Well it is now the second of October, and in exactly six days I will have been away from home for one month. Crazy, huh? I talk with my girls and we all agree that it feels as though we have known eachother for way longer, and that we are just a bunch of friends hanging out all the time. I don’t think that the fact that we are in fact living in Africa has hit us yet. It is so nice; the weather, the people, the landscapes are to die for. I look at it as being in paradise! We are all in love with being here.
Back To Basics has ended as of Tuesday, and WOW was that crazy. I never thought that I had such little patience to be honest with you. Some of those teens really pushed my buttons… over and over and over again! However, man am I glad that I was part of it. It was one of those experiences that I will always have to talk about and reflect on. Later on down the road I know that I would have been devastated if I missed out on the B2B camp. Here’s the story…
I honestly did not want any part of the camp in the beginning. When I looked on our schedule for the day before the camp and saw that instead of going to my ministry I had to meet with Chris and Christina with a few other ministries about a mystery topic I was not so happy. Then when I sat down in the grass and squinted my eyes as the sun beamed on my face, and listened to Chris as he described the camp and how they chose the eighteen of us sitting there I was even more unhappy. I remember my jaw dropping a bit and instantly feeling p’o-ed for having to be volunteered for such a huge thing. I was tired, still adjusting, and after spending my first weekend in Africa sitting in “the bush” I was not so sure what I was doing anymore if now that I had unpacked my bags from that I had to take care of a bunch of highschool kids. I was very frustrated with my leaders, and to be frank… with God. Boy, if I didn’t know He knows all my thoughts I soon figured it out. The next thing out of Chris’ mouth was that there would be 301 highschoolers, and we were the disciplinary leaders who would be mentoring them and devoting our time to them for the next five days. I remember tuning out for the rest of the time and just mentally debating with God for the rest of the evening. When Friday came and the eighteen of us were brought into the tent/sanctuary that we had set up for the camp, we were told that being a leader was now going to be a choice. Man, I felt so ecstatic to hear that that I inched closer to the edge of my seat. I thought something along the lines of, ‘God am I seriously off the hook?’. Then as if He said heck no, the speaker continued and ended by saying that we were to take some time with God and pray about whether He wants us to be a small group leader or not. What is a small group leader you ask? It means commiting FULLY to the campers and being there for their ever need. Being an example to them, treating them the way Jesus would, and mentoring them in their spiritual walk with God. Not to mention staying up late, waiting in a long line for a cold shower, and waking up early to start the day smooth for everyone. As I was about to walk out of the tent, I closed my eyes and quietly debated once again with the one who always wins:
“Seriously dude I am not doing this camp. I don’t want to at all.”
“Victoria, you’re doing this.”
“Dude. I am not doing this. You have got to be kidding.”
“Dude. Not only are you going to be a part of this camp, you are going to walk up to the front of this tent and write your name on that board.”
“That means I’ll be a small group leader.”
“Yeah.”
And that was my cue. I walked up grabbed the permanent marker and signed my name on the board. Why does He always get what He wants? haha. However, when I signed my name up there I said a little prayer. I told God that if He was seriously going to have me be a group leader in this camp, He was to send me a girl who was like me in everything she was struggling with so that I could feed into her life and impact her in such a tremendous way like leaders in my past have during these camps. The Bible says you ask, you shall receive; I now know how truthful that is.
We did an icebreaker when the campers got here on Friday and they had to close their eyes and walk with their hands up until they found another hand. Then they would make sure they were standing in a bundle of eight people each. They did this to randomly put together our small groups. I thought it was wicked cool, that way it is all up to God who goes together if every one of the campers chose into doing th icebreaker correctly. I ended up with eight, split evenly of four boys and four girls. And of course, I met Leticia. She was the answer to my prayer earlier that day. It was kind of scary, because as the five days progressed I realized how much devotion was needed to mentor with the help of God and not to just try and assess the person through the flesh. I had a tough time with the guys, all four were best friends of eachother and wouldn’t speak much English during small group times. I am not going to deny that the start of the camp was very rough. I asked Matt Hussey to help me out, because I felt absolutely defeated even though I was constantly praying about it. They finally warmed up to me, and the camp was great for the majority. Me and Leticia got really close, she’s great and so was the rest of my group. I loved being able to have meaningful conversations that hit home with them and getting their opinions. God has definitely given me a heart for ministering to teenagers, and I loved the whole idea of being able to help spiritually guide them. There were amazing things that happened during that camp, and I wouldn’t trade this past week for anything. Being a leader really helped me grow as a Christian and gave me alot of oppourtunities to share my struggles to encourage them as they fought their demons. God used me in great ways, and I am completely blessed to have been a part of the Back To Basics.
I have recently come down with a cold, so please pray for my health. Also for the health of the rest of my team, there is a bug going around and we are all comming down with it so yeah PRAY PRAY PRAY! Also pray for positive attitudes, and for building relationships.
