Nearing the Teen Camp Finish Line

Tomorrow is the last full day of Teen Camp, before the campers all get picked up on Friday morning. It’s been a good week, and it’s also been a hard week. It’s been a week full of games, songs, goofing around, and enjoying the chance to get to know a great group of young people. Every day we have a couple chapel sessions, too, and we’ve been talking through the story of Moses. I got to teach this morning from Exodus 13-14 about the story of the Red Sea Crossing, highlighting God’s power to rescue His people – to provide salvation – even when the situation seems impossible. And one of the highlights for the campers is all fun camp songs we sing in the chapel sessions, too. If you look at the picture above, there are more campers on stage “leading” the motions, than there are campers sitting in the seats.

One of my big prayers is that the songs would get embedded in their hearts, and they would understand, at least in part, what the songs they are singing are all about. Here’s a list of some of the songs we have been singing this week: Days of Elijah, My Lighthouse, The Goodness of God, Enter His Gates, Not Be Shaken, Pharaoh Pharaoh, and more.

A key Bible verses that has become a bit of a personal theme verse for me as I serve in this ministry at Rock Nest is Matthew 9:36.

“When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.”

What Jesus said about the crowd he encountered that day reminds me of so many of these teen campers. There’s a whole lot of heartache, a whole lot of burdens, a whole lot of wounds that so many of them are carrying around each day. I was talking with one young man today whose father who has been in prison since he was five, and then another who lost his mother to a drug overdose a couple years ago. The hurts and wounds are big and hard. And we are sharing with them the good news that, not only does Jesus offer us forgiveness of sin, but he offers to carry our sorrows, as well. He is able and willing to heal the wounds of our hearts, and even to redeem those pains by providing us opportunities to help others find healing for their soul wounds.  

And so it’s such a privilege to be able to love these kids, enjoy life with them for the week, and to share the good news that Jesus loves them with an enduring and healing love. Would you pray for us as we finish out this week, that the Lord would begin some good work in the lives of some of these campers?

Immigration Status: Status Quo

Still no word. So I’m happy to stay while my status remains “in process”

Prayer Needs

• Pray that some of these campers would take hold of the good news of Jesus’ great love for them.
• Pray for the cabin leaders who are weary from many days of hard work in loving and playing with these kids. They need energy to keep going and they need hearts full of God’s love that they can share with these campers for the last bit of time they have.
• Pray for the last two chapel sessions (Thursday at 11:30 and7:00), that the speakers who are sharing (Doug in the AM, Scott in the PM) would be given words of life, truth, and love that speak directly to the hearts of the campers, so that they might understand just a bit better how much the Lord loves them.

Conclusion

Tonight I’m staying in a different location. I’ve been sent to the woods😊. I’m in a cabin for the first time in quite a few years, staying there with another camp staff. And we have a camper also staying with us, in order to preempt a late night fight and help everyone have a calm night of sleep. It’s actually been a good chance to connect 2-on-1 with that camper, and to share with him a bit about God’s work in our lives.

Leanne and the girls arrive in just a couple days, and I’m sure excited to see them in person. And I’m excited to be serving alongside Leanne for the next month. We make a pretty good team, and I’m looking forward to being together soon. We are more effective together than we are apart. But for tonight, it’s cabin life for me, complete with a couple bats that flying around in the rafters (no I’m not joking, and no, it’s not my favorite thing). Thanks so much for praying for us.

Ryan and Leanne Donovan