Finding the Magic
As mentioned in previous posts, I used most of June to take summer classes, volunteer at the local Physical Therapy clinic, and prepare for the other events that I had planned for the rest of the year. When July rolled around, I completely dedicate the month to serving God and others at Timber Wolf Lake, a Young Life camp. Four weeks, approximately 29 days and countless hours were spent on the grounds of a Christian based community where I’ve never been so mentally, physically, and emotionally stretch and stimulated.
As one of my summer staff friends said,” I have been walking alongside forty college students, forty high school students, and countless interns at a very special place. We have all volunteered our time to serve The Lord in various ways. We live in a beloved community where intentional conversations are desired and encouraged. Life here is more rewarding, life here is more challenging, life here is different.” You can find more about her Christian journey and summer staff experience here.
Different sure is right. As I used to say when I was a camper at Young Life, this place is the closest thing to pure magic that we’ll ever find. Coming into camp I had tons of expectations of the type of magic I would be experiencing from once being a camper myself and from stories of others that had served on Work Crew and Summer Staff. In general, I learned more about expectations than that of fulfilling them along with creating magic instead of finding it.To be completely honest, Summer Staff was not all rainbows and puppies. A lot of hard work, sweat, and tears were put into making the camp an escape and a magical place for campers all over the nation. The long hours drained each of us and the tedious attention to detail tested every Summer Staff’s patients. There were multiple points during the month were I internally swore that I’d never make another bed, clear another plate, reset another table, move another prop, check another tire’s air pressure or pick up another piece of trash….yet I did it with a smile because I knew that we were all there for something greater than ourselves. God brought me to a point of breaking with exhaustion in order to humble me in his work. I learned a wonderful way of thinking about the service that we get to do for God. He is so large that He doesn’t need us to do the work for Him, we should be joyful that He allows us to do His work. That way of thinking made all of the difference and because of it the place we called home for the last month was different. It was magical.
My primary task at camp was to work at the go-cart track, which we called Timber-Karts. In addition, the summer staff crew was responsible for setting up, administrating/demonstrating, and tearing down all the activities that the campers experienced. Together these things equated to early mornings and very late nights of radical service. Getting any more than 6 hours of sleep a night was considered a rare blessing, and meal times were our best excuse for breaks, but through it all I couldn’t help but see the magic that we helped create.
During the first week my patients was wearing thin since I wasn’t used to such an absurd schedule, yet in that time of mental weakness God showed himself in the most riveting way. Here is a classic breakdown of God working in crazy ways:
At the end of each week the camp takes a 10 minute all-camp-quite after the “Cross Talk” (which is a sermon by the camp speaker explaining how Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and to create a personal relationship with each of us). As Summer Staff our job is to position ourselves all around camp to help if any trouble arises. While sitting on top of the hill looking over the 500+ camper sit in silence to spend time with God, I wrote in my journal asking God for strength because I was exhausted. When the bell rang to dismiss the campers back to there cabins I continued to sit on the hill for another few minutes. A camper passed me and hesitated, then came over and asked if I was journaling. From there we struck up a conversation and shared about ourselves for over an hour on top of the grassy hill looking over camp as darkness crept around us. She told me that she was from Kentucky and grew up as a military ‘brat’ in a non-active Christian family which made her curious about who Jesus was and what a relationship with Him actually looked like. She had all of these amazing questions and her vulnerability really stuck me since she has had to be ‘tough’ her entire life. In return, I shared with her my journey before I found God and accepted Christ into my life two years ago at a Young Life camp during the all-camp-quite. Eventually, I had to get her back to her cabin so she could get some sleep to be ready for the next day full of events.
On the very last day of camp it is a tradition to have a “Say-So,” since the bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” -Psalm 107:2 This event is where all new believers have the opportunity to stand up in front of all the other campers, Summer Staff, Work Crew, Interns and Program to say that they have met God and accepted him as their Lord and Savior. The girl that I met on the grass hill stood up, took the microphone with tears in her eyes and accepted God into her life. I’ve never been so emotionally moved so quickly. Before she left to get on the bus back home to Kentucky I was able to find her, give her a huge hug and cry tears of joy. Pure joy. That one camper made a lasting impression on me that I’ll never forget and truly gave me the motivation to work through the rest of the month.
That was just one of the amazing and magical experiences that I had during the time I volunteered at Timber Wolf. I could sit here all day and recount the lessons I learned, memories that we created, and growth that I experienced, but then I will have written enough to create a book! There is much more to come about my month serving the Lord and you’ll be able to find the next articles here: Tying You Closer Than Most
“By choosing to be our most authentic and loving self, we leave a trail of magic wherever we go.”