Christian here. I am suffering from some post-Lebanon jet lag, but that was definitely to be expected after my nightmare layover in Dubai. My internal clock is really messed up, and I'm waking up at all hours of the night and morning, ready to start my day, only to realize that there are still hours left before the rest of my family wakes up. Here's to hoping I will be back to normal by tomorrow.
In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about how I wanted to approach this final part of my Kchag recap.
I had written at the end of Part 2 that in this blog, I would be talking about some of the celebrations we had at Kchag.
That probably confused a lot of you, and for good reason. I wanted it to be as vague and confusing as possible, so you would all come and read this blog and then understand exactly what I meant.
As leaders at Camp Kchag, all of us had (hopefully) gone to camp with the end goal of making a tangible impact in the lives of the campers and to draw them closer to Christ.
That's a pretty heavy responsibility given to each of us, that over the course of just ONE week we should hope to become immersed in individual campers' lives, learn their ambitions, hopes, successes, failures and fears and then be able to lovingly comfort them and bond with them and encourage them.
It's not always as simple as talking to them about whatever issue they're facing and then talking about how God can help them.
Sometimes, to show them their real worth and really make that impact in their lives, it's as simple as celebrating them for who they are. When you celebrate these campers, you are evangelizing to them without ever even saying the word 'God'.
To show them a perfect example of God's love, care, and joy, sometimes it's as simple as throwing a party for them to show that you too care.
So that's exactly what we did.
Believe it or not, this entire week was a celebration of EACH AND EVERY CAMPER.
We celebrated the athletic campers as they fought and competed in Army 101, Yuck Games, and all the sports they played. We gave them the platform to show off their athletic skills, to jump, run, slide, crawl, shoot, and dunk.
We celebrated the theatrical campers as they acted out a series of short skits that were presented to the same Syrian-Armenian children I had met a week earlier. They got to be creative and use their voices, their humor, and their emotions to portray to these young children some of the amazing stories found within the Bible.
We celebrated the campers who love to cook and bake. Together with Chef Levon, they got to learn more about creating delicious sweets. They got to sort out ingredients, stir marshmallows, create a Rice Krispie base, and create a finished batch of Rice Krispies. In this way, we gave them the opportunity to do what they love most and allowed them to bake something that we all ended up loving.
We celebrated the musically-gifted campers as well. All we had to do was leave out our instruments. Soon, as you walked around the camp, the beautiful sounds of the piano, guitar, drums, flute, and violin drifted out from the main chapel. We pushed the campers to be confident and play and sing during worship time; as a result, we saw them step out of their comfort zones and flourish as they sang and worshipped. As it says in Psalm 150, "Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and the lyre, praise him with the tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals."
We celebrated the intelligence in EACH and EVERY camper as we challenged them at difficult mind games throughout the week. We had them anxiously discussing in groups the answers to questions on tons of random topics during our Jeapordy game.We tested their general knowledge and intelligence when they rushed around camp answering all sorts of trivia questions during Pokémon Go Matrix. We forced them to analyze closely and use logic to figure out a murder plot in our Murder Mystery game. In these ways, we showed them something so simple yet something that many of them never hear or are told they're not: that they are smart, that they are intelligent and sharp kids and that they are each brilliant in certain subjects and topics.
And now, in this narrative, we have reached Thursday night.
On Thursday night, we had a revival, a chance for the campers to confess every burden and hardship weighing them down, a chance for them to come and accept Christ into their hearts, a chance for them to fulfill the words Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, in which he declares "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!"
All the leaders stood in the back of the room, so that any camper, that felt something tugging at his or her heart could go back and be with a leader.
The worship band played through one song.
Then two.
Still no one had come back. We were all starting to feel a little anxious.
And then, in a moment I will never forget, one kid stood up and came back. His name was Boghos, and he had lost his dad when he was younger. He rushed back to his leader, Daniel. Daniel had also lost his dad when he was younger, and the look on his face when Boghos got up was one of pure, unbridled joy, so much so that it brought him (and the rest of us) to tears.
After that moment, it was if the floodgates had opened. Kids started streaming back, some smiling, others in tears.
So many people on that night decided to turn their lives around and either give their life to Christ for the first time or just confess that they were struggling with deep griefs and hardships.
If we hadn't already been brought together as one big family, this was the night that did it for us.
On Thursday night, we had our biggest celebration yet.
This was a celebration to honor and congratulate every camper who took the huge step of seeking God first in their lives. We celebrated their vulnerability, their courage, and their desire to seek change. We celebrated their realization that something within them felt empty, a hole that could only be filled by God. We celebrated adding more beautiful children into God's everlasting kingdom.
There was no better way to end Kchag than with a celebration.
The only difference with this last celebration was just one small thing.
This celebration is lifelong, and will last for eternity.
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Photos: Levon Babikian |
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