This summer I had the opportunity to serve as an intern with the Light of the Village and to work specifically with Camp Hope in Prichard, Alabama. Going into this summer, I had no idea what to expect. I kept running all of the previous summer Bible camps I have attended through my mind trying to figure out some type of idea about how the camp would run from day to day. About two weeks before I was to report to training, I was still unprepared. I thought that since I have been through so many types of Bible camps that this would be a piece of cake. Throughout training week I became pretty nervous. I researched known facts about the city of Prichard and the people that lived there. What I found honestly scared me. For a second, I thought that I was in way over my head, and boy was I right.

I continued to pray every day leading up to the first day of camp, hoping and praying that God would give me the abilities to work with these children and be able to be the proper role model that they need in their lives. The first week of camp wasn’t so bad. But the first week is always the honeymoon week. By week two, I knew for sure I was way in over my head. I had never experienced kids like this before. Not that our kids were bad, but their environment is. Trying to get them to settle down and pay attention to the Bible lesson and to show respect was, at first, almost impossible. I knew the only way to get through to the kids was to first go through God.

There is no way I could have ever done this without the power of God. Throughout this summer God has taught me more than I have ever learned before, not only about how awesome and powerful He truly is, but also about how he can use anyone and everyone for the good of His overall, divine purpose. I was skeptical at first about my abilities to teach to Gospel to these teenage boys in a way that they could understand on a personal level. But then I quickly realized that it didn’t matter if I had those abilities or not because God gave me those abilities this summer. God used me as His light and as His messenger to these children so that they could hear the Gospel, but not just hear it but also be able to understand it on a personal level. So overall, was I in over my head? You better believe it! But it doesn’t matter. God put me here, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

So that was my camp experience, which was AWESOME! But, I should also mention the awesome people I got to meet while I was here. The night before training started we had a dinner for all of the interns from all three camp sites. Many of the interns already knew each other, but I was an outsider. Now, for those of you reading this that don’t know me, I am a very shy person by myself. I am never outgoing and find it very difficult to just jump into a room of complete strangers and start making friends. So it goes without saying that this dinner was very awkward for me. But two random guys, Bryan and Austin came up and introduced themselves to me and it turned out we all were to work at the same camp. These two guys immediately sparked conversation with me and made me feel welcome.

Throughout the week of training, I met the other interns from Camp Hope as well as the interns from the other camps. Each of these interns is unique in his or her own way. And that’s part of what makes them so awesome. Throughout the summer with dinner at each other’s houses and intern outings, I have become the best of friends with all of the interns, especially those from Camp Hope. In fact, I officially became a part of “Bubba” [Bryan, Branson (myself), and Austin = BBA]. This official term came into play around week two, and by then I knew I was already part of the family. And that’s how I feel when I’m with these guys. Not just Austin and Bryan, but with all of the interns. We were all there for each other in our ups and downs because it’s true; we are ALL family.

There are a few more people whom I have yet to mention, such as Mr. John and Mrs. Dolores who founded the Light of the Village. But I have to put a little emphasis on Camp Hope’s fearless leader, Morgan. I really don’t think that Camp Hope could have stayed afloat without her. She is by far the most awesome person out of all of us, and I owe her an enormous debt of gratitude. Through Morgan’s extravert personality, we as interns and staff grew a lot closer together. Morgan had everything down to a “T” throughout the whole summer. And even when things didn’t go according to plan, she was always able to improvise until she got things back on track. To be able to run a summer Bible camp in Prichard, Alabama takes an enormous amount of strength, dedication, and determination. Her love for these kids goes far beyond just wanting to teach them the Gospel. She really does care for these children and wants to see them excel in life, not just physically but also spiritually.

This post certainly turned out to be longer than I originally planned, but it’s all good! This summer was by far one of the best I have ever had. Not just because of the lifelong friends that I have made, but because of the things that God was able to do in me and through me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bitter sweet ending to the summer, but I’m already excited to come back next summer and jump right back in and see what else God has in store. And who knows, I might even have a tag along with me next summer!

