Dear Family,
August is by far my favorite month of the year. With the sunshine and the flip-flops comes summer camp at Harmony Heart. Camp is a magical place where youth run free from the violence of the city, water balloons rain down from the heavens, and lake monsters tip the canoes of giggling teenage girls. Now I know there is not really a terrifying creature creeping around Heart Lake causing trouble for the ladies, but alas, it is fun to see a kid squirm and to hear shrieks of excitement coupled with the fear of the unknown. Canoe, rowboat, and paddleboat are not in the vocabulary of the youth I work with, so the ability to go with a group to camp and see them experience new things is amazing.
Amos Lee (a singer/songwriter) says it best: “There is nothing more powerful than beauty in a wicked world,” and that is the joy of camp. Daily we are inundated with visions of the “wicked world.” Just turn on the news or watch someone get cut off on the way to work. Sin is rampant in the suburbs and in the city. So giving a child the gift of camp--the gift of beauty, swimming, archery, snakes, fishing, crafts, swinging and, let us not forget, three square meals a day--is creating not only a memory but also a glimpse of the Creator, a peek into the Ultimate Beauty, a chance for a relationship with Jesus.
Jesus is the reason camp is so magical and powerful. Through the use of the imagination, campers are transported into Bible stories. A young man feels courageous as he faces the lions alongside Daniel. A little girl watches from the bulrushes as Pharaoh’s daughter picks up her baby brother, and the Bible is made real. The truth of Scripture is so powerful that it transforms lives. Camp is about transforming lives by introducing the beautiful truth of Christ into the lives of kids who regularly see the wicked world. At camp the world begins to fade, and the power of Truth becomes a way of life.
Please pray that God will work in the hearts of all who attend camp this summer. We have three different camps--one for kids (8-12), one for teens, and one for families to spend time together away from the city.
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