Dear Prayer Coordinators,
Greetings prayer warriors! This last week, Session #1 from June 15-19, was an intense one. We only had 18 campers but it sure felt like a full camp. I was blessed with two campers named Howard and Seth. They were by far the smallest of the boy campers but seemed to have some of the biggest attitudes.
When Howard first got off the
bus he was already isolating himself from the rest of the campers. As we were
sitting at the tables listening to the rules, another camper started to make
jokes and distract everyone. Howard was starting to get flustered as he yelled
from two tables down that the other boy should be quiet. I tried to calm him
down and tell him that the directors would deal with him but he did not think
it was fair. This led to Howard not wanting to participate in the games
afterward. This began to be a very big trend. Nothing was ever fair for him.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, Howard's behavior had
progressively gotten worse. He was refusing to go to amphitheater once again.
The directors had talked to him and gave him the option to either participate
in the program or call his house to arrange a ride back home. As the directors
were walking inside to call his house, he headed over to the amphitheater. That night Howard randomly said to me that he wanted to give his testimony and he
raised his hand when the opportunity came. When it was his turn and the
directors called his name to come give his testimony I was just praying that it
would go well. I had no clue how this was going to turn out. As he started to
give his testimony the whole amphitheater got quiet. This was a miracle!
Everyone was listening and the fear of Howard feeling upset because of
everyone else left me. Howard's testimony was very confusing and I could hear
the hurt in his voice. As he ended his testimony it looked as if a huge burden
had been lifted off his shoulders.
After testimony time I had a
one-on-one with Howard. He automatically suggested that we go and play
Frisbee. I said that it was probably too dark for that and asked if we could go
for a walk or something. He said that it wouldn’t be too dark if he had his flashlight. I was like “Well,
he's got me there.” So we started walking up toward our tent to grab his
flashlight. I started to ask questions about him and he replied, “I don’t
really want to talk about myself.” So I asked if he wanted to hear my story. He
said “Yeah, that’s fine.” I started to tell him my testimony. When I was
finished with my testimony he started asking about when I accepted Jesus
Christ. He had about a million questions after that. After answering numerous
questions he asked if Jesus would be able to help with his anger issues and
with his memory. I said that we could pray about it and he agreed. I started
praying first and I prayed for various things like: Jesus to help him with his
anger and memory, that he would catch a lizard, and that he would make friends at
camp. When it was Howard's turn to pray he prayed the same things, but at the
end of his prayer he went in a little different direction. He prayed that Jesus
would put the Holy Spirit in his heart. I was very surprised and when we were
done praying I told him how exciting it was that he just accepted Christ.
Howard pulled a complete 180
degree turn with his behavior. He followed directions. He was excited for Bible
study. He started leading people in doing the dishes without even being asked.
He seemed like a completely different kid. Although Howard still had outbursts
of anger and would lash out at people, it was in those situations he was able
to learn. It is works like this that could only come from Jesus. All of Howard's prayers came true during the remainder of the week. I got to witness
God show Howard His power firsthand. It is an awesome experience both for him
and for me. Pray that he can remember what he saw and felt at camp and that he
can continue to read his Bible.
God Bless,
Tyler
Summer
Staff 2015
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