in a fight not physical

This week was filled with so many fights that weren't physical...and some that were. But mostly spiritual battles that raged around us from every side. From busing, to disobedient children, to the water cistern, to lack of sleep, Satan was working overtime this past week.

It started out on Monday with a call from my bus driver for the Gcastle/Wboro bus in the afternoon during our leadership team meeting. She told me she couldn't drive at all this week because her sons were coming in from Hawaii. I thought ok God you need to provide. She called back later saying that she felt bad leaving me hanging and although she definitely couldn't drive on Monday, she would drive the rest of the afternoons. Then it was the next morning when I got a call that they couldn't get the bus to start for that same route. So as I was praying and calling parents to let them know that the bus would be 20-30 mins late, all I could think was this week can't get worse with busing...well I was wrong. Wednesday morning my bus rider for the Chambersburg bus called and said the bus driver hadn't shown up yet. I called his cell phone quickly to find out that he had forgotten and would be late to pick up the kids. The next morning I got a call from the same lady that had cancelled earlier and then came through for me, saying the bus was too hot and she refused to drive it anymore...leaving me with two afternoons to scramble to find a bus driver for. When she told me this all I said was "ok thanks for letting me know. Have a great day." I couldn't believe all that had gone wrong in this one week, when I had no issues whatsoever the rest of the summer. This was clearly Satan at work...and I was ready to fight back.

Then on Thursday we noticed some water bubbling up around the water cistern...we thought that it was just water from the top draining off....turns out that a pipe had broken. We figured this out on Friday after turning the water off and noticing that the bubbling stopped. Thank goodness for a few great men who pitched in and helped to dig and fix the pipe within less than 8 hrs.

My next obstacle this week was the day campers disobedience. I have never had to discipline so many children in one week, and break up so many fights. My staff was tired, and it showed. I had to have a talk with them after a terrible wacky water Thursday, with boys who were out of control.

I myself, have never felt more tired in my life. I can feel my energy draining and my voice checking out for the summer. It would be so easy for me to check out emotionally and mentally going into this next week, but I can't bring myself to do it.

The kids from last week, once again have captured my heart. They have each found a place within my heart and I am broken to let them go home not knowing if I will see them again...or knowing what some of them are going home to. I love them so much. I wouldn't trade my job for anything in the whole wide world. I know that God has called me here for a reason this summer, and if it is not for anything else, it is for me to love on these kids, and love on my staff.

This week I clung to Galatians 6:9 and Philippians 3:12-16.

Galatians says, "Do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up."

And Philippians states,

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained."

So I press on in this last week, and I refuse to become weary in doing good. I will forget all the struggles of last week, and push towards the good coming in this next week. I will live in a mature way, and strain to reach God's goal for my life. Will it be easy, not in the least, but it will be worth it in the end. So I'm in a fight not physical, I'm in a war not with this world, But Jesus is the light that's beautiful, and I want all that he has for me!

tears, smiles, and tiny little faces...have each found a place in my heart....

Oh what a crazy past two weeks it has been. I can't fathom that we are starting week 6 today and I will only have one last week after that. The summer has flown by faster than I can fathom. Flashes of children's faces, laughter, staff silly moments, and tears I've cried in moments of panic float through my mind. There is no doubt that this summer has changed my life forever. I've learned more than I can even put to words.

One thing I've learned these past two weeks is the value and power of prayer. We have had such a huge need for campership funds and funds for the capital campaign. Because of the economic state our needs have been huge. More and more families are out of work, and therefore don't have enough money to send their children to camp. Yet this week after a parent program a man walked up to our executive director and handed him a check for $5,000! What a mighty God we serve and put our trust in! The Lord has also answered my prayers for strength. Last week I fought getting sick all week long, and vividly felt the attack on my body on a few occasions. Satan knows that if I'm sick, I can't fully pour out into my staff and campers. But I prayed harder than ever that God would shield not only me, but the entire camp from sickness. I unfortunately sent my first two campers home this week because they were sick. I also sent two staff members home because they were sick. Satan was working overtime to cause us to be disheartened, but our God is mighty to save and redeem us from the clutches of sickness. God provided healing, God provide strength, God provided funds, and He gave us his love to sustain us when we didn't think we could go on.

