God Is Good. Enough Said.

It seems that it has been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that. Internet service has been sparse over the past week. This past week we went to Orton Ranch Christian Camp, which is put on by FBC Ketchikan. That means that we got to work with a lot of people and kids that we had already met a few weeks ago. That was really cool, because we had already established relationships and connections with some of the kids, so we didn't have to spend as much time doing that. So before we went to camp, I was not excited at all about going. We were told that we weren't going to be able to go, so I think the big problem for me was that I didn't have enough time to mentally prepare for camp. I had several people specifically praying for me that God would change my attitude towards that. And so He did. We eventually got to camp after a two hour boat ride and a nice little hour hike in. Throughout the whole traveling process I got to talk to the kids and was immediately dubbed "Lyndsey Lohan." So the way the whole camp worked was that we got up, gathered around a flag pole and did a little lesson about US history and did the pledge and sang the National Anthem. Then we did breakfast, a Bible Study from VBS material, free time, lunch, another Bible Study, more free time, dinner, Worship Time with VBS songs, a sermon, Missions Time, even more free time, then off to the bunk houses. As you can see, we were pretty dang busy. For the Bible study time, all four of us missionaries took one a piece. I got to do the plan of salvation using the ABC's. I'm always excited to get to do that. The free time that we had in the afternoons included swimming and tubing down this river that we were right beside. Yes, they swim in Alaska. And it was every bit as cold as you would expect a river in Alaska to be. Despite that, they loved it! I braved the frigid water myself.
So at night, me and Turner stayed in the bunk house with 12 girls...no other adults or anything. They were all between ages 7-12. The were a few behavior problems, but nothing too major. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with the girls. One of my favorite parts of the day was right before we all went to sleep. Some of the girls asked to do a Bible Study (which I thought was an awesome request from 10 year olds), so I obliged. The first night I read them Romans 8:35, which talks about how we can't be separated from God's love, no matter what. The next night I decided to switch it up a little bit and tell them a story. So with half of the girls huddled up on my bunk with me and the other half on Turner's bunk, I told them the story of Queen Esther. The last night, I told them about Balaam and the talking donkey. I thought it was really cool how the girls hung on to every word of the stories. I really think they got something out of them too. So the last day we had at camp was probably one of my top 3 favorite days that I've had the entire trip. That morning, one of my girls decided to give her life to Jesus. That made this entire trip worth it for me. Later that day we got to hang out with the kids more and play in the river for a long time. I feel like the fellowship with each other that day was really special. A cool thing that happened during that time was that this little 7 year old girl named Christian that hadn't talked practically the entire time started opening up to Turner. I had tried to get through to her earlier in the week, but for whatever reason, she didn't want to talk to me. The first night we were there, we were told that her parents are going through a divorce and things are pretty bad in her home right now. Having known that, we were really eager to love on her. So her opening up and having fun with Turner was a pretty big blessing and a pretty big answered prayer. It also showed me how God has formed this team so well. All four of us on the team each have our own different gifts. It's pretty awesome how God has a person that seems to excel in a certain ministry area everywhere we go. I think that is pretty exciting. So back to the last day of camp. Before our sermon that night, we did a worship time with all of the VBS songs and motions. If you have read any of my past posts from my first week here, you'll know that in the past I have realy hated VBS songs. That night, I made up my mind that I will never knock those songs ever again. That night, with those songs, we truely worshipped God. I'm not sure if I have every seen kids that young really worship God, but they sure did that night. God's presence was thick in that place. Just to hear those 19 kids singing those songs to God at the top of their lungs was one most heavenly things I've ever experienced. After that, we had our sermon from our camp pastor for the week, and at the end, he called us four missionaries up to the front. He told the kids to come up to any of us if they wanted and we would pray for them. So they time came, and almost every kid came up and was prayed with. I got to pray with several of my girls. I can easily say that was one of the biggest God moments of this trip for me. There was something so special about getting to pray specifically for each one of those kids. By that time we had gotten to know each kid fairly well and knew what to pray for with each of them. At the end of the night, as we were about to go to bed, the pastor told us that the kids had something they wanted to do before bed. They had made each of us our own poster that they had all signed that said, "Thank you so much for teaching us God's Word." The pastor also told us that doing that was all their idea. That was definitely a humbling experience. We got to see just how much influence we had on them. It reminded me big time of the responsibilty that God has given me this summer. I felt kind of small and very blessed that God can use little ol' me from Tar Heel, North Carolina to teach kids about Him and show them His love. Every couple of days I get that feeling...that I can't believe God is using me to do this. I keep thinking about how this time last year I had no idea I would be in Alaska this summer. It is still pretty unreal to me. This experience is so much bigger than me and it reminds me of how I can't do any of this by myself. I'm pretty in awe of God right now. I can't fully describe to you how amazing He is and how He has worked everything out so perfectly. I think about all of the people we have come in contact with already...and we still have 4 weeks to go. We were all talking the other day about how we will have come in contact with literally hundreds of people by the end of the summer. Who knows how God has used those encounters. Who knows how many seeds have been planted. It is so amazing how God has worked all of this out.

So at the current time, I am sitting in a Waffle bar in Juneau waiting to get on a ferry to Sitka. It's about a 10 hour ride I think. Sitka is supposed to be gorgeous...everyone we have talked to said it is the most beautiful place in all of Southeast. We are pretty sure that we are doing Bible School. I'm excited about that.

So I want to thank everybody for their prayers. I appreciate them so much and I know for a fact that they have made a difference. Please continue to pray for:

-The people of FBC Sitka
-Opportunities to share Jesus outside of VBS
-Energy
-Boldness
-Team unity
-Health and Safety
-Opportunities for my fellow summer missionaries all over the world

Grace and Peace
Lyns