A Summer of Service

This summer, from the end of May to the beginning of August, I served on a mission trip called TEAMeffort. This organization leads week-long mission trips for middle and high schoolers, who come to serve the communities through construction projects. Being a camp counselor, I lived in Altoona, PA all summer and had the joy of meeting new groups each week. 

What an experience! 

To understand my perspective and growth, you must know that, as a young child, I was outgoing and extraverted. However, during my teenage years, my life moved online and, as a result of sinful influences in my life, I shut myself off socially. Yet, the Lord is always good and He always has the power to redeem! He led me through a dark time in my life where He showed me the error in my ways and directed me back onto the straight n' narrow! I've spent the past three years rebuilding my social energy, which, I'll admit, had been quite the struggle. 

Now you understand why this summer, especially the social aspect, was so crucial to my development! 

Yes, of course it was difficult to engage with a new group of youth and their adult leaders every week, especially when we didn't 'vibe'. There were groups with whom I got along fabulously and the week was nearly paradise, but there were also individuals with whom interaction was a little more challenging. Yet, God works in all situations! The easy groups spurred me on and encouraged me and the difficult individuals were strategically placed in my life to grow me and build me up into the woman God planned for me to be. 

So, what did our week look like? Well, I'll walk you through it. 

~ Sunday ~

On Sunday, the groups would arrive and my job, along with the other staff, would be to greet them and welcome them into camp, show them where everything was located, meet the youth, and then prepare for chapel in the evening. Chapel consisted of announcements, a game (which was always super fun!), worship led by members of our staff, and then a message. Each night, one of our staff gave the message, which was themed according to the week's theme (this year was "Mountaintops" and we talked about literal and figurative mountaintops in the Bible and in our own lives). The message began with a somewhat-scripted (though edited by the speaker according to their own style) part, then led into the speaker's testimony which was, obviously, written solely by the speaker, and then led back into a somewhat-scripted wrap-up. Now, here's the amazing part. The testimony was meant to follow the theme at least loosely, but God was so good to us! The theme of the nights assigned to each of us staff fit the theme of our testimonies perfectly! For example, on Monday (my night), the theme was "doubting", with the scripted portion talking about the Israelites and how they doubted God and Moses when Moses was gone, up Mount Sinai, for a very long time; the Israelites doubted he'd return and then made a golden calf as a 'god' to worship instead of the one true God. My testimony fit this perfectly! My walk away from God and return to Him had revolved around doubt, and thus my testimony meshed perfectly with the night's theme! Anyway, back to the itinerary. After Sunday night chapel, we returned to camp and lights out was at 10:30, as it was every night. 

~ Monday - Wednesday ~

I'm lumping Monday through Wednesday together because the schedule was the same. We would get up early (I would rise at 6am to help prepare for the day), eat breakfast (I helped serve), and head off to the mission sites. The sites were locations around Altoona, and varied all summer from a single house, to multiple houses on the same street, to a trailer park community, to even an old school building that was being renovated to house non-profit organizations! We spent all day, until 4pm, working at the sites, with an hour break for lunch (that we packed and brought with us). The work also varied over the summer. We built outdoor decks and railings, painted homes and inside the school building, landscaped, and even roofed a house! At the end of the day, we would return to camp, eat dinner, attend chapel (or, in my case, run chapel), and then I would run the camp store, a place for campers to gather and hang out. 

~ Thursday ~ 

Thursday is special because we only worked until noon and then the campers were free for the rest of the day until chapel. Chapel itself was special that night. As the last night of chapel, we ended it differently, with a silent skit that illustrated God's presence in our lives. At the end of the skit, we led the groups outside, in the dark, one by one, by candle light and reflected on the week and encouraged them to reflect on their lives and God's presence. This night was amazing. The campers were given slips of paper on which to write "that thing that you need to surrender to God" and they left it in a basket at the base of a wooden, candle-lit cross. Many tears were shed, and hearts were given to Jesus! 

~ Friday ~ 

This entire day was a free day, and groups typically went to a local amusement park or another fun activity. Some weeks, they took us staff along with them! At night, there was "Friday Night Fellowship", when we put on a movie and set up outdoor games for any groups that wished to engage. 

~ Saturday ~

Groups left on Saturday morning. Tears were shed, but I have the joy of knowing I'll see them again someday, if not on earth then in heaven! The rest of Saturday was spent shopping for next week's provisions and setting up the camp again. We staff were usually done by noon, oftentimes much earlier, and then we enjoyed an activity for just us. One week, we went to a nearby cave! 

The summer was fast-paced, action-packed, and God-filled! No matter what the enemy caused to go wrong, whether that was an injury or an argument or a time conflict, God always brought us back from it and worked it out for good. 

I have grown so much through this experience, and God healed me socially. Now, I have a relationship with Him and I know that no matter what happens in my life, God will never leave me. 

This summer was a summer of service for me and taught me to be humble, caring, alert, and showed me how to love as Jesus loves. I threw everything I had into this summer, and God blessed me incredibly. Like the woman who gave the last of her oil and flour to make food for Elijah and was then blessed with the jar of never-ending flour and the jug of never-ending oil (1 Kings 17), God blessed me over this summer of service. 

All praise and honor and glory are His, now and forever. 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:10