From All Around the World
“What do you want us to do?”
That was my question for God this spring as I looked to the summer. We’ve always tried to build camp around our year-round club ministry, but since COVID-19, things have been different.
And this year, we had a growing number of young people signing up to serve with us, but, our camp registrations were only trickling in.
Why would God bring us so many staff, but so few campers? I felt we needed to pray and trust God to show us the answer.
I said to the staff, “Stop praying for staff, and pray for campers.” Little did I know the doors this prayer request would open!
I got an email from someone involved in a ministry to international students asking if we could provide camp for families in their ministry network. We also had a door open through other believers working with Ukrainian refugees. Steadily registration forms came in, filling up both our weeks of camp. God had answered our prayers by sending children from all around the world to our little camp.
As we started the summer, we had campers representing numerous different countries – including some countries where there are few Christians. I shared with the camp staff this incredible thought. “Could it be that God had orchestrated the events in our campers’ lives so that they could be in Ontario this summer to hear the gospel for the first time?”
Many of the campers were still learning English, so there was lots of learning for everyone. The counselors worked hard at learning to use simple vocabulary, speaking slower, and using hand gestures – some started learning to use Google Translate in small groups!
As only God could plan, we had a couple counselors who could speak Mandarin and one of them had been learning Japanese over the past year and was able to put it to use.
We also found ourselves scouring Amazon looking for Bibles in different languages to give them before they went home.
When kids were given Bibles in their language they were overjoyed! Right away one girl asked, “Can I take it home with me?” Of course, our answer was, “Yes!”
One of our Japanese campers is headed back to Japan this month (where less than 1% of the population is Christian). We’re thrilled that we were able to find a Japanese New Testament to give her. She was really interested in learning more about the Bible – something her dad even noticed. We’re praying that the Spirit would make the Gospel clear to her as she reads her New Testament!
We’re praying that God would continue to give our ministry partners the opportunity to minister to these kids and their families. We’re also praying that God would be working through His Word in their lives and asking how He might want us to continue to be a part of it.
Thank you for helping make this ministry possible.