assigned to eighteen of them! Don't worry, there were also two other counselors assigned to my room as well (who were awesome), but still, I was nervous. Nevertheless, I know God allowed this to happen for a reason, so I accepted it.

As you know, I have a lot of siblings. My fourteen year old sister, and seventeen year old brother are extremely involved in the church like I am, but my sixteen year old brother is not. As a family we have been praying for a while that my brother would let go of whatever is holding him back from church and a relationship with Christ, but for years nothing was happening. So once Week Week got closer and I got past my nerves of the cabin situation, I found out that my brother was signed up for Beach Week... WHAT?!? My mouth literally dropped opened in awe/excitement/confusion/overwhelming joy! Our youth pastor happens to be my brother’s high school football coach and he has the privilege of pouring into his players each and every school day. He has "been after" my brother for two years and my brother has always kind of blown him off. Regardless, our pastor still invited him to church and never gave up until the results changed. He finally got him to sign up! I tried to not freak out when I saw my brother because I did want to freak him out and turn him away. 

We had to be at the church at 4:45 a.m. Monday morning, which was is an absurd hour to most people, but I was so incredibly thrilled I could hardly contain myself. My three siblings and I got signed in and got settled on the bus, ready to take off to Panama City. We arrived around 4 p.m. and were given our cabin assignments and keys. My brother was assigned to my other brother’s cabin, but our pastor/his football coach was determined to have my brother in his cabin. I was excited for my family to experience this camp together because it is filled with good food, fun activities, great people, and of course, lots of Jesus! Our schedule went a little like this:

8:00-8:45 Breakfast

8:45-9:15 Quiet Time

9:15-10:15 Devotional time with counselor(s)

10:15-12:00 Morning Worship/Service

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:15-2:00 Rec Time

2:00-5:00 Free Time

6:00-7:00 Dinner

7:00-9:00 Night Worship/Service

9:00-11:00 Late Night

11:00-12:00 Cabin Time/Lights Out

Not a bad schedule for a week at the beach with fellow Christians and friends, right? Personally, I did not know how my brother, or any of the other non-believers were going to take this, but I was soon going to find out. We were so lucky to have an amazing pastor who lives right here in Franklin, Tennessee come speak for us during the week. He was encouraging, inspirational, and a big part of the results that came from this week. The days went by quickly and the presence of God in the camp was breath taking. The way He filled the room as we lifted our hands to praise Him was amazing. The whole week was awesome, but the last night (Thursday night) changed my life. We had a counselor meeting earlier that day to discuss how the night service was going to go that night because we wanted it to be different. We were serving the Lord's Supper, which would already change the mood in the room, but we wanted to take it even further. Another one of our pastors suggested that we washed our students' feet like Jesus did for His disciples. No one in the meeting objected because this was such a great idea to all of us! As we prepared for this final night we all had heavy hearts, this was the last night that we could grab ahold of our students' hearts and reach out to them at camp. The night was going well and our message was great, we split into our cabin groups and were asked to pray that all of the hearts in the room would be open to hearing and accepting whatever God was speaking to us. Then, we were told to sit in a circle with our cabin groups and go around to each of our students and pray over them specifically as we washed their feet. Let me tell you something, I have never felt anything as humbling as I did right then as I served God's people the way He once did for His disciples. For some reason I cannot help but cry when I worship or pray aloud for others, but God overtook me with His spirit as I prayed over my girls and washed their feet, supplying me with every word that each girl needed to hear and kept me from crying so that they could understand me. It was like the Lord was speaking through me, giving me exactly what each girl needed to hear. Once I got around my circle and back to the first girl, she was sitting there with a washcloth in hand and teary-filled eyes. She quietly says, "Can I wash your feet?" Well, I completely lost it at that point. I did not, in any way at all, expect anyone to wash my feet, we were there to serve them and I was fine with that, so this caught me off guard and overwhelmed my heart with joy. After she was done, she bent over and kissed the tops of my feet, I don't know if this girl knows this, but she changed my life. That is exactly what God commands us to do, love one other unconditionally and show love in anyway possible. I was in awe. 

After hugging her and crying with her, I finally pulled myself together and stood up to worship. As I glance across the room I see students weeping, praising, praying, and kneeling at the feet of Jesus. Delight overtook me seeing the youth group I am apart of broken in front of our Savior, crying out to Him in every way possible. Out of the corner of my eye I see my pastor approaching me, followed by the pastor that spoke for us that week. He wraps his arms around me and says, "I have good news for you. Your brother has accepted Jesus into his heart and wants to be baptized. I have never seen him cry before." It took all of me to not fall over at this point and then the weeks pastors grabs me and puts one arm around me and the other around my neck and he begins to pray. He thanks God for bringing my brother to Him and how he has been praying for him specifically all week. I could not breathe at this point so I walked outside to catch my breath. All I can say to you all is that I felt like I was floating. The one thing I have probably prayed for most, was answered. I have never felt more at peace. For that second in my life I had no worries, God was holding me in His arms. 

As the session ended and people started coming out of the doors I am approached by many of my brothers friends, who I did not even know, who were so excited to tell me he had accepted the Lord into his heart. It was incredible to me that so many other people were praying for him too. Then he walks out and I almost knocked him over from jumping on him with excitement. I could tell he had been crying and he could tell the same with me as he hugs me along with my other siblings. Mind you, my brothers are 6'2 and 6'3, 195 lbs, and 220 lbs, seeing them cry was a sight I was not used to. This was it; we were finally a family in Christ. We had been waiting for this moment for years. Not only did my brother accept the Lord into his heart, but so did about fifteen other students in our youth group, two of them being girls from my cabin! GOD IS SO GOOD! 

We had a celebratory service for our parents and community to come experience the worship, games, testimonies, and baptisms when we got home. As a community we welcomed a number of our students into the family of Christ with many hugs and joyful tears. There is nothing like praising our King with our family and friends. In the span of the three days we have been home, my brother has told us that we must have a quite time together, pray together, and ALL go to church together both Wednesdays and Sundays. He is happy like I have never seen him be happy, confident, and on fire for our Lord and Savior.

God rescues and saves, praise Him in all that you do.

Blessings,

Comments

[Jane]

Read your beautifully written message with tears of joy! Praising God for your precious family! I pray regularly for you all so I am exceedingly glad for answered prayer! Jesus is amazing and God is so good! "being confident of this, that He who has begun a good work in Lauren, Brad, Brian and Hailey will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus!" Philippians 1:6