Dear Prayer Warriors,
My name is Ryan and I’m part of the Summer Staff at Camp Alandale this summer. I was blessed to counsel two wonderful young men the week of July 15-19: Thomas and Marco. I’ve had Thomas as my camper a time or two before, and was excited to have him again. He has a great sense of humor and loves to make everyone laugh; he goes out of his way to put a smile on another person’s face. Thomas, though, struggles with outbursts of anger that manifest as verbal obscenities and insults. Through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I was able to learn some of the triggers that incite these explosive reactions. We spoke in depth about anger and its place in our lives. I was blessed to share that I struggled with anger and similar outbursts when I was a child and he asked questions about how I overcame these struggles. We then talked about how Jesus wants to take these problems away from us. We talked about Jesus’ reaction to the merchants in the temple and how Jesus didn’t allow his anger to control him. Thomas, already having accepted Christ into his heart years ago, resolved to pray about his anger and to ask the Lord for help.
Marco is also a very funny guy; he always made me laugh. We struggled through our one-on-one times though as he held his burdens inside, answering questions with “I don’t know” and “maybe” much of the time. The other male counselor on our team and I prayed daily for Marco. I know that the Lord is bringing Marco to a place of desperation centered on His grace. Marco is moving toward justification and sanctification, it’s only a matter of the Lord’s timing!
Unfortunately, I was unable to work with Thomas or Marco to the fullest extent of the camp week due to the fire that threatened Idyllwild and the surrounding areas. The fire began on Monday and sent up a large plume of smoke that dominated much of our skyline and conversation on Tuesday. The threat was very real on Wednesday when the town of Idyllwild was placed under mandatory evacuation. The directors chose to evacuate Camp Alandale on Wednesday evening after dinner due to the threat the fire and smoke posed on camper safety and health. We wished that we could have had the whole week to minister God’s love to these campers. I know that God promises that everything works together for the good of those who love Him and are called by Him. We are sure that the premature terminus of this week’s camp is within the will of God and will be used for His glory. Even though it was a short week, we are still very thankful for the time that we had with the campers. By the way, the fire is out and camps are resuming as planned.
Thank you for all of the support through your prayers. God is glorified as his people intercede on behalf of one another. We’re working together to glorify our king and to fulfill his purpose at Camp Alandale!
Sincerely,
Ryan Strobel (Staff-Counselor)
No comments:
Post a Comment