I have officially been at Okoboji Lutheran Bible Camp for a day over a week now! And man has God been working within me! I was coming into camp this year as the newbie in a leadership position. I had never worked at the camp (True I have attended since I was 6 but never worked) yet I was asked to take a leadership role. However, God knew what he was doing. I got to spend a week at Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp with the leaders from Ingham Okoboji and Riverside. It was amazing to spend time with about 20 people worshipping and learning about what God has to say about Christian Leaders. We also had a lot of time to just pray with each other. One of the nights I had shared about the troubles I had been dealing with (for more on this check my previous 2 or 3 posts) and I had a Riverside leader and a fellow Day Camp Leader praying over me and it was so powerful. They barely knew me but the love I felt was amazing!
Fast Forward to Staff Training! On Saturday our senior counselors arrived! And all I can say is WOW! This group is amazing and I can't wait to get to know each and every one of them! Our first night together we had a chapel service. I went up and lead motions and to look out and see all the counselors praising God and singing at the top of their lungs was POWERFUL! It brought tears to my eyes. I was so excited to be where I was and it confirmed to me this is where I was meant to be.
On Sunday Riverside staff came and joined us! We had amazing fellowship and the chapel service that night was so awesome! God was following through all of us! We then headed over to share groups where we broke up in our three sites and we get to know our staff. The first night it was up to us the leadership to give our testimony first. So that meant I was up. As I was giving my testimony something clicked in me. I realized this: Ever since I had started to date my ex back in my freshman year (or sophomore if you want to get technical) I had stopped participating in church retreats and other events because I wanted to be available to go to all of his sporting events and be the doting girlfriend. I thought that was my job. So I pushed my personal faith aside. As I was saying this I was filled with regret. Yes God knew all of that was going to happen but still I even had my Best Friend confront me that I was different when I was dating this guy. But I got mad at her and it hurt our relationship. I really regret this. Anyway, it just made it obvious to me that God wanted ALL OF ME BACK! He didn't want to have a backseat in my life. He wanted to be NUMBER 1 in my life. Not some guy whose love may end up running out on me. Because God's love never fails it never gives up and NEVER RUNS OUT ON ME!
This song is SUPER powerful to me right now. Every time we sing it I am moved to tears and it's a realization that has hit me recently. Tonight we all took our picture wrote a sin we wanted removed from our life and then proceeded to NAIL it to a cross. I mean literally nail it to a cross. We hammered our picture into the cross. For me it was signifying the end of an era. The END of OLD TARA. I am now a new creation in God FULLY ALIVE in him!
I have been so blessed with all the people around me. So much so that I now love to hug all of them even though Touch is not my love language. But it is quickly becoming a favorite because of the love that is transferred from one person to another! Seriously it's, amazing! We all need to hug more! But I digress.. in all God is already doing amazing things in my life I am so blessed!
I pray that all who read this blog are blessed and that they will have the realization that God's love NEVER runs out on them and that he calls us to be with him in spite of who we are or where we have been.
Till next time!!
Me<3
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