The Body of Christ at Camp
As we close out our 4th week of camp, we’ve officially passed the halfway mark for the summer!
Summers seem to creep and fly by for our family. Our days start early and end late, but we love that we get to bookend each camp day with a time of worship.
Our days are full of activities for our kids, and we “grown-ups” get many opportunities to catch up with church leaders and friends we don’t see often.
Though the days are full, the pace of camp is wonderfully slow and simple. There are fewer meals to cook, fewer dishes to wash (hallelujah!), fewer places to go, and all the people we need to see are right here on campus.
For our traveling family, it’s a still spot in our year and a time I’m finding I’m more reflective and attentive to how each member of our family has grown and changed since we were here last summer.
Like the giant measuring stick in our school room at home that we mark up once a year on birthdays, returning to camp has become a special way to remember and mark new ways God is working in our lives.
One way we mark the seasons of our lives is by the people that God brings into them. In some of my happiest and darkest times, God has used His people (old and new) to shape, counsel, comfort, and love me well so I might grow into the image of Jesus.
The people God places in our path during these summer months are reminders of what He has done in us throughout the years. Many church leaders that come to camp have become dear friends and co-laborers in ministry these past nine years, cheering us on in the work God’s given us to do, inviting us to share our songs with their church families, and sharing their hearts and lives with us.
There are also many Centrikid staffers that have made it their mission to bless, encourage and love on our kids in deeply significant ways. They’ve cheered Judah on in his musical giftings, enjoyed his lunchtime conversations (which inevitably turn into comedy hour), and encouraged him in his wonderfully contagious personality.
They’ve invited a once quiet and reluctant June into their work of setting up flags. They’ve taken her on golf cart rides. And they’ve silly danced with her in our I Can’t Wait morning services.
Last year, it took a whole summer of being the “recreation assistant” for June to dare speak a word into the megaphone. This year, our girl is belting out Frozen songs at Jam with the Band, dancing with the creative dance team, and covering everyone in shaving cream.
Milo is the one to cuddle this summer, and it’s the sweetest thing to see how they all love the opportunity to hold our little guy during staff meetings.
As a parent, I can’t begin to say how many valuable things I’ve gleaned from the ministry done here.
As a Jesus follower, I’ve learned many lessons from these college students on how to communicate the gospel clearly, simply, and frequently to my kids throughout our days.
I haven’t yet mentioned the joy of having a band with us each summer. We have 2-3 college-aged instrumentalists commit most of their summer to lead worship with us at camp. Each one is a blessing and a direct answer to prayer, and most have become like family.
And last but certainly not least are our babysitters. I often pray for God to bring the right people into our path each summer, and He always provides. These precious girls love on, lead, and care for our kids in tangible ways and often have timely spiritual conversations with them.
Thinking of all these friends brings my mind back to Ephesians 4, which reminds us that we are all parts of Christ’s body together. And we function and display Jesus best when we build one another up in love, each serving in the unique way He has designed us to. Each member of our family is a stronger part of Jesus’ body because of these believers He has surrounded us with, and I could not be more grateful.
“We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love”
