Summer Camp!!

A month has gone by, and how time has flown

With each passing day, and Oh! How I’ve grown!

Revelations of the Father, new each day,

Being kissed by the Word, nothing greater I can say

But this:

His words are sweeter,

Than honey from the comb

His ways are higher,

So high man could never know.

And still he came and took on flesh

Bearing our sins,

Atonement through his death.

He rose again and went to dwell,

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, together the limitless well.

And here today I drink it in

By his blood, I’ve been washed by sin.

Made clean in his sight,

I can scarcely take it in.

To be adopted, as the daughter of the King

To him I give my Love, I’ll wear his wedding ring!

This past month has been quite the season of growth. How ironic, that in this season of change I have been surrounded by God’s greenhouse!

For three and a half weeks I have been working as a camp counselor at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch in Stewartville, Minnesota. Quietly tucked amidst the woods about twenty minuets from Rochester, Ironwood is indeed a very special place.From the age of eight to nineteen years old, I have been faithfully attending camps at Ironwood every summer (with a few exceptions). Every summer, I see how much I have changed since the previous year and I am amazed! This year was no exception.I had been praying the week prior to staff training that the Lord would break in at Ironwood in a way like never before, at staff training we saw but a glimpse. Prayer was much more prevalent than in past years and my heart was filled with joy!

I also had the opportunity to help out with worship during staff training with a friend of mine; it was amazing how the Lord used the both of us throughout each song. Our program director, rather than bringing in a speaker for the staff, chose to give the messages each night. Every time he spoke God have him wisdom and authority, which in turn spurred the staff to examine our selves as to how we could be more effective in the upcoming weeks of camp.

Our camp theme this year was “Be Transformed”, taken from Romans 12:2 where Paul writes in a letter to the Romans, “ do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”.

As we began our first week of camp on June 21^st had no idea what to expect. Though as the week went on the Lord blew my wildest expectations for camp out of the water. First of all, each morning I would spend at least an hour reading the Word while walking down the long drive way of the ranch or listening to worship music. I looked forward to the time I would spend every morning in the word. As the day went on we would have chapel and worship with the campers, it was powerful!

Junior ll: This week we worked with campers going into grades 6^th-8^th. I was blessed to have a wild bunch of ladies in my cabin “Sonshine”. Throughout the week I loved each of them more and more! Seeing how goofy they were for their cabin clean-up skits made me smile! Every night, along with the help of my junior counselor, I lead devotions and I saw how hungry they were to get to know the Lord better. As a cabin we read through the book of James and the girls were challenged to read their bibles at home.

One of my campers, was so excited that we had gotten through James she woke up early the nextmorning and was reading it on her own before the other girls woke up! Another sweet thing I had the opportunity to e apart of was writing skits for the campers each day. Being that I have done theater all throughout high school I was more than happy to help out! After listening to our speaker in the morning I would write a skit based off his message, which would tie into the chapel service that evening. Since our theme was, “Be Transformed” I addressed issues like music, the words we use, and the love we show and how that relates to our walk with Christ.

Finally, as the week ended, our speaker challenged us all to,” Be Transformed and … STAY TRANSFORMED!” What an awesome week! With that during our last cabin time I took my girls down to the river and washed their feet and prayed over them one by one. I felt that the Lord was prompting me to share Christ with them in a way they had never experienced before! After that we sang worship songs to Jesus and camp was over that night. I miss those middle school girls but I know that they left camp with a good foundation under them. I wait to see where the Lord leads them next.

Junior l: During the week of Junior l I had a double position at camp. Not only was I the head counselor of a cabin, I was co-leading worship for the campers with a friend of mine. Going into the week I was already a bit drained physically and spiritually from everything that the Lord did at Junior ll. I had so much fun leading worship that week, though it wasn’t perfect I felt that the Lord was so pleased with the simple offering we brought to him. As a staff we began a new tradition at camp, on the last night of camp the staff gets together for a time of worship. Even though by that Wednesday night I was so drained, I gave it my all and what an awesome night of worship it was. As camp drew to a close I once again took the girls in my cabin down to the river and washed

thier feet like Jesus did with the disciples. They thought that was pretty cool! Oh what a joy those girls were! I would sometimes come in the cabin and have a few of them running around with candy in hand having the time of their lives! What a blessing they were!

Teen Camp!! This past week was teen camp at Ironwood. I had been particularly been praying for this week of camp and I knew the Lord was going to do something big, but I didn’t know what exactly. The week prior God had spoken to me that I should lead a bible study on the book of Revelation during the camper’s free time, as well as doing a sort of prayer ministry for girls.I was so excited to start camp!! Right away the Lord had me connecting with campers and praying with them, allowing the Holy Spirit to help them through some tough issues in their lives. What an amazing transformation I saw in these campers who I had the privilege of talking and praying with! During free time I had an average of ten people a day at my bible study on Revelation. Most of the campers who came had never even read through the entire book and were hungry to learn more. I felt that in teaching on the book I learned more about the end times.

At the beginning of the week the Holy Spirit had an agenda, and the spirit was moving heavily in the campers even on the first day. That night our program staff revamped the schedule and included bible studies, discussion times, and time to experience God’s creation. With these additions to the schedule, they had to remove extra games so that the focus was clearly on the Lord. During the extra time for bible studies, I lead a session on the book of Hebrews. Over the past year I had spent quite some time in the book of Hebrews and I loved sharing with others what the Lord had shown me.

On Wednesday night we watched a movie called, “To Save A Life”. This remarkable move, written by a youth pastor in California,covered everything from underage drinking, to depression, to suicide. I was so impressed at how realistic the movie was; yet it didn’t water down the consequences or make Christianity seem mamby pamby. I encourage all those reading this blog to watch that movie when it comes out on video. Thursday night for the first time at Ironwood, we had a Baptism service. I believe six of the campers participated baptism. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life!" -Romans 6:4. Also we had a concert with our worship band for the week, Silent Substitute!! They are a band comprised up of four brothers and sisters. Their music is amazing and we all were blessed by their passion and gifts from the Lord. They had recorded songs just for camp at Ironwood, out of their new songs I was especially moved by their song Daddy. I love these words from the song, “Daddy please would you lead me to the truth”. AMEN!!

Finally during our last time as a cabin, I once again took my cabin(all of us walking barefoot) to the river to wash their feet. But this time was slightly different. I had them all blindfold themselves and hold on to each other's hand while I lead the way in front. When we had reached the river I had them take off their blindfolds, I explained that our journey from the cabin to the river represented our journey through life. Our feet were dirty because we had been walking on gravel and asphalt, this was sin. The blindfolds were an interesting twist, each of us in our walk with Christ will experence times when we feel like we are walking blind. We will face seasons in the "desert" so to speak.

Yet we can hold firm in the knowledge that Christ is always leading even when we might not feel it! This week it was especially hard to say good bye but the Lord is so good and he will see us through!All in all these past few weeks have been packed with so many things I could hardly share them all. But in these few words I hope to keep you all informed of how the Lord is changing and growing me! What a season I am in!!

Sincerely,

-Julia Christianne Engebretson