Greetings OCC!
I hope this email finds you well! We are doing well, although things have been very busy lately. In May Jim Condap (Executive Director of Pilgrim Pines and Camp Squanto) asked if I would be willing to be the Pastor of the Week for Camp Squanto from July 7-13. This was a good opportunity for me and also a good way for me to support the camp. Kids were 9 to 12 years old. So I wanted to share with them that God could help them with their hard things. On Sunday night we brainstormed what their hard things were. They listed things like stress, family, bullies, being the oldest, mental health stuff, etc.
We focused on John 16:33, where Jesus says, “… In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” I emphasized that Jesus promised us trouble actually, but that he also promised to walk through it with us.
On Monday night we talked about bullies and mean people in our lives and we discovered that not only did Jesus have meanies, he tells us to “love them.”
On Tuesday night we started talking about stress and pressure and how sometimes the pressure in our lives causes us to make bad choices. We looked at Luke 4, where Jesus is in the wilderness and tempted by Satan. We discovered that Jesus pushes back pressure by using Scripture.
On Wednesday morning the kids put together skits about using the Bible to push back on pressure. The skits took longer than the alloted time, so we finished up the skits that evening and I tied things up with one my favorite verses (2 Tim. 1:7 “God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”)
On Thursday night we talked about the problem of evil and how evil messes with our wellness – spiritual, mental and physical. We talked about how Jesus overcame the world and how we have a choice to let Jesus in our lives to help us with our troubles.
On Friday, we had a campfire and we talked about how family can be hard sometimes. We even looked in Mark 3 where Jesus’s family was struggling to understand what God was doing in his life. Jesus added people to his family by saying that “anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). But we also talked about how Jesus reconciles with his family as we know his brother James wrote the book of James and his mother was with him when he was crucified.
Overall, it was a hot, but great week. It really seemed like the campers and the staff connected with God and I hope they received a message that will continue to keep them close to the Lord. It was an extra blessing for our son, Ben, as he was allowed to be a camper for free since I was the pastor, and he really seemed to enjoy having me around.
So, my encouragement to all of us is to bring our hard things to God. God wants to help us with them and play an active role in our lives.
With gratitude,
Pastor Karen
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