Teen Camp

I know it has been forever since I have updated my blog! There are many reasons why I have not blogged lately, and some of them have involved some trying, difficult months. That story I will leave for another day and another post. Some of it has been because of just being too busy! But I will say...God is good..all the time. Good or bad times, He is a God that can be trusted. This much I know and continue to learn each and every day!

I wanted to start this update with the great week the Jeff and I had at Teen camp last week! We were asked to be counselors this year at the same camp that a looong time ago, I was a camper in. How long? That is really noone's business! haha!!

116 teens, from churches all over Spain, came together for one week at MCCB (Mount Calvary Baptist Camp), on the outskirts of Madrid. 3 teenagers trusted Christ as their Saviour and many others made decisions of further surrender to Christ during the week.

I was the counselor to seven 14 and 15 year old girls. The first day the girls were quiet and as we sat around our table at lunchtime, I thought...."I just don't know how I am going to get these girls to open up!" I was a bit overwhelmed. By that night though, as we sat around the supper table, the girls were giggling and laughing and giggling some more (they did a lot of that during the week!) and believe it or not, they included their old, foggie counselor in every bit of it! haha

I found out some very interesting things about each one of them. They all had very different backgrounds. Some had grown up in church. Some had parents that were in the ministry and others had parents who did not go to church. One girl had only been going to church for a little over a month and she told me that her Dad was constantly cursing at God, at every chance he got. Praise the Lord...she trusted Christ as her Saviour on the first day of camp!

I found out that many of these girls had some very difficult situations at home. At times, as they opened up to me during the week, I would think, "Dear God, I don't know what to say! I have never experienced what she is going through. Pleease help me know what to say that can actually help her!". My heart was heavy during the week, as I realized that at the end of the week, as these girls headed home, they would be faced with the attacks of the devil and would need God's strength to get them through.

Not everyone had dramatic stories. But everyone, including me, had daily, spiritual battles that they were facing and it was so encouraging to spend a week, away from the busyness of everyday life, being filled with great messages, Bible classes and being able to talk with other Christians. How uplifting it was for both Jeff and I! Camp was such a blessing in my life when I was a teen and it was so great to be back at camp and see God still at work in the lives of the teenagers here in Spain!

Here is a picture of the girls in my cabin: