God's strength and my weakness

Hello from Canada! I know it's been a while since most of you heard from me but I blame that on being stranded in the backwoods without technology. Actually we do have technology even up here but spare time is really a rarity up here and I just don't have enough time to be channel 8 and send out news updates very often. Besides, I have much more fun telling you all about it when I get home than ruining it all by trying to explain it over a keyboard or phone. However, I did want to let you all know a little bit of what has been happening up here because God has been doing some amazing things and teaching me a lot in process.

II Cor. 12:9. "And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. . ."

God's strength and my weakness. . . God has been teaching me a lot about that this summer. I realized very shortly after arriving here that if any really good decisions were made by campers this year it would not be because we were the most organized and competent staff but because God answers prayers of people who know they need help. And no, I'm not knocking the staff here at FGBC because I am one of them, but as one of them I realize that there are some problems that are beyond our control and frankly we have quite a few of them here at Forest Glenn this year. However, I think that God puts us in situations we don't really like to teach us lessons we don't really want to learn. One of those lessons for me is that I don't have as much to offer God as I think. I know we always say that we are weak and that God is strong and that without Him we can do nothing, but secretly I like to think that God would have a hard time replacing me. In the three short weeks that I have been up here, God has been showing me what happens when a weak person with a strong ego walks out of his safety bubble. I'm not insinuating that this summer has been miserable or a failure, far from it, God has definitely been doing some incredible things at camp this summer, but He has made very sure that He did it in such a way that I could not possibly steal the credit for it.

I am used to knowing exactly what my job is and being fairly confident that I could do it and do it well. Not so up here. Maybe it is the combination of being in a strange place with strange people (well, maybe not that much stranger than some of you j/k) but there have been multiple times when I realized I didn't really know what I was doing or what I was supposed to be doing and wondered momentarily why I came all the way to Canada to fall flat on my face. Very few times before in my life have I felt so inadequate or seen God do so much. It sounds incredibly cocky now, but I sort of assumed before I came up here that I would be a first-time pro counselor and be able to give all the right questions to all the right answers. Let's just say I'm not a pro and neither are the rest of the staff, but despite that God has done an incredible work, especially during teen camp. Every night it seemed that almost half the kids responded to the invitation. I think there were seven salvation decisions on Monday night alone and several more after that, and on Friday night when they had a open time for testimony from they campers, they had to cut it short because there were so many people who wanted to share what God had done in their life that week. It was really amazing and reminded me a lot of what happened last year at Harvest. Kids were crying and going to their friends to encourage them to make decisions and tellling them about the joy of giving in to God. I talked with several of the other counselors who have been here before and even they said it was really unusual compared to other years of camp.

Well, I really don't have time to tell you much more about it because I really need to get to bed so I'm not dead for the next week of camp, but it really has been an encouragement to see how God's power can overcome our weakness. No, it hasn't always been fun, discovering one's weaknesses rarely is, but it does bring joy and security to know that God can still accomplish his work even if I'm not perfect. For me, this summer has all come down to whether I would rather feel good about myself or experience God's power and see Him work in situations I thought were impossible.


Oh yeah. Pleas pray for a large unspoken request here at camp and also that I would get my voice back. My voice was pretty much gone by the third day of camp (oh the joys of cheering!) and I think I'm coming down with a cold (a little going away present from some of my campers=) so pray that I would make it through the week with good health. See ya later,

Mike