Dear Amazing Prayer Partners,
This winter camp season has been a struggle. Mostly just in counselors signing up to come. In the struggle though we always see God’s hand at work and He always provides exactly what we need. Sometimes it’s an overabundance of help, and other times it’s just the right amount. Never have we been in a situation where we didn’t have what we needed. This weekend was no different. It was filled with some surprises in how God worked it out, but God is always good and faithful to work it out for us.
This weekend was a smaller camp numbers wise. 8 Campers, 2 JC’s, 5 Counselors and a Staff Person. Smaller camps always seem more intimate and seem to go to a deeper level. This camp did just that. From the discussion times, to the fun game times, it really felt like we were at a family reunion of sorts.
One of the most surprising aspects of this camp was that my wife Lisa got to be a counselor for two of our girl campers. Lisa had Kendra and Anna as her campers. Their times were blessed with deep discussions and prayer. The campers were so excited about having a director as a counselor. In fact Anna asked me before we got to camp what counselors were coming for the weekend. I told her the names and when Lisa’s came up she said, “I hope I get her as my counselor!” Sure enough as God would see fit she did, and Lisa and her had some amazing times of being open to each other and learning more about Christ. We pray for both Kendra and Anna because their last camp as campers was this weekend because both of them will be graduating in June. At the end of the camp we honored them as our Senior campers and prayed over them and their future. I am praying that we will be able to see them back at camp as JC’s or Counselors sometime in the future.
Gilbert is a camper that has been coming for a while. He has some speech disabilities, and some would consider him a bit slower in thinking than most. What we have seen is that Gilbert has a soft heart and is learning a lot as he grows older. His counselor definitely had some tough times with him at camp this weekend as Gilbert refused to do the bible studies. Even though he did, his counselor lovingly spent time with him and played games and shared Christ’s love in other tangible ways. We are still praying for Gilbert’s heart to be changed by Christ. He has seen some horrific things in his life that have made him continually resistant to God. That being said though, the reason he keeps coming back to camp is Christ’s love being shown through the counselors, and the fun that he has. We know God has great things in store for Gilbert and would ask you to continue to pray for God to get a hold of his heart.
One camper that always brings joy to my heart to see is Daniel. Daniel gave his heart to Christ a few years back at Camp Alandale. He has grown leaps and bounds since then. He is plugged into a good church in Riverside and is continually looking for ways to express his faith to people. One of the biggest changes I have seen that God has done in him is his control over anger. When he first came he had a problem with getting angry and exploding in anger towards whoever made him angry. This weekend however I saw a more mature, healed Daniel. As there was opportunity for anger, he gave it to Jesus and remained calm. At one point I got angrier than him at a situation and he helped to calm me down. God is good!
All in all it was another amazing weekend of God’s love being shown to our campers. Please continue to pray for our campers to run to Jesus with everything!
Blessings in Christ,
Mike Towler, OC Camp Director
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