Alaska Mission Team Week 2 Update
Dear family and friends:
High school week has come and gone! This week 44 high school teens arrived and did what campers do at these types of camps: have lots of fun, make lots of friends and make life-changing decisions about their relationships with God, family and friends. They came from the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, the “Valley” (towns just north of Anchorage), and as far away as Fairbanks.
Pastor Tiffner of Soldotna Baptist Church preached on the topic of holiness and salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and did a great job of challenging campers to give themselves unreservedly to Jesus. Jim Garris taught the morning chapel and was used by God in many other ways as well.
The team participated in singing, choir, skits, counseling, food service, groundskeeping, games, hikes, picnics and more. Building relationships with campers was a big part of this ministry.
For those who are familiar with camp, this is routine procedure here. What is not routine for team members is the personal challenge of being used by God to minister to individual campers with many varied needs. BJU students quickly are reminded of the need to trust the Lord to work in the hearts of campers and to provide wisdom in counseling.
Unity has been excellent both on the team and in the camp as a whole. Team members are learning to work side by side with new folks, be stretched doing new tasks, and focus on the needs of others before self — always a big challenge for all of us.
Mr. Z (that would be me) had the privilege of speaking to the teens in the afternoon sessions each day. These sessions covered the vanity of life without God (from Ecclesiastes), the purpose-filled life (also from Ecclesiastes), the uniqueness of God and His salvation plan, and a message about the problem of compromise from the book of Daniel. Mr. Z (yes, me again) hopes the teens benefited from the messages to the same degree as he had fun preaching those messages!
There has been much cough, cold and sore throat among staff here this week. Mrs. Z was busy getting everyone back to health. Six of the team were required to stay out of the “waterboy” game on Wednesday for fear of lengthening their recovery (it is a wet and cold game — but great fun!). Nurses’ orders you see — and you know how nurses’ orders go — the “I told you so” is the worst part!
God was and is at work in the hearts and minds of campers, counselors and staff. The overall spirit of the camp week saw many of us take another look at our lives from God’s perspective and seek more earnestly for Him. Those with bitterness granted forgiveness. Those with guilt found mercy. Those without Christ found forgiveness and a relationship with God through Christ. Those with rebellion learned the value of submission. Those with a loose tongue learned the value of self-control. Those who tend toward selfishness now value service to others to a greater degree. It’s been a great week!
About half of the BJU Alaska Mission Team will go to Selawik, Alaska (far northwest) to hold a “Camp On Wings” in that village next week while the other half of the team remain at Higher Ground Baptist Bible Camp in Sterling, Alaska, to counsel and staff the junior high week. More on these events in the next update!
For the team, Mr. Z.