At this point in the summer my head is so full of tiny faces, and names it is so hard to sort them all out. I was thinking the other day as I was at canteen and I had multiple children around me asking "Miss Faif, look at me" or "Miss Faif, listen to me" -they can't all pronounce Faith, and it comes out as Faif- and I realized I couldn't remember about half of the kids names around me. My mind can't keep them all stored up, but what shook my world was to think that God not only knows all of my campers names, he knows everyone on the earth's names as well as everything about them. And better than that, he loves us all and give us all equal attention. So although there are days when I feel very stretched among the 80+ day campers all vying for my attention, the Lord never feels stretched. He never ignores or says, "Faith, just wait one second sweetie". He answers immediately when I ask for his attention. In fact he never takes his attention off of me. It is almost more than my mind can fathom. Psalm 8:4 states "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" (ESV) Who am I that God even notices me? Who am I that he hears me; cares for me; loves me? I'm not anyone important, but the Lord knows my inside and out, he knows every hair on my head, and every word that will ever come out of my mouth. He catches my tears, and defuses my anger, he holds my hand, and strokes my hair and says "Faith, I love you, wait on me. " I will rest in that knowledge this week as I enter what will be my largest week of Day Camp yet, with the most inexperienced staff, with no assistant. It will be tough, but God is mindful of me and has brought me here to camp to succeed, not fail. He is my salvation, my strength, my song, my peace, my everything. Week 6, here we come!

making followers of Jesus

This past week was filled with crazy moments, exciting highlights, and times where I wasn't sure I could go on.It was a week filled with God's presence and light in my life though.

I spent a lot of last weekend praying that God would help me to be more relational, and actually become committed to mentoring my support staff girls, and connecting with my day camp staff. I had done a good job of only being results oriented thus far, and I knew that God needed to change my heart going into this week. My job isn't to connect with campers, but to connect with my staff and equip them to do that. I must say that God answered my prayers. Not only was I able to get all my one-on-ones in this week-the previous two weeks I've missed at least one-but they were some of the brightest highlights of my week. God not only grew my mentees, but he also grew me through them. I was also able to connect with my day camp staff. I went on a hike with them, and made time to play Mafia and Ga Ga ball with them. As simple as those things seemed, it made a world of difference in not only their lives, but mine. I've found this past week, that to actually get more accomplished and see better results, you must first show your staff that you care about them. Oh how I wish I would have figured this out in my first 2 weeks. It probably would have saved me a lot of stress and headache. But it's more than superficial "care". It's truly caring and being fully committed to investing into their lives. This is not an easy task, but it is so rewarding. To see the things I had been praying about so diligently last weekend, to totally transform and change from my low points, to my high points was an act of the Lord.

I was missing the point of my job my first two weeks. I had in my head the win I wanted to see my team accomplish, but I gave them no tools to get to that point; no encouragement; no life to life for life. I wasn't giving them anything from my life, except my commands and tasks that I expected to be done and done well. They might be helping children to come into a relationship, but I am helping them to come into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Him; I'm helping them to produce spiritual multiplication by equipping them for active ministry.

This week showed me the importance of prayer as well. I had so many people praying for me to be more relational. It was also the cry of my heart day and night. Like Nehemiah, I desired to go before the Lord on my face in humbleness and cry out day and night, letting my request be heard. I desired to practice the presence of God, in praying and then not allowing it to consume me and become a distraction. On the flip side of prayer though, I also learned the vitalness of sitting at Jesus' feet and just listening to His voice. Like Martha in Luke 10, I can so easily "become distracted with serving" that I miss being a Mary and sitting at the Lord's feet listening to Him.

All in all I learned a balance this week. I learned to pray without ceasing, trusting that God is going to do what His will is; I learned that I need time to sit and be in the presence of God without the distractions of serving as well; and I learned that in order to fulfill the Joy El motto, life to life for life, I need to get a grip and be more relational through showing my staff I care through having fun with them and investing into their lives. Those things all tie into each other in that, prayer and spending time listening to Jesus, puts me in line with His will, which then helps me to be more relational and see the importance of investing into others lives.

Oh and by the way, we now have 46 new brothers and sisters in Christ from this past week of camp!!

halfway point here we come!