Summer of Awesome.

I've never understood the body of Christ. I mean, I get it... but I didn't really get it. All this talk of unified diversity and so on... well. I get it now. I understand the power and the beauty and the undeniable need of one part of the body for another. I have seen what happens when a group of believers come together in the name of Christ and show unconditional love and acceptance to the people around them. I have seen people with such obvious spiritual gifts putting them to use and then through that watching in amazement as people who were far from God came to know Him. I have talked with young people who were on the verge of suicide, or who thought that going on pilgrimages to shrines and saying the rosary everyday gave you a right standing before God, and everything you can imagine in between, who looked at us as believers and said, "God is with you. I want God with me." I have cried with people who struggled with the fact that accepting Christ is costly. That it means their lives might totally change. I have appreciated the fact that they did know that it's a costly decision, and that it took them three years to make it. And I have rejoiced when this girl I cried with came up to me and said, "I know this means I need to give my whole life to Christ. I don't want it to be any less than that. I have made that decision and I have never felt so at peace." I have seen prayer work in ways that shouldn't be unbelievable, but that blew me away. I have felt the Spirit of God move through a room of people crying out to Him. I have watched as testimonies have brought people to Christ, and I, without a doubt, see how God works everything, even our deepest pain, for good in the lives of those who love Him. I have been floored by the deep and thoughtful questions of 16 year olds that show me that they are thirsty for truth and want it with all of their hearts. These are only a few of the things I have seen in the last three weeks at camp.

I then saw what happened when people who made decisions went home and their parents took their Bibles from them. One girl had every Bible in the house hidden from her because her parents said she must be crazy if she wants to read it everyday. Her parents were angry because she came back from camp acting like a different person. She respected them, she didn't yell at them anymore. They yelled at her and asked her why people she was with for 10 days could change her life when they couldn't do it in 18 years. Because for 18 years this girl was separated from God, and now she realizes that because of Christ nothing, not even herself, can separate her from His love.

I have realized how much these young people need encouragement. They need the body of Christ to help them grow. And I have realized exactly how plentiful the harvest is, yet how few workers there are.

I think I might be in Poland for a long time.