Week 3 highlights!
This week we had 2 campers who were from the juvenile detention system.
They were from 2 different areas. One of these campers, Joy, looked
rough on the exterior. She yelled most of her communication, used
profanities, had a number of tattoos on her 14 year old body--- and we
were ready to love her as long as she was willing to stay with us at
camp. We were told that every day she stayed and didn't get sent home would be a win. She
became fast friends with a-team members and property staff as she
refused to sit through club because she became anxious with the high
energy songs/games. This provided an opportunity for us to care for her
and give her positive attention. She would sit through REAL LIFE, but
refused to go to cabin time because she lacked trust and "hated" those
girls. In spite of all of the challenges, the love of Christ
demonstrated through our actions penetrated her hurting heart. We found a
sweet kid underneath who sat at all camp quiet and read the 'letter from
God' I pass out to kids. She remained quiet for the 10 minutes-- a real miracle. And on
her way back to her cabin-- by this time she was participating in cabin
time, she handed me her pencil and her letter from God. I told her she
could keep it, but she insisted on giving it back. You could imagine my
surprise when I flipped the letter from God over to see that she wrote a
response, "I love U too God. Love Joy". Joy woke up early to go to
the new believer celebration, received her first bible and put her tile
in the sluice box to symbolize the new change that had taken place. She
will face a sentence of 2-3 years soon after she returns, but she does
say she'd like to come to Creekside to work. :) I'm glad we made room
for Joy, flexing the traditional model of a hyped up camp experience so that
Joy could experience the love of Christ this week.
Always a JOY to see kids respond. Here is a 1 min video of the celebration moment of kids standing to say YES that they started a new relationship with God! video here ---> https://youtu.be/N25lumMF4vc
We saw multiple leaders and work crew who were here in 2018 five years ago when Jeff spoke here at Creekside. Taien, Pablo and 5 others. Pablo reminded me (Jeff) that I spoke his name out loud when personalizing who Jesus had in mind when he gave his life for us on the cross. Such a joy to visibly see the trajectory of kids’ transformed lives. We don't always get to see the fruit of faithfulness. Its a bonus!
Jeff is engaging with mini-sessions, which are groups of volunteers who
come to serve, to shore up the shortage of young adults who come to
serve on summer staff. We have 5 Spokane folks here, 3 Royal City, 3
Yakima and more. This week, Jeff is taking over for 3 days from Kent
McDonald as the Director for mini-sessions at Canyon while he attends an
event.
Pray for Tanya and for kids for this last week! Campers from Lake Stevens (including Kaden Schwenke!) and Zillah in Yakima Valley, Tri-Cities, Olympia and Cle Elum/Roslyn and more will be here these last 5 days we are here!
-jeff and tanya-
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