As the leader of the teen boys, I have to say, my boys and I have had some interesting times together this summer: some really good and some really, really bad. From the frustrations in the gym to some really incredible Bible studies, nothing beats my main leader running to me with a smile on his face to tell me and everyone else that he got saved. To clarify, when I say main leader, that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Basically if he was bad one day, the rest followed. If he was good one day, the rest followed, mostly. 

I have to admit when he told me he got saved, I was caught off-guard and not sure if he was serious or if he’d gotten sound counsel. So I talked to him in the middle of glow games to follow up. Here we are in a pitch-black gym with glow sticks, black lights, people running around, and loud music blaring. But I managed to talk to him and see what he knew about salvation. Through talking to him, I was able to affirm that he was serious, and it was real to him. I could see that he caught it. This experience is the highlight of my entire summer. It made all the hard times, craziness, and exhaustion worth it. It’s like all of those things didn’t even happen once this kid told me he got saved.

I’ve been talking to the teen guys about leadership all summer. I’ve seen some step up, while others have told me they just want to be “regular.” A friend of mine always says, “Don’t talk about it. Be about it.” That saying has stuck with my guys, and while they don’t know everything about leadership, they know that good leaders follow Christ. They know that good leaders serve, and do not simply talk about service. And they also know that leaders are not perfect. Are all of them leaders? No. Do they all have the potential to be? You better believe it. In a community where they are told to get money, get girls, and act hard, I decided leadership is what they needed to hear about. So many people believe that our kids don’t have the potential to be leaders, but that is partially why they aren’t being leaders. If you ever have the opportunity to interact with our kids, first believe in them, then show them. I promise that if you show them that you believe in their potential, there is a better chance that they will see it. But as long as the generations before them tell them they can’t do something or they won’t amount to much, they are never going to believe they have potential. Never.

I believe in these children and students so that one day, they might believe in themselves. It took 6 weeks, but after pouring into him for 6 weeks and telling him he was a leader and believing it from week 1, it paid off. I look forward to the opportunity to disciple and mentor this kid in the coming years.

My youth pastor used to tell me “Your life may be the only Bible some people read!” This is something that I have kept in my mind this summer as I have been interning at Light of the Village. The past five weeks have been filled with hugging, getting my hair done at the “beauty salon,” dancing, giving piggy back rides, playing the Wii with the kids, laughing, pushing kids on the swings, singing, and most importantly seeing God move in our kids. 

“Love bank” was a completely new term to me this summer; yet it was used so often. The first time I heard Dlo (aka Mrs. Dolores) mention filling a child’s love-bank I had this odd image of children walking around with big, pink piggy banks which each intern had a small amount of coins to fill. I pictured myself intentionally choosing how to deposit the few coins that I had into a select group of children’s love banks…. And then the thought was lost as I pondered how I, as the music teacher at Camp Faith, would ever think of activities 11-14 year old boys would enjoy in music class! 

This summer I prayed for many things: patience, energy, a better immune system.…But I never thought to pray for God to fill my own love bank. Thankfully, the Lord is a LOT smarter than me, and this was the first thing He did.

Looking back over my summer, it is amazing to see how God overflowed His love through me onto the kids. I felt as if I was watching Jesus feed the five thousand except it was my small heart reaching the mass amount of children at Camp Faith. As I poured my love bank out onto the kids, God was faithfully replenishing it with a ridiculous amount of coins.

