Here’s a story from High Plains Baptist Camp. I think it speaks for itself.
Ladies of First Baptist Church of Canyon were aware of many children from other countries who were going to be prisoners in their own apartments for the summer with no means of having a camp experience. They presented these facts to the church leaders and Camp Discovery was the result. After the leaders of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church of Amarillo heard of the plans for this event they decided to partner with First Church. Volunteers from both churches raised money to cover expenses and directed the various activities. This was suppose to be third, fourth and fifth grade students from Sanborn mission, a low income housing area and Pleasant Valley but when the bus came to pickup the campers they had their younger and older brothers and sisters in tow. The activities and crafts were then enlarged to include kids from kindergarten to junior in high school. There were children from 6 different countries Sudan, Mexico, Libria, Holland, Iran and several states in the U.S. One girl asked the first morning in the breakfast line if that was going to be the only meal of the day, they were fed physically and spiritually. At the end of camp when they talked about what they thought of camp they stated their favorite things were eating until they were full, singing and laughing and learning God loved them. There were many interpretations and we are unsure of the number of languages that were spoken but were delighted to hear that there were 20 professions of faith made and many seeds planted. God was Glorified many heard of Jesus for the first time, it was a blessing.
April 15, 2008 at 7:16 pm |
I had the opportunity to be part of this amazing week. Our church owes a great debt of gratitude to Jackie Ward and the ladies of our quilting ministry. These “grandmothers” to all God’s children had this dream and passion. I just happened to be in a place to help it become a reality.
It still amazes me what God can do when we are willing to be used, and reach out “to the least of these”.
I suspect heaven will be like dinner time at camp. It was truly an amazing moment to see these children eat as much as they wanted. I never heard one of them complain about the “camp food”. All I heard was can we go back for “seconds”…and “thirds”.
We are working and praying about living this adventure again this summer.
David Lowrie
Canyon