Well it is Tuesday morning and I am sitting in the lobby of this missionary complex paying for internet ha. I never thought it would come to this, but I think it will be worth it. These past couple of weeks have been such a blessing to my team and I. I left the last message not feeling well, and it turned out to be Malaria. To add to my problems I was stung by a hornet in between session and woke up the Sunday the campers were coming with huge swollen lips. As you can imagine, I was the focal point to many jokes. All I can say is that I most def felt like “Hitch” just chugging Benadryl. After the swelling went down it was time to get a hold of some meds for Malaria. I would get chills and fever on and off all throughout the day as well as swelling every now and then. It was not a pleasant life, but after 8 meds and 1 IV I am back to 100% and ready to take on the world.
Last Session of the Summer:
I could not have asked for a better session to end on. I was the counselor of 8 little 10 year old Indian boys. As much as I was looking forward to connecting with them, the first of the week I struggled a lot at trying to find the right way to tell them about my God, while not offending them. I prayed and looked to scripture for guidance, but I just felt like we had so much that we disagreed on. See the practice Indian which is kind of like Islam. They have 26 Gods and worship them on a weekly basis.
The turning point really came when I got to talk to my grandfather one night for a couple of minutes. If you can picture this, I was on Skype trying to talk to about 10 of my family members all huddled around a tiny computer in East, Texas. I explained my situation and told them how I wanted to connect with these kids, but I did not want to throw God onto them and bombard them with Christ. If I learned anything this week, it is that Gods timing is so right. My grandfather explain how when proclaiming the name, you can never be wrong. He sent me to Acts to look up a couple of scriptures and as easy as that was, it made all of the difference. That night I looked up the verses and prayed for these boys. That next morning I just felt a difference in the cabin and a wanting to share. Every morning we had a devotional and learned the basis Bible stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, David and Goliath, Joseph, and Jesus. To see the zest and wanting on their faces to learn encouraged me to really throw my heart and sole into making sure these boys knew Jesus Christ. We talked that afternoon about what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ looked like. I told them my story and how God overcame a lot of obstacles in own life. We had question time and somehow ended up talking about how dinosaurs fit on Noah’s Ark. That day went by and I knew the seed was planted. The week went by and every night I pulled a couple of campers out of the cabin at a time and talked to them about their personal situations back home, and within the culture they practiced. I knew that God was stirring the pot for something amazing but I never knew he would give me such an amazing opportunity to get through to these kids. That Friday night after hours of standing on our feet and yelling all night at our “Summit Fires” we went back to the cabin to get ready for bed. Remember that these boys are 8-9 and not the most energetic when they get tired. As we sat down for our nightly 20 minute devotional about the day, I soon realized that all these kids wanted to know about everything. For the next 2 hours I sat on my bed and answered every question they had. We talked about Adam and Eve, the Crucifixion, scripture, how to read scripture, what Jesus Christ really means, Bibles, you name it we talked about it. The passion I saw in these little boys eyes was something that I had never run into before, and it truly showed me that when we lean not on our own understanding, but on the understanding of God anything, and I mean anything is possible. I went to bed tickled to death that God had just done that. That next morning I awoke early and knew something had to be done. I could not let these boys leave without tying up any lose ends. I went to the Camp office and asked if we had any Bibles left over to give out. Sure enough we had enough for all of these boys to have not only their very own Bible, but their first Bible ever. I spent the next good bit writing an encouraging note in each one, and after breakfast called them outside the cabin one by one to pray very them with the Bible. You would of thought it was Christmas morning as the their tired faces just lit up with joy. As I walked in to the cabin after the last boy, I just sat back and watched as the boys huddled around one bed all reading the same page. We sat on our beds after that and took turns reading the amazing story of David and Goliath (the boys really liked that one). I talked about how God really overcame that situation, and although Goliath was so big with Gods power a little David overcame him. It was the best way to end camp and as we left, we exchanged emails to keep in touch over the next year. I charged them to ask me all the questions they wanted to too, but not only me to ask God as well.
Although I might of seen the seed start to bloom just a little bit, I know that God has so many more plans for these kids.
Today we are leaving for a place called hells gate, which is a rock climbing park that we will be at for a good couple of days. After that we are leaving for the Mara (Safari). My buddy Andrew just got back from the place that we will be going yesterday and in the day that they were there got to see about 20 lions, zebras galore, elephants everywhere, and a group of about 1,200 wildebeest migrating across a river. The Mara is most def in full migration swing and I am so pumped to get some cool pictures.
Our group leaves next Monday morning at 4:30 a.m to fly back to the states and although I do not know if I am ready for that yet, I am going to get to do some amazing things with all my ACU friends. Two of the girls that I have worked with all summer long, along with my roommate Andrew and a couple of our friends are all going to the Kenyan coast for a week after we drop them off at the airport. When we get back we have a couple days to rest then we are climbing Mt. Kenya with a couple more of our ACU buddies that have been in South Africa and Egypt working on missions. If that isn’t enough, when we get back from that we are working with my roommates parents ministry called “Made in the Streets”. I am super pumped to have some fun and relax for a little bit, but I know there are still things to be done in this city and continent.
Camp Fun:
Rafting the Nile:
Entertainment Section:
So at camp we have this thing called “Camps Got Talent”. Every cabin makes up either a skit or a song and performs them for the whole camp to watch. I have gotten to host this event 3 times this summer as Barbie and Ken twice, and as Danny and Sandy from Grease. Words can describe a little of the fun, but I will let the pictures tell all. Lets just say, “summer loving I was having a blast”
If you would like to see the entertainment on video, I want to say you can go to the Bracken Ministries blog and they have a youtube of it.
Welp off to get packed for the week. I miss all of you very much and can’t wait to tell you more stories when I get back. God Bless John 16:33
Jonathan
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