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Stories From Camp (USA)

by Dave Rahn, on behalf of YFC/USA’s Southwind YFC Camp team

swcampI have two stories and two different numbers to share with all of you who have faithfully prayed for our middle school camp at Southwind. We headed off in different directions on Sunday around noon.

On Friday night we had agreed we would send campers and leaders out for 15 minutes of quiet, solo time after our speaker shared the challenge of trusting Jesus. We were going to give campers paper to write letters to God as an aid to their listening response. Just as Kevin started to speak I was shown a radar screen full of red and yellow colours. It was an intimidating block of weather, matching the severe thunderstorm warning that had been issued for our area. The wind was kicking up and rain had begun to fall.

I sighed, prayed, and moved into position to whisper to Kevin that he would need to dismiss kids to their cabins for solo time. It was the response we needed to make for the campers’ safety. We were all disappointed but trusted that God’s Spirit was bigger than the cool outdoor location we had dreamed of for young people to talk to the Lord.

But 25 minutes later I was called to look at a different radar screen. This was shaped like a horseshoe. The storm was all around us, but clearly NOT going to hit camp! I quickly moved back into a stealthy position and whispered to Speaker Kevin, “Back to Plan A!” Minutes later campers filed out quietly for 15 minutes of uninterrupted solo time outside as I marvelled at how God’s unfailing love manifest itself by splitting a storm in half! At the end of our quiet time we played a song over the speakers (How He Loves) and began to hear campers shout, “Yes, Jesus!” all over camp.

As we connected with cabin leaders the next day it turns out that 53 young people said “yes!” to trusting Jesus for the first time!

And then there’s the story of ONE. It turns out that Kent, a Campus Life director from Florida, had invested in Greg for years, but he had not yet put his faith in Christ. A 2015 graduate, Greg was asked if he wanted to join our Project Serve team for camp. Relationships of trust paved the way for this invitation. We joined Kent in weeping tears of joy as Greg decided to be a follower of Jesus…while serving on the Project Serve team at camp!

Your prayers. God’s irresistible love. And now eternity has been shaped with a different population than before we went to camp. We praise God for his awesome goodness!