Today is day 6. I have not written much this week. I just finished my summer quarter of summer school today, so I imagine I will have more time to blog this week. Before every online moment was spent enriching the minds of high school students in my Health and Biology classes. (Pictured to the right, Janna and Jeff making a Totem Pole on night 3)
This year at Malibu, the leaders who bring kids to camp are given the opportunity to share their cardboard testimonies. Put simply, the cardboard testimonies are pieces of cardboard with writing on both sides. On one side, one writes a phrase or word to describe life before a relationship with Christ. On the second side, one describes what life is like now with Christ. To the song, “I’m not who I was” by Brandon Heath, the leaders roll out sharing with their young friends, how God has transformed their lives. It is a powerful experience. I try to see it every camp. My kids can’t read. At least Janna can’t read very fast. It’s a good thing. Some of the leaders write of being gang raped, being sexually abused and having abortions and share how they have found security, healing and forgiveness in Christ. Janna can’t read what the signs say, but she really wants to know what the signs say, so I give her the 5 year old version with tears freely falling from my face.
Realizing the redemptive power of God has been a theme of this session for me personally. I have been reading about Rahab in my Beth Moore study. Rahab was a prostitute who was, by her faith, spared along with her family when Joshua was at Jericho. Her life was completely changed, she lived among the Israelites, married Salmon and gave birth to a son, Boaz, who married Ruth. God has been revealed in how he has redeemed the lives of many of the other staff wives I share my life with here at camp. God has made these women new as they give their lives to Him.
Today in our room, the same Brandon Heath song was playing. Janna said, “I wanna make a sign.” So she asked me how to spell, “My Dad Died……And God made him better” (one phrase on each side.) She came out as the song played. Jeff and I clapped enthusiastically, just as the crowd does in the presentations the leaders do. She did several signs. “I’m sick… God helped me feel better” “bed broken… is fixed” “My had broke….God healed it” and my favorite, “someone awesome died… but God growed another person and she was awesome.” That last one could be my cardboard testimony. Janna knows it. That’s how she came up with it. Kids tend to speak truth, in their own ways. It is fun to see Janna getting things out of the camp experience. Deek’s writing skills are not as strong as Janna’s, so he came and showed both sides of a Fris
bee! Maybe this is als
o the beginning of something great! 
Realizing the redemptive power of God has been a theme of this session for me personally. I have been reading about Rahab in my Beth Moore study. Rahab was a prostitute who was, by her faith, spared along with her family when Joshua was at Jericho. Her life was completely changed, she lived among the Israelites, married Salmon and gave birth to a son, Boaz, who married Ruth. God has been revealed in how he has redeemed the lives of many of the other staff wives I share my life with here at camp. God has made these women new as they give their lives to Him.
Today in our room, the same Brandon Heath song was playing. Janna said, “I wanna make a sign.” So she asked me how to spell, “My Dad Died……And God made him better” (one phrase on each side.) She came out as the song played. Jeff and I clapped enthusiastically, just as the crowd does in the presentations the leaders do. She did several signs. “I’m sick… God helped me feel better” “bed broken… is fixed” “My had broke….God healed it” and my favorite, “someone awesome died… but God growed another person and she was awesome.” That last one could be my cardboard testimony. Janna knows it. That’s how she came up with it. Kids tend to speak truth, in their own ways. It is fun to see Janna getting things out of the camp experience. Deek’s writing skills are not as strong as Janna’s, so he came and showed both sides of a Fris
bee! Maybe this is als
o the beginning of something great! 
1 comment:
priceless stuff, Tanya!
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