Today is Saturday. The first set of Bronco (10-11 year old) campers left yesterday afternoon. We love them, but we were also secretly cheering when they all rode away on the tractor. It's been a hard week for some of the counselors, but overall the camp went really well. At this age, the boys are usually more problematic than the girls, so we didn't have as many issues as the guys did.

My cabin (previously "Bear", renamed "Discovery" for our High Seas theme) was pretty well behaved, for the most part. There were ten girls in our cabin, plus the two counselors (myself, and another girl named Allana). I got to know Allana pretty well, and we work great together; we've become really good friends.
A lot went on at the Bronco camp. We had chapel twice a day, cabin devotions, free time, Sky Trolley (the zip line), canoeing, archery, mini-golf, BB guns, horseback trail rides, and cabin clean-up. During cabin clean-up, the staff had devotions while the campers cleaned the cabins. Afterward, judges walked around and rated each cabin. It was pretty funny actually, because the girls had cute (and a few crazy) ideas about cleaning. They would run around and get flowers to decorate everything, write stuff on the porch in pinecones, and put leaves in patterns on the steps (all the while neglecting the simple stuff like sweeping). Once, they thought the cabin smelled bad, so they rubbed deodorant on the bunks and their sleeping bags. Oh, ten year old girls!

The very first night, we talked to them and asked them about their lives. I was pretty shocked (and kind of excited at the challenge) to learn that only three of them went to church and that most of the rest hadn't heard of Jesus. That meant that our presentation of the gospel was the very first that some of them had ever heard, which was pretty amazing. The opportunity is almost incomparable: to share the Good News with someone who has never heard it before and has no preconceived ideas about it.

So we shared the gospel with them in our cabin. They had a lot of questions; some were really deep and some were a little out there. They asked if God was a male, where He came from, about Jesus, Cain and Abel, the garden of Eden... pretty much every question that flitted about in their heads, they asked us. We answered what we could, pointed them to God, and even had to run and get a second opinion for a few things.

The mind of a child is a wonderful thing though. It was really enlightening to see the way that some of them processed and perceived things. We asked them on the second night who they thought God was. One sweet girl answered with profound insight that I almost didn't know what to say. I wish I had her answer word for word, but I'll just have to summarize. She said, "God is everything that is good. He's the mountains, the ocean, and the stars, He's the flowers, the horses, and everything else beautiful and wonderful."

Simple, and maybe not quite theologically correct, but the sentiment is right. God is the author of all good things. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows," as James said. I love that answer.

As far as accepting Jesus goes, we want them to do everything by themselves. There is no altar call, no sample prayer, no "repeat after me" confession. If a camper wants to accept Jesus, we want him to do it because he understands what he is doing and really wants to.

In our cabin we did have one girl who decided that she wanted to accept Jesus. Allana and I sat out with her on the porch of our cabin and just talked for a little while. We asked what she believed about Jesus, and answered her questions. She decided that she for sure did want to accept Jesus, so we told her how some people go about it and the sorts of things that they pray. Then we sat there with her on June 8, 2011 while this girl asked Jesus to forgive her and be in her life. Just existence of a new life in Christ, the one person who is so especially loved by God turning to Him... it gave me and continues to give me so much joy. I really am so blessed... and so I wish you were here that you could share in the joys.

There have been struggles too, though. One girl was in foster care. Another was only here to "learn about other people's religions." A handful of kids in other cabins had lost a father or mother. Many were in divorced households. Some were the children of drug addicts. A surprising number had been exposed to drugs already. There are so many hurt and broken people, but God's love heals!

I know I'm in the right place.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement. I am praying for you all too! You have enabled me to come here, serve God, and fight for the people who don't even know how lost they are. A thousand times thank you.

Blessings,
Lauren
PS: I have a lot more stories and funny happenings that I just didn't have time to write about. Hopefully I'll post those soon!