A Week in the Mountains

It has been a long, tiring week. That seems to be the story of the summer, but this week was exceptionally draining. We summer missionaries spent from last Wednesday to this Monday as camp counselors at Camp Ba-Yo-Ca in Sevierville, TN, serving as chaperons for a group of 100 students from Cleveland and Toledo. It was a mixed experience for me, an experience in which I encountered some unbelievably frustrating situations and some unbelievably rewarding ones.

Most of the frustrating situations involved younger kids who refused to listen to anything but their own desires, while most of the rewarding situations involved standing alongside teenagers as they began their spiritual journeys. I became friends with one guy in particular, Romella. His sincere curiosity about God and the bible refreshed my spirit, and his challenging questions pushed me to desire God's word more. Seeing his desire and occasional confusion, I realized that I need and want to know more about explaining scripture to others in a way that teaches them to study the bible themselves.

Along those lines, Stefanie, Scott, and I were responsible for planning and teaching a bible lesson for the Mt. Calvary Baptist boys, a group of about 20. Our trial-and-error approach (we didn't know we would be responsible for that until the day of the first lesson) was fun, and the whole thing was a learning process. In the end, I can sum-up with one word what I learned from this dabbling in education: involvement. At least with our audience of preteen to teenage boys, involvement was essential. Our most successful lesson was one in which we practically didn't "teach" (in the lecture sense of the word) much at all. Instead, we broke the group up into smaller groups, had them read different Old Testament stories of obedience/disobedience, then guided each group as they shared what they learned with the others. All we really "taught" was a wrap up lesson, connecting all of the themes of obedience/disobedience and showing how they related to our relationship with God. That took about 3 minutes. I wasn't sure how it would turn out at first, but I found out that praying for and trusting the Spirit to work has awesome results. It may not always turn out as hoped for or expected, but the most precious gold still comes out of simple, filthy mines.

It was amazing to see the mountains again. Man, I've missed them here in Ohio. God's power and majesty is displayed gloriously in those hills, and something about the clean air and rustic atmosphere refreshes the soul. Sometimes, we need to just take a moment to look at the beauty of the earth and let that blessed peace swell in our souls.