photo taken by Josiah Du Fault

I’m Alive, Alert, Awake, Enthusiastic!

Lyiza Brabeck
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

This summer, while working at Wolf Mountain Christian Camp in northern California, I learned so many things. I did multiple jobs while I worked at the camp, though I was mainly a counselor. To be specific, I was a junior counselor.

Included in my job responsibilities was that I would take about 5 to 7 girl campers (grade ranges 4th-7th) and spend a week with them, sharing the gospel with them, playing fun games, and doing a bunch of other activities. There were about 6 to 7 other counselors, depending on how big the group was, who would give up their week to put their time and effort into loving these kids. I had never been a counselor before so I didn’t realize how exhausting it would be, especially physically and emotionally.

I learned a lot about being a counselor and what it takes to be one. One of the few lessons I learned from counseling and being with my campers was to be humble. It seems like as a counselor it would be really easy to see yourself as better than your campers when you can see all of your campers’ mistakes and they don’t see yours. It was tempting to really get annoyed or frustrated because that one camper wasn’t listening or none of your campers are being nice to each other.

I had to remind myself daily when I was with my campers that I wasn’t better than them and that I should love them regardless of whether they have been saved or not. I make mistakes and sin just like them — the only difference between an unsaved camper and me is that I realize that I need a Christ; that I can’t rely on myself for anything but Him.

One of my campers, her grandmother actually drove to Oregon to get her to bring her to camp so that she could hear the gospel. Long story short she got saved Friday night which was great. For me, the hardest part was after she went home knowing her family’s background that her parents aren’t saved. At the time, I had this freak out moment where I needed to know if she was going to be able to find a church near her home and have someone keep her accountable to her decision. Someone reminded me that I should be overjoyed that she got saved, and that God has so much planned for that girl in the future and that He would provide for her.

At that moment, I needed to fully trust what He’s will do with that girl’s life and with the rest of my campers. It was hard because I wanted to be there for her. But knowing who my God is means that I don’t need to worry about anyone, I just need to pray for them.

All in all, camp really broke me down to the point where I had nothing in me. God was using what was left of me and filling me with His own strength. Psalm 73 talks about Asaph and the difficulties he was going through. The people of Israel were arrogant in the their sins, such as being carefree and they wanted prosperity more than anything. The unbelievers didn’t see the reason why they should follow God. Asaph was continually being letdown by the people’s choices. As you read more of the passage God reminds Asaph of who He is and that the people of Israel shouldn’t bring him down. Asaph needed to focus on Who he is really living for.

While counseling, there were a lot of moments where campers didn’t want to change the way they lived or to give their life to Christ because they liked the way they lived and they didn’t want to give up worldly desires. It seemed discouraging at that moment and by the end of the week it felt like the camper didn’t make any progress. I had to keep reminding myself that I can’t let that defeat me. Along with that one camper, so many other campers made great decisions that week! I will continue to pray for my campers, and let God do the rest of the work!

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