This brings to mind one of my sweet 8-10 girls. This girl was so cute at first, but the cuteness ended real quick. She was the first to fight and the last to line up every time. Our line of girls would walk out of the room to their first rotation, and there she was in the corner with an M-fuger trying to put her shoes on her whining about some random concern. Normally this would drive me nuts. “Child,” I thought, “you are eight years old, and I know you can put your own shoes on and get in line like everybody else.” But I realized quickly that this child’s love bank was at an extreme deficit. I spent many moments with this girl patiently listening through the never-ending tears about why she got in trouble at the last activity or holding her in my lap as she whined about how her jeans were itchy because they had gotten wet at water day. These times I spent investing in her just made it so much more special when she would do things like pray for our class or perform a praise dance. God overwhelmed my heart with love for this sweet girl. She knew that it might not be true anywhere else, but at camp there would always be someone to hold her.

This summer I was blessed to have invested in so many different children. It was especially fun to see how God would fill my love bank with different types of love for different kids. The first day that I had the 11-14 year old boys in my music rotation one of them over-heard me express my concern for keeping the room under control with a volunteer that was helping me. He shared with his friends as they walked in that I was scared of them. I knew immediately that this would not turn out well if I didn’t prove that theory wrong. I quickly adapted a new skill that I never even knew I had. I like to call it my drill-sergeant mode. Soon, I had each one of those boys “catching a bubble in their mouths” (a technique we use to keep the 4 and 5 year olds quiet) and listening to the classroom rules. I thought they would hate me. But the next day they asked me in the hall if they were coming to music and were genuinely disappointed when I told them “not today.” Later they told me music was their favorite rotation, and I was in shock. Here I was struggling to find activities for these boys to enjoy and fearfully trying to maintain control of the classroom… and they loved being in my class. This was clearly the Lord.

I’ve had my struggles this summer, but I’ve learned that the Lord will always provide exactly what you need to get through each day…even if it is a drill-sergeant voice. I am so blessed by every moment I’ve gotten to enjoy at Camp Faith this summer. 

Over the past five weeks I have been realizing more and more that our kids at Camp Hope don’t need me as much as I need them. I am a very easy replacement. God could have chosen to bring someone else into their lives to speak the same exact truth to them. They don’t need me to understand the Gospel. If God wants them to understand, they will understand. He will lift the veil off of their eyes to see his beauty. I can’t do that. These kids need someone to love them when no one else will, but that could very easily be someone else too. I am willing to do all of these things, but it didn’t have to be me. 

So just a little background information on me leading up to camp: I had no intentions of working here. I got invited to join in, and I turned it down. Sure, I thought it’d be cool, and I had no problem doing it. But I was engaged at the time and working. And I was supposed to be working three jobs during the summer to save up some money. One full-time job and two part-time. I didn’t have time for another job. Towards the beginning of the summer, everything fell apart. All of a sudden, I had no fiance and no reason to work so much. So I quit everything. I had spent too much time doing what I had to do than on time for myself. I had spent too much time investing everything I had in a relationship and had no time for other people. Then I remembered about the offer to work with LOV and that the job would be to build relationships with people. I just wanted to be around people. It had been too long since I’d had that opportunity. So I called last minute, and they made room for me to start training the next day. 

My first week at camp was a pretty crazy one. The boys in my group were rude and rebelled against everything I said. This is kind of funny because at training we were talking about kids being rude, and I was completely honest and said “anytime someone is rude to me, I tend to think of that person as an enemy.“ I knew that this was an area I was going to struggle in. There were three fights within the first fifteen minutes of them walking through the doors. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. One kid in particular (we’ll just call him “Chad”) gave me the biggest problem. I couldn’t even look at him at some points because of everything he was doing. I didn’t know how to handle him or any of the kids. They were all pretty badly behaved. I started to pray about it that night after the first day and God broke me. My love for these kids was conditional. They had to show me love in order to earn it back. My thoughts throughout the day did not reflect the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God used these kids to show me how wrong I am.

I need kids like these so I can look them in the eyes when I am getting onto them for busting their chocolate milk boxes on each other or making fun of the girls and see a reflection of who I am. Apart from the grace of God, I am no different from who they are.  Apart from His grace I am rebellious, a hater of people, and a hater of God. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter2:10).  I was in need of love just as they are. I need kids like these to teach me to love unconditionally just as God has done and is doing for me. His Gospel is my motivation to love.

