By Dora Phan and Several Team Members
“God will do with you what you allow him to do in you.”
Recently I found this inscription by my grandmother in her old Bible: “God will do with you what you allow him to do in you.” And while God doesn’t need our consent to work in or through us, it is yet a fitting a description for a life of following Jesus. We often imagine ourselves doing great things for God when we serve on a missions team—and what a marvelous privilege we have to participate in his kingdom work! But how gentle of him to take our small offering of time or energy and use it to work in our hearts that marvelous sanctification by his Holy Spirit.
Here are a few thoughts from our team members of Maranatha who served to run a fun and Christ-centered day camp in West Philly for both the neighborhood families and for those who attend The City School. We were greatly blessed by the families who sent their children! Thank you for praying for our teams throughout this summer as we seek to serve the God who gave us the gift of Jesus Christ.
God blessed the King’s Kids Camp in so many ways! It was really amazing to see the campers responding to and getting excited about the Bible lessons and skits. Getting to know the campers and my fellow team members was such an unforgettable experience. I think, more than anything, God was teaching me and my fellow team members about himself all throughout the trip. God taught me to trust him through stress and exhaustion and rely on his strength. —Ruth Walton (10th grade)
King’s Kids Camp was taxing beyond what I could have imagined or prepared for. Waking up every morning became the harbinger of a near fifteen-hour day of nothing but pressure and worry about the kids. But seeing God work with these kids in ways I couldn’t fully comprehend and seeing God change me and the team made it all worth it. It actually got me to miss working fifteen-hour days. —Peter Macolino (11th grade)
Praise the Lord for his goodness and faithfulness during King’s Kids Camp, from blessing us with a united team, who encouraged and loved one another, to answering prayer, as many children came to Christ. Each day as I shared the gospel with the kids in my group, I felt convicted to examine my heart, to think about how or if the gospel influences my daily life and to ask myself if I am truly living in the Spirit, surrendering every aspect of my life to the Lord, or am I living in the flesh, keeping self on the throne of my heart? This led me to repentance and getting serious about the choices I’m making and the things I’m doing and setting my mind on. At King’s Kids God reminded me that life in the Spirit means that your life is just soaked with him, the reality of who he is and what he has done for you through Jesus. He doesn’t promise that it’s tidy or comfortable but that it is something worth being all in for! —Judith Connolly (College, Northern Irish partner)
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