Last full day here at Super C Camp in Polo, Missouri.
Thus tomorrow around 11am I will once again pull out from a camp at which I've had the privilege, joy, and responsibility of being the camp speaker.
The Lord first opened this particular door of ministry opportunity in 1978...and I've been speaking at 5-7 weeks of camp each summer since then...I'll let you do the math...
I am so very amazed (and blessed) that I get to do this type of ministry. I'm guessing that is why I get to keep doing it?
As I've written before, I love Christian camps...but also think they can be a dangerous place (for more on this
CLICK HERE).
But for the inherent dangers, there are positive things that happen.
Surely no one believes that all the "decisions" recorded at camp (or anywhere else) are legit. Though there are those who feel they must number the "decisions" and those at the altar etc...only Spirit of God knows what is truly happening.
But there are many and varied testimonies of people genuinely coming to salvation at a Christian camp...and enduring/lasting/persevering. Many Christians have had their faith solidified, challenged, complemented and increased at camps.
These little "nibbles of heaven," like any other venue, can be a place where dramatic, though perhaps unseen, things happen. They can be, if misused, places where emotions are frayed and abused, where false assurance is nurtured, where the measure of "success" are "decisions" and "aisle athletes."
But the sanctified-ace-in-the-hole remains Romans 8.28.
And the assurance that His Word cast forth in faith will
not return void.
Though that return may take years...decades. I've received communication from excampers who did nothing with what they heard/learned until years later.
And that's cool.
I leave Sunday for Crescent Lake Bible Camp in Rhinelander, Wi. Home for a bit after that, then off to Washington/Idaho for a week...then to another camp in Colorado...then home for a few days before closing out the summer at my 22nd or 23rd (or is it 24th?) consecutive year of "Korean Kamp" near Quakertown, Pa.
And through it all, I ask "What am I doing here?" God could use a donkey..there may be similarities...all I know is that I am extremely, extremely grateful, amazed, and honored that I've been privileged to brag on Jesus at Christian camps for over three years of my life...and I pray for many more years of effective, energized, passionate ministry.