Three weeks, 21 days, 504 hours, 1500+ high school campers, 34 areas, 150+ servants, countless memories and one incredible God.

I got the opportunity to watch the Kingdom of Heaven grow before my eyes for three weeks this summer. I was chosen by the Lord to serve on Summer Staff at SharpTop Cove (a YoungLife camp in Jasper, GA) alongside other followers of Jesus.

I am still processing God’s goodness and His overwhelming love and grace I experienced during my time serving, so bear with me.

Young Life is a non-denominational ministry whose mission is “Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.” I became involved my sophomore year of college when a dear friend of mine invited me. Little did I know I would give up three weeks of my following summer to serve 1500+ high schoolers in the name of Jesus Christ with this ministry.

As a member of Summer Staff you get the privilege to help create “The Best Week of Your Life” for campers. Along with working, I got the opportunity to make amazing friends who radiate Jesus. They showed me what true community, and “loving one another three times” (@Joey) looks like.

Aside from working and building friendships founded in Christ, I encountered God in ways I did not know were possible. I saw Him in the smiles on faces of Capernaum campers I got to square dance with. I heard Him in the laughter from my friends as we crammed into the smallest room on campus for dinner every night. I felt Him in the wind on my skin on our last day.

Here is an expert from my journal on the morning of my last day at STC after packing up our cabins:

I feel the aggressive wind. I feel the sadness of leaving. I feel the tears welling up for tomorrow. I feel the angst to be home to see my family. I feel my stuffy nose (everyone is getting a little sick). I hear someone dragging their feet because it is 7:45 a.m. I see people with packed bags.
We made our beds with clean sheets for new bodies to fill tonight and for the next month.
All in all, I know my God is good and I am blessed.

So many feelings. I am overcome with how God has showed me how much I can feel about such a short time serving with people I just met. While at STC, or any YL camp, you tend to feel like you have escaped reality. You feel like you are in a little slice of Heaven. Everyone is the best version of themselves (most of the time). Even the food tastes heavenly—well during week one and week two it did; by week three, I was dying for some Chick-fil-A. But honestly life at STC, surrounded by people who love you because Jesus loves us all first, is such an amazing feeling. It is almost as if you are invincible. But then you come home.

That is a hard thing. I think that is why I am struggling to process it all. This is where I live. In this dark world. I watched the news tonight and saw three reports on murders. How sad. The only death I thought about while serving was the death of our old, sinful selves and rebirth because of salvation in Jesus Christ. It is so, so hard to be in this world but know you are not of it, and you aren’t home yet. But there is also so much hope in that. To know that this is not my permanent “home" but my temporary “home." And if I think SharpTop Cove is such a heavenly place, I can not imagine what heaven will be like, walking hand-in-hand with my Savior, Jesus Christ.

One of the first passages we looked at as a team of servants for our session at STC was Acts 2:42-47 which reads:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

We are called as believers to devote ourselves to a few things: teachings, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. It says if we do these things, and devote ourselves to doing these things God will add daily to the number of lives being saved.

Well I can tell you we spent a lot of time studying the Word and the teachings of Jesus. We spent hours in fellowship. We ate a lot of bread. Like a lot of bread (shoutout to the bakers). And I think one of my favorite things we devoted ourselves to was prayer. In the first 24 hours I got the opportunity to pray aloud to my heavenly Father with 150+ people for campers and leaders I had never met. And the Lord heard us. He heard us. All of our prayers. How cool?

With all of these things, God says in Acts if we devote ourselves to these things He will add to the Kingdom daily. I am honored to say I got to witness the Kingdom grow daily. I was so overwhelmed the first week I did not get the chance to count, but at the end of each week there is a time when anyone who accepted Christ for the first time or rededicated their life to walking with Jesus can stand up and “Say So”. At the end of week two, 83 high schoolers stood up to admit publicly in front of 500+ people they were devoting their life to following Jesus. At the end of week three, 95 high schoolers. Like what? If that doesn’t make you smile I’m not sure what will. How great is God? So great. And those are just the ones who were courageous enough to stand up and speak aloud.

I remember at the end of week three, one camper came into the Bead Barn (a crafty bracelet/necklace making shop-the location I was selected to work) and was so overjoyed wanting to share with me that she had the best week of her life because she had accepted Christ for the first time. She said it was like getting rid of the bad apples, and God was giving her all new apples. What a cool picture?

Her analogy hit the nail on the head. 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

I am just so humbled that the Lord allowed me to witness His kingdom grow before my very eyes. Like, not only will I see my friends from Summer Staff and Work Crew and Assigned Team again at the pearly gates, but also all of my camper friends who are now alive in Christ.

That is another promise I am clinging to. Leaving my friends who I grew to know and love, grew to depend on; friends who prayed over me when I was terrified and headed to the ER without my family (that is a story for another time); friends who cried with me when we were so overjoyed and overcome by the Spirit; friends who helped me scrub bathroom floors; friends who took silly pictures with me; friends who tried to pry my “heart sparkle” out of me; friends who “docked” during free time so we could perfect our Chaco tan; friends who love me despite my flaws, was hard. But the promise I cling to is that we will all meet again someday. Just like we broke bread at our time of Communion at STC, we will break bread together again at the Father’s table in heaven.

A song we all belted out together says it best:

And my family lives in a different state
If you don’t know what to make of this
Then we will not relate
So if you don’t know what to make of this
Then we will not relate
Rivers and roads
Rivers and roads
Rivers ’til I reach you

Even though most of y’all live in a different state, only rivers ’til we reach each other again.

Thank you SharpTop Cove for the best three weeks of my life. But ultimately I thank God for choosing me to serve others in His name. Because of Him I can love, laugh and live.

Much love in Him.