Three Stories About Kids

Jeff and I have had little time to talk about the stories that come out of camp. Here a few stories- one from last week and the last two from this week.

Michael from Wichita, Kansas was the only boy from his group that had not opened up his heart to Jesus...but no one else knew. He said all the right things, but has never really known or opened up to Jesus. He showed up last week to the new believers' walk right after 'say-so' and at the end of the new believers' experience, he told me that he was too afraid to stand up at Say-So. I had him stand up at the last club in the morning of Day7, his peers were shocked as they learned that he faked his way through the week...and high school without them knowing he never knew God until this week!

This week, Christian came up to me after the 'sin' message with tears in his eyes and said that he was the one who wrote the post secret card that said 'I want to put a gun to my head.' He said his dad pushes him so hard he is about ready to 'break.' Day 6, he came up to our family while we were having lunch and said that he is a new man and is 'at the beginning of his rope' now and is ready to go home (he also said he was coming back to Malibu and is already planning what he can do for the open mic night...nice.)

A girl from Spokane the 2nd night of camp refused to talk during cabin time. When the cute stuffed animal was passed to her (whoever was 'sharing' got to hold the animal) she said 'get that thing AWAY from me!') At the end of cabin time, she angrily screamed "There is NO GOD! There is no hope or purpose every day. There is no heaven or hell. Life has no meaning." Later that night, she walked up to her leader and said, "thank you for bringing me to Malibu, I really need to be here and I know God wants me here." Crazy. The next night, one girl in the same cabin shared that she has a hard time feeling close to God. That same same angry girl replied during cabin time, 'God has you here for a reason, you are in the right place." Then the next night, after the 10 minute quiet time, she reverted back and snapped, 'If I knew that we were talking about God and spending quiet time thinking about my life back home, I would NOT have come here! You guys tricked me! I did not come here to think about my home life." Then, this morning, Day 6, she came to question and answer time with Jeff and she was the only camper who asked any questions...she asked over 12 questions and dominated the entire Q&A time. Turns out that her mom died a year ago and she lost all hope. She asked questions about 'why bad things happen to good people,' 'what I believe in God so much,' 'why God lets 9/11 and other awful things happen,' etc. She told her leader, "all my questions got answered." Let's see if she stands up at say-so tonight! It would be a miraculous end to a week long & lifelong roller coaster ride!