Dear Prayer Warriors and Camp Family,
This week for
Session #3 I, Ariel, had two amazing campers, Cristie and Holly. This was Cristie's first time! She shared
with me that she did not really want to come, but how she was so glad that she
did. Holly was super sweet and was ready to hear the Gospel and let the Bible
studies soak in. By the end of the week she gave her heart to God. Her brother
Adam also made a decision to live for Christ. Please join me in prayer
that God would help them find a church to attend.
My other camper, Cristie, had a more difficult time. Cristie has come to camp a few times and was fighting to open up and
allow God to heal her heart. She claims
to be a Christian and is trying to grow in God.
She is very insecure and concerned with how others perceive her.
Throughout the whole week she slowly opened up to me about what has happened
and what she is facing now. Some weeks feel like a roller coaster with the
information you find out about your camper and this was one of them. My camper
started to have feelings for another girl camper, she shared that she has tried
to commit suicide multiple times, and I found out she was inflicting self-harm
at camp. I saw God make little changes in her heart day-by-day, knowing that
these were big victories for Cristie. It was hard to see a beautiful young
girl feel so insecure about herself and find no worth in who she is in God.
Pray Cristie would hold on to the promises she has learned about God, and
that she would not inflict pain on herself.
God blessed me,
Allie, with two relatively easy campers for my first week of counseling. My
campers’ names were Regina and Heaven and both loved camp and were eager to
join in on all of the activities. Both of them poured out their stories to me
on the first one-on-ones.
Heaven's story was
especially inspiring to me. Right now, she’s living in Orangewood and has been
in and out of Foster Care ever since she was an infant. She has a past of being
beaten down by her mother, but God has given her such a strong soul. She took
taking care of her younger siblings into her own hands. Most inspiring of all,
she spoke up for herself when she couldn’t take the abuse any longer and had
herself and her siblings moved to Orangewood when she reported the abuse to the
police. Starting on the first night, she told me that she knew God has a plan
for her life, and she knew He had been with her all along. Her knowledge of
God’s Word was small but she already came to camp with a lot of faith. On
Wednesday night she shared her testimony in front of the other campers and told
me she felt light and free afterwards.
I definitely saw a
transformation of new joy and hope in her demeanor. Thursday night, the last
night at camp, we played on the grass and stared up at the stars and I was
blessed by hearing her amazement in God’s creation. We talked about how
precious we are in God’s eyes, that if he took the time to make each star, how
much more he values us, his children. On the last day of camp I asked her what
God had been teaching her. She said God was showing her that she is important
and loved. Goal accomplished! My prayer for her is that she continues to seek
God in her life and that she would learn to lean on him for strength. Also pray
for her that she would be placed into a loving and safe group or foster home. Thank
you so much for your prayers.
With
Christ’s Love,
Ariel Bogue & Allie Hitchcock
Summer
Staff 2016
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