A New Take Away

I spent the last week in a cabin with 50+ girls, 6 adults and 4 showers. It was an awesome time and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I LOVE camp.  I’ve been going to youth camp for years…and years and this year I came away with a little different take away. I’m still, as always, extremely grateful for the privilege to work with students and be part of such incredible life change. BUT this year I have a renewed passion to reach women with the Gospel and help them see how their lives can be different if they choose to do it God’s way. Why that particular take away??

It’s like this. As I got to know the girls in my group of 15 as well as some other students at camp, I found myself more and more frustrated with their moms. These are terrific young ladies in high school who are having to shoulder the load of life issues they shouldn’t be dealing with yet. They are fighting against the odds and becoming adults before their time in order to survive. These are girls who are the spiritual leaders in their families and are feeling responsibility for their younger siblings. Now it is awesome that God is there for them and that they are learning to trust Him in ways I can only imagine—BUT what if we could reach their moms?

What if our women at our church got on fire for God and started talking about Jesus to the moms of these girls as they see them in the neighborhood or at the ball park or at school functions? What if we got serious about putting some feet and words to the faith we say we have? What if next year at camp we got to have conversations about how cool it is that their families had completely changed? The deal is that God is big enough to do all that and MORE but we need to get serious about it. If we spent as much time reaching the lost as we do studying the Word for ourselves we might see change. If we develop relationships with the moms out there who have no clue about Jesus then we might just see life change.

One of the guy counselors at camp shared that he is a dad of girls and one day it hit him that if he wanted his daughters to find godly men then he better start doing his part investing in them. I don’t know what motivation you need to share the Gospel but that’s a good one. So is this one: moms of boys, these girls are the ones your boys are going to date. Wouldn’t you love to be confident that they had a strong faith support group?

What about this one: lost people go to Hell and we are called to reach them before they do.

Or this one: the students your own kid hangs out with will determine largely what type of person your son or daughter becomes. Wouldn’t it be great to know that you aren’t the only one praying for them and coaching them in the ways of the Lord?

There are a zillion other reasons why we need to be more intentional and more focused on reaching the lost around us. Find the one that works for you and get busy. These teenagers need us and need our support. If you don’t have kids yet, you have a head start. If your kids are young—it’s never too early. If you are an empty nester- then get busy sharing your wisdom from what you did right and what you did wrong.

I am so humbled by the opportunity I have had to do life with these students. So many of them have lived a life of faith, not perfectly, but honestly and through much harder trials than I ever had to. None of us are perfect BUT we are all called.

Get fired up about life change and lets’ start giving the students in our area a little more support! They are going for it big time….are you ready to get in the game??