Disguised Christ - Outreach Camp 2014

There are times in life that you are privileged to do one thing or another, and once the privileged time is over you're sad to see it gone, yet thankful that you were able to be a part of it.  Being Camp Pastor for Outreach Camp was an awesome experience for Pamela and I.  We spent most of the week, day and night, with a group of eight to twelve year olds who can't usually afford to go to a  week long camp.  Some of them come with only the clothes on their backs.  Some of them come bearing their parents', or grandparents', shame that they've placed on them on a daily basis.

Being ridiculed by those who are supposed to love them, it's rare they see adults who dote on them the love Christ has for them.  They stand amazed that these "cool" adults would take time out for them, and make them laugh, pray for them and give them encouraging words all week long.  We take so much for granted sometimes.  I have it so well, and my kids have it so well.  It was such a stark contrast to see kids that people don't love selflessly.

There's a whole population of children out there in the world who don't have that same safe refuge that most of us grew up with, knowing those who are in charge of us had our backs.  Some of these kids have to create their own safe places.  Places of hard living where no other person is going to intimidate them. Places where that little child is going to be harder, tougher and meaner than his or her surroundings.  It's a tough thing to see a ten year old with a hard heart because they've grown up in harsh environments.

There was a morning, where after breakfast the deans of the camp told every camper, in fun, that they couldn't leave the mess hall until they smiled at the Camp Pastor with their biggest, cheesiest grins.  Pamela  and I sat at the end table and smiled big goofy smiles at the campers as they were leaving to go to devotion time.  We had our biggest cheesiest grins we could muster at such an early morning.  Each one that went by flashing their best snaggle-toothed grins, I complimented each of them on how beautiful their smiles were.  There were several though, of these tough-skinned kids that weren't going to smile if the world's security depended upon it.  I chased one little girl out of the mess hall teasing her that she was going to smile at me whether she liked it or not!  She liked the attention, because as we walked out and I'm smiling so big my face was cramping, a grin began to creep across her stone-walled face.  Her eyes lit up, and for the rest of the week that little girl couldn't help but smile at me when I saw her.

A smile is such a simple thing, but when given to a child who has lived a pretty hard life it becomes priceless.  It becomes a bridge from your happy world into theirs.  Many such bridges were engineered and constructed this week at Outreach Camp.  Many of these children would come to us after our nightly worship services and would want us to pray for them.  One little boy came straight up to me and asked me if I would pray for him to be "bold and courageous for Jesus."  The kid was about eight years old.  I prayed for him, not sure of the world he would return to once the smoke and mirrors of our happy little camp seemed to him to be a desert mirage.  After praying for him, when he walked away, I prayed too that Jesus would help me to also be bold and courageous and not live this life for myself, but for Christ and for pouring out His love to those who need it most.

All the staff prayed that this week of Outreach Camp would change these children, change their destiny.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that the destinies changed might not just be those of the children, but ours. Mine.

One little girl that we prayed with, her name was Destiny.  I told her that she had a beautiful name, and that Jesus loved little girls named Destiny because that's what He likes to give them... a great, big destiny.  My mind wondered what her life will be like in ten years as a  young lady.  Will her destiny be swallowed up by the life and poverty she's surrounded by?  Or is there someway, somehow that the Christ she met this week disguised in camp staff clothes, tennis shoes, and devotionals be seed enough for the Holy Spirit to change her stars, so-to-speak?  I believe so.  I believe that the love of Christ is the most powerful seed that can be planted in young fertile hearts.  I believe that the apostle Paul was correct when he said, "Love conquers all."  I believe that God is bigger than all of our problems and bigger than all of our fears.  I believe that God is bigger than any mountain that these little kids will ever face.  I believe that God is faithful to His word and to the work that His servants perform.  I believe the disguised Christ will continue to show up in these kids' lives from now on because He loves them more than I ever could imagine.  Kind of like the way He loves me.