The First Day
At camp’s first assembly time the band was playing and the music was loud, I happened to look over and see a student sobbing next to me. I sat. I listened. I offered support, comfort, and sympathy. He told me about missing his dad and his parents’ divorce. He as sad because this week would have been the week for them to see each other.
Mid-Week
Timothy was a student from a different Cleveland Campus Life site than mine. I was his cabin leader for the week with another volunteer, Doug, who knew Timothy. During our Cabin Time at the end of each day, I could tell something was happening inside Timothy. His responses and interjections during our discussions about God were changing as the week went on.
One night, Doug and I spoke to the group about trading the sin we wrote on our rocks for Jesus as the rock of our salvation. During the day, I had given each teen a marker and a rock. They were instructed to write their sins out on the rock. By Cabin Time, the words on each rock were illegible-just a smeared stain. Timothy spoke up and said “Jim, my sin faded away on my rock!” He clearly understood the significance of this!
The Last Day
After our last assembly together, we were walking to our cabin when Timothy came running up sobbing. This time the tears were different. He said Nygel’s (one of the main camp speakers) story really spoke to him and he was ready to give his life to Christ. Timothy wanted to wait and pray back at our cabin, but we found Doug the three of us decided, “how ‘bout right now!” We made a three-man bro-hug and prayed for Timothy. He accepted Jesus right there in the assembly parking lot. Doug and I could barely pray through our sobbing tears of joy. We finished by explaining to Timothy even though he missed his dad this week, he also has a heavenly Father that will always be with him wherever he goes.