That was my first two days of camp. Since then I have seen more of why they act the way they do. “Chad” has several medical conditions and his parents have taught him to fight when other people look at him differently. He and many of the other kids don’t have a good father figure in their lives. These kids are in need of God, our Father, who loves them more than their earthly fathers ever will. Seeing all of that has allowed me to have so much more grace towards them. As I have been able to show love and grace to them over the past few weeks, their walls are coming down, and they are able to love back. 

Also since the beginning of camp, I’ve had to learn through these kids to speak. I’m a pretty quiet guy. I hate speaking in group settings. I hate attention. But part of the job is leading Bible studies for our group. I know that the Bible commands us to preach (Mark 16:15, Acts 10:42, Romans 10:14-15, 1Peter 2:9), but I would always come up with an excuse to get myself out of speaking up when there were “too many people around”. As I’ve been working with these kids, I’ve become pretty aware of this problem in my heart. It is because I have been taken from my darkness and put into light that I proclaim the excellencies of our God (1Peter 2:9). It is because of this Gospel that I give my body as a living sacrifice to preach of it and to worship (Romans 12:1). I shouldn’t have to be pleaded with to do it as Paul does in that verse. It should be an automatic response. But God has been patient with me and has been building up my confidence in who he is. God has a way of using our words in the lives of other people as a part of the salvation process. 1 Peter 1:23-25 says, “ You have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God… This word is the good news that was preached to you.” Also in Romans 10:17, “ Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” I have reason to be confident. I can be confident in preaching the gospel because none of the words are of my own, but from the God who used those same words to awaken my soul. 

God has been doing all of this in me through our kids. That is why I need our kids more than they need me. I highly doubt that I’d be able to learn these things from anyone else. The kids can hear the Gospel and learn from any Christian that is willing to be obedient. God has been gracious enough to allow me to be that person and join in on what LOV is doing in Prichard. Praise God for changing my plans in life and forcing me to take the road that allowed me to have more of Him! He has been good through it all.

They call me Big Mama. The nickname started as a joke during training but has become a thing at camp. The campers (and even the TeeLeaders) didn’t quite understand at first. Eventually they simply accepted that it’s my name so they call me Big Mama. All. Day. Long.

“Big Mama, can you open this?”

“Big Mama, I need to use it!”

“Big Mama, how many cool pops do I get?”

At 5ft even I am neither considered big nor do I have any children to call me “Mama”.  So the name is just ironic enough to hilariously stick.

I think God shares my love of irony. He is known to send in the weakest link to win the battle, or the smallest kid to take down the giant with one stone. He put little kids on the throne to rule entire nations, spoke through the mouth of a donkey and became a human to save humans.

This is what Brian Zahnd calls “holy irony” in his book, Beauty Will Save the World. Zahnd writes, “…the holy irony perceived in the prophetic metaphors is that the monstrous beasts are conquered by a little slaughtered lamb.”

There is beauty in the irony of letting the little children come to Jesus. Any logically minded person would expect the King of All to let the important world leaders and very rich and famous come to Him first. Those are the people making headlines and changing the world right? Not in the eyes of Jesus. He lived out a truth that can be difficult to grasp:

All people matter.

The poor, the wealthy, the underdog, the champion, the infants, the elderly, the sinners and the saints. Jesus treated each person he encountered with value. I mean, He paid the ultimate price for all people, right?

So I, serving as one who is small and insignificant, see the holy irony in small children playing a big role in the kingdom of God. And I am honored to be a part of that irony.

I bless YHWH for the chance to live out His beautiful irony this summer at Camp Faith. May the kids see His love lavished everyday in ways great and small. May His kingdom be built on the truth that all people matter because he loves them with a great and fierce love.

