17 July 2009

My Religion:

Now I don’t normally go on about my religion, just because someone usually will bust my chops about it. I don’t have all the answers to life’s questions just because I’m a Christian and I don’t really expect to have all the answers. That is why it’s called faith.

I won’t preach to you or anyone else about the faith that I have. That has to be a choice that YOU make, and if you have real questions I will try to find an answer for you. I do want to be a Witness for God in my life, and even though I’m not perfect, I still think I can be a good example to others.

Christian Camp!

Y’all have seen my picture. I’m a long-haired, hill-billy, red-neck biker. But I am also a nice person, at least that’s what most people seem to think. The kids at camp probably have seen people who look like me before in their lives. But when they meet me, and know that I am a Christian too, they seem surprised at first, then they want to hang around with me.

One young girl wasn’t learning her Bible verses, and Richard (he’s the preacher at my church) told me he wasn’t getting anywhere with her. So I sat down at the picnic table with her and her friends and talked with them for a minute or two. Then I began to work with them all to learn verses. She would memorize one and we’d go up and have her recite it for Richard so she could receive her points. Then we went back and memorized a second one and she went up and got her points.

Then I switched it up on her. I had her recite the first one, then began working on a third. We got the third one memorized and we went back to the 2^nd one.  Once we were up to having learned three, I would quiz her on them. I wanted her to really remember them.

Once I was sure she was actually getting the words, we got into the meaning of the verses we were learning. Words have no meaning if you don’t understand what message they are supposed to convey. And the best part is, she actually asked me the next day to work with her to memorize some more verses!

There was a second kid at camp that I think I managed to get through to. I never learned his name, but he is nearly deaf and has pretty large hearing aids in both his ears. Also he does talk with that muffled voice that deaf people have when they learn to talk. Well, as you can imagine, in a group of 100 kids he was in for some teasing, some getting picked on, and misunderstandings would crop up around him. So yesterday during free time a kid came up to me and complained about the deaf kid hitting people and stuff. So I thought I’d look into it.

What was happening was that no one was playing with him while shooting hoops in the gym. So when he wanted to shoot the ball he would take one away from someone else so he could play. So I figured I’d work into the group and begin trying to get him involved.

I got one of the balls and passed it to him, and gestured for him to shoot it. As he shot it, I got one of the other balls and shot it after him (there were 5 balls in play at the time so they were everywhere!) Then he began to pass the ball to me to shoot. I’d pass it to him.

Then I began alternating between him and another kid, while still making shots myself. After about twenty minutes all the boys were playing together and no problems were happening. After supper he came up to me and gave me a big hug. Much better than any words…

Invitation:

Since last night was the last night of Christian Camp for this week, the Invitation was given to the kids. If they felt it was the right time and they were convinced that this is what they wanted, we invited them to either commit their lives to God and be baptized, or if they were already baptized, to recommit their lives to God.

There were over 20 kids who wanted to recommit to God and we had more than 13 kids ask to be baptized. One of the kids to recommit to God was the little girl who had trouble with memorizing her Bible verses.

One of the kids that were baptized this morning was the deaf boy. I have to say that I cried a bit.

Who knows if I had any influence on any of it? But if I did, it was God’s doing that placed me in that spot to help learn Bible verses, or to show a spirit of sharing while playing basketball.

Overall this week was both completely frustrating, and entirely wonderful. I have to say that I have not felt this strongly about my faith and God in many years. I feel uplifted and strong.

And I’m happy to share this with y’all!

I’m Alive… So Far…