So far, we have done 3 kids camps, 5 teen camps, and one
middle school camp over the span of about 2 months. This summer’s staff and our
experiences would be inordinately difficult to describe at best, but I’ll give
it a shot for the sake of talking about God’s faithfulness. Although there was
a bit of nervousness from me and from other returners about the nature of the
staff and the program taught this summer, I think there is unilateral agreement
that this is not only the best summer we have had ourselves, but also the best
summer staff that we have worked with hands down. In reality, there are few if
any discernible differences between the returning and new staffers save for a
couple years of general life experience. When presented with difficulty, they
have stepped into the chaos in front of them with great humility, strength, and
gentleness. There have been times where we all have fallen short, cut corners,
responded poorly, or sought out our exaltation or comfort above the call to serve,
but, generally speaking, this summer has been characterized by being about God
using 12 men and 12 women for His purposes at Look Up Lodge, mainly in the form
of ministry to guests and to each other. I am thankful for the people that came
before and paved the way for this summer to happen as it has, including former
staffers and campers.
As I look back on what God has done this summer, it is
astounding that so many broken people can be used by God to advance His kingdom
more powerfully than I have seen in my 3 years doing camp. This is of course
not a knock on the last two summers or any of the staffers from that summer;
each of those summers were great experiences and they were staffed by solid
followers of Jesus. The fundamental difference between the last two summers and
this one is that things that have been set aside as low priority in previous
times have been carried on to completion. Spending time with kids when there is
time, encouragement to be better rather than comparing fun ways to slack off,
and deep loyalty to integrity and paying the price required by our job is
present in a way that it never was before, and much of that is attributed to
the entire staff being characterized as unified, open, humble, and committed to
seeking and living out truth, no matter how painful or costly.
The program for kids has been centered on understanding
man’s purpose, which the scriptures teach as being an image-bearer of God. It
has been cool to see kids understand that following Jesus isn’t based on some strange
and distant moral code, but instead that man was created for a purpose and that
God still desires to be in that purpose-driven relationship with man. It is a much more useful
(and accurate) category for understanding who God is and what He is like.
For teens, we have been again centered on being God’s
image-bearers, but in more specific and tangible ways. The theme has been
“Love, Sex, and Dating,” but it has been more about how men and women were
created and what aspects of God’s nature they are called to reflect. For the
sake of those who may read this and come to camp later this summer, I’ll remain
silent on the rest of the details.
The curriculum this summer has been hands down my favorite
to teach and to learn more and more about. Again, this is not to say that
either of my first two summers were bad in any way, but the truth of the matter
is that it is clear that God has been setting a lot of our campers up to hear
some difficult truth during their week of camp and change their minds about a lot of
their own ideas. There is very little more rewarding to me than when a group of
teenage guys realize some things to be true that begin to steer their lives in
completely different directions than they were headed; that is, it is
incredibly cool to see kids that are on a path to be passive, porn-addicted,
selfish, and immature boys at 35 years old change their mind about how they
fundamentally understand themselves and their purpose and start on a path to
being teenage men. My prayer and my desire for this summer is that many boys
would come to camp and be changed not intrinsically by camp, but by God using
this week at Look Up and leaving headed in the direction of biblical manhood.
If you have been praying for me or my co-workers this
summer, please continue to do so. We have and will always need for Father to
sustain us and partner with us if anything good will be done this summer. We
are trusting God to be faithful to us and to use us in whatever way He desires
so that we can make Him look good.