This summer will be my third Summer Bible Camp at Light of the Village. I have had the honor and the privilege of being on staff for over a year now and a volunteer for over three years. They have definitely been some of the wildest years but also the best years of my life thus far. This summer, I am working with the 8-10 year old girls. Half of my group I’ve had the privilege of spending many days with throughout the school year and the other half are fresh, beautiful faces.

My journey with Light of the Village began in the fall semester of my junior year at the University of Mobile. I had several friends who went once a week to volunteer at the after school program. After being invited, I decided to go see what it was all about. Confession time: I have no patience and suffer from a need to be in control of all situations; therefore, I am not a kid or animal person because neither can be controlled! So I was not too excited after my first LOV visit. I started going every other week to rest up from the last trip. Then starting in the spring semester, before I knew it, I was going every Thursday. Even though the chaos stressed me out, and I felt very out of place, something kept drawing me back, something I just can’t explain.

During this time Mrs. Dlo (aka Mrs. Dolores) gave me a Summer Bible Camp internship application. Not gonna lie, I practically laughed at the thought of me spending my summer in Prichard with a group of one hundred kids. Every week Mrs. Dlo would ask me if I had my app to turn in. I would respond saying I’m still praying about it (I wasn’t). But yet the application sat on my desk the whole time. One day I started looking at it and filling it out for some reason, again for some reason I can’t explain. And I came to the question “Why do you want to work Summer Bible Camp?” I could not answer this question, because honestly I did not want to. So at first I used that as my excuse to not do it, but then I stopped and looked at Jonah and Gideon and many other people in the Bible and realized God sometimes calls us to do things we do not want to do and even things we do not think we can do. So I turned in my application and of course started praying.

Before starting camp I could not help but wonder how I, a nerdy white guy, was going to relate and connect with a group of 11-14 year old boys from “the third.” The first week was not as bad as I expected, but it was still rough. My group of boys had walls built up and did not really want anything to do with me, not to mention the attitudes. But then by the second week something happened, again something I just can’t explain. Without me trying at all, I saw the walls to my students fall down. They were now joking around with me and for the most part respecting me. And I realized they just wanted to know I would stay there. I started looking around at the camp as a whole and realized something was happening here, something I just could not explain, but I knew I was where I belonged.

Over the years, having answered the call to the ministry and having to completely rely on God, I have learned that it is in the times when I go beyond my ability and in the situations that I just can’t explain, that God moves the most. And when I stop trying to control things and just let Him go, He goes so much farther than I could ever imagine. So even though we have just completed week four, and I am completely worn out, I just give everything to my God, because He is that something I just can’t explain.

So I guess I can explain it. It is my God who brought me to LOV. It is my God who has allowed me to connect with my group of boys as well as all the kids at camp. It is my God who gives me the strength to keep going even though it is hot and chaotic. It is my God who has opened my heart to these kids. And shown me how to love them like He does. Just to play with them and let them be kids. Because as I sit and look around I see especially the boys, they do not just get to be kids and have fun. Their community teaches them that they have to be tough. So they quickly become calloused and as they grow older the Love that Christ has to offer them is almost unimaginable in their minds. As I look at the kids in my group, my heart truly does break to think how some, in just a few years, could easily be drug dealers, in jail, or worse, have taken the life of someone else. I know now is the time of prevention. And I stand amazed at how God would want to use a simple, sinful person like me to go up against such a mighty task. And when I get tired and start questioning if I even need to bother, I see hope, I see Christ working when they answer questions in Bible study, when they ask their own questions in Bible study, when I see them smiling doing what they love (playing basketball), when I see them encouraging and loving each other and the younger kids. This week we have had a few kids give their lives to Christ. I have seen kids intrigued by God’s Word. And I’ve even seen two kids fight over a Bible.

There are still three more weeks to go, and even though I’m out of energy, I have a joy in my heart and am having as much, if not more fun than the kids. There’s something happening here, and I can explain it! John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” Christ is working in the Alabama Village.

*Some inspiration taken from Kristen Jordan’s camp video and the song “I won’t let you go” by Snow Patrol