True to form, Lamont and I waited until the last possible moment Thursday to get everything ready for the weekend. I finally dropped into bed around midnight; Lamont woke me up when she crawled in beside me at around 2:30 am.
Everything went wrong on Friday morning. No, really, I'm not exaggerating:
- The van that we had reserved was M.I.A.
- When the missing van was returned, it was low on gas.
- So was the other vehicle we were taking.
- We opened up the luggage trailer to find it stuffed with garbage bags full of old clothing.
- We had to wait an additional forty minutes for some kids to show up.
- When we got on the road, Lamont had to turn around to find the camera.
- Which she never found.
- And then had to turn around again to pick up the video projector that I left sitting in my office!
Now mind you, this is all going on while we're surrounded by a group of easily excited teenagers. But despite the craziness, I still held onto the hope that a week spent at Teen Camp would be better than a week spent at the office, which has become pretty unbearable as of late.
I'm happy to report that my hope was not misplaced.
Everyone at the camp made us feel so welcome from the second we got there. The camp staff clicked with our crew from Jamestown, which was a relief, because Lamont and Mr. X and I have such a unique working style. (Flying by the seat of our pants mostly!) We also had the great band, Mending Point, for use in our meetings, which was a real bonus. It was great -- everyone was so cooperative and willing to improvise to get things done! With everything being so tough at our church lately, Lamont remarked that she could really grow to like this kind of enthusiasm!
The theme for the weekend was Get Real. I think that's an idea that needs to take root in the church. The burden of being a "good witness" is so oppressive that quite often Christians spend more effort on maintaining a fake image to get approval from people than facing the daily reality of working out an authentic, personal spirituality. So we thought that would be a good place to start with the teens.
Teenagers are some of the most stressed-out people on earth. I'm certain that they're busier than most of us adults: they have to juggle work, school, extracurricular activities, and active social lives. When do they get time for themselves? When do they get time for God? Lamont and I were determined not to guilt trip these kids for not doing enough (i.e. prayer or reading the Bible) -- we were going to bring them a message of hope.
Face it. Kids don't have anyone to look up to anymore. Kids don't have anyone they can trust. So for our first meeting on that night I spoke simply about Christ, the Good Shepherd, who wants to gently lead them and comfort them, who loves them as they are -- with all their imperfections and blemishes intact. We had a short time of prayer at the end, with some kids coming forward to pray. I had an opprtunity to pray with some teenage girls who leaned against the altar and just sobbed and sobbed. The image will be forever etched in my mind. What kind of sick love-starved world are we living in that a message of God's love would evoke such a response from these girls?
After the meeting, we celebrated the night at the condo with some New York Pizza, courtesy of Mr. X. Although I have been suffering from insomnia as of late, Friday night I collapsed into bed and slept like a baby!
No comments:
Post a Comment