Inspite of the rain

This weekend was a gift of God’s goodness in so many ways. The weekend was one of the most peaceful, simple family feeling camp weekends I’ve ever been a part of.

Saturday afternoon rain lead us to a time of tug-of-war and playing in the mud pit which was a perfect anaology to talk about “exploring the messy stuff’ in our lives. We brought up a couple who live in one of our neighborhoods and have been a part of our mentoring team for the past couple of years. The couple shared of past grief and addictions and the healing they have received. There was honesty and vulnerability as we sat in a circle and listened to each other share stories of pain and hurt and talked about how much God loves us to not only enter in that pain with us, but to give us each other to walk through it together. That unexpected Saturday afternoon was the most precious to me from that conversation we gave opportunity for campers to respond with a counselor to pray, and they all lined up.  Later on, one of those boys, Erik, came to me and asked, “Meg how come when you pray for someone else it makes you cry and feel God’s love more than when you pray for yourself?” He also articulated that he feels like the “tables have changed and that he feels older as a leader for others now.” Wow.. for us, the reality of these boys having older guys to look up to who aren’t in the gang is a HUGE answer to prayer to the gang reality that dominates our neighborhood. TLF certainly understands that there is a different fruit that comes in invested time. It was fun to see that through this weekend.

Another praise that came from this weekend came in the posted pictures on social media after when one of our students tagged “Maple + Garnet = Family.” with a camp picture. This is significant because we work in 2 rival gang neighborhoods. Typically at camp we’re intervening in the neighborhood repping and trying to keep fights from breaking out, but this weekend just felt like a family vacation.

Teen Leadership Camps, the curriculum, the intentionality, the reach – it’s obviously blessed and being used mightily by God. Your generosity has been such a huge blessing to our teens at Solidarity, and your tenacity and compassionate heart has been a personal example and inspiration. We use the  brilliant TLF mentoring training curriculum every semester and it’s greatly enriched our team and volunteer mentors. Thank you so so much for allowing us to be a part of what God is doing through TLF.

Thank you from the bottom of our heart’s.

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take delight in you, he will comfort you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zeph. 3:17