Ever had a time when you really just did not comprehend God’s timing? ME TOOOOO!!! For me, it was being called into children’s ministry. I had no idea where I was going or what doors would be opened, all I knew was I wanted to be involved in Light of the Village. From day one of volunteering at LOV, I knew this was home. Little did I know, ten months later I would be packing my bags and moving to Mobile to be an intern and serve Christ.

From the second God started leading me through the application process, it was nothing but bump after bump in the road. I persevered because I knew that LOV is where the Lord was calling me. I always referred to Proverbs 22:9 to keep me going and keep the focus of leading kids to Christ. In the middle of March, a curve ball was thrown for my family. My mom was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, I withdrew my application. God quickly made me realize by many, many scriptures (Hebrews 10:35-36) that if I endured in His work, He was going to take care of things at home when I left. So with trust and faith in him, I put my application back in. Needless to say, I am interning!!!

Blessings? How is that a blessing? Well… God works in mysterious ways. It just so happens I am at Camp Faith. The name of the camp is a constant reminder for me to not lose my faith in Him and fight this spiritual, emotional, and physical battle. I also have 39 wonderful little blessings enrolled in my group. I am the leader of the Littles group. my kids are 6-7 years old. Each child can for sure put a smile on my face and no doubt remind me why I serve in the ministry. Through letting the Lord speak through me, one child has come to know Christ so far. It is such a joy to be able to work with a wonderful group of kids and staff, and I never could have imagined this experience any better.

-Malerie Guess

We are coming into our fifth week of summer camp and man oh man has it been a unique journey so far. Children are getting used to each other, and we are making personal relationships with everyone. Christ is most definitely at work in every single camp. This journey has been so incredibly humbling and life­-changing all at the same time. Every week we learn more and more new things about the children and ourselves. God has been on the move in my girls’ group especially now since we are becoming more familiar and comfortable with each other.

Going into camp the very first week, I was completely and utterly terrified to the core. I wanted to go home the first week and call it quits, but the Lord had other plans. I had never met most of the interns in my life; I knew only my friend and her brother. Now, I have made so many lifelong friends that it’s unbelievable, and I believe that God placed these people in my life for a specific reason.

The Lord placed me at Camp Hope, and I couldn’t be happier. Do we have our crazy and chaotic days? Oh, for sure. But do we dwell on it? No, we move on and ask for the Lord’s guidance. There has also been a lot of crime in the area recently. Where there’s crime, there are people who need to hear the Gospel of Christ. Not only do these people need to hear about Christ, but their children need to hear about Him as well. Our main goal is to reach as many kids for the Kingdom of God as possible.

I’m blessed beyond measure to be able to get to call God my Daddy. He has been working on me a lot this summer. Getting to work with the older girls this summer is such an awesome experience. I can talk to them about stuff that’s going on in their lives, and I can take what they’ve told me and turn it into a Gospel presentation. Investing in these girls’ lives and going home and praying for these girls every day makes me ecstatic! The Holy Spirit has definitely been challenging me this summer through my girls and revealing my true self. I’m a daughter of the One True King! I’m definitely going to be applying next summer, because I’ve never been this happy about the love my Savior has for me. God has so many plans for my life, and I can’t wait to see what He has in store for my future.

– Courtney Wiley