Strangely enough, the book Kisses from Katie came up in conversation from the moment I arrived at camp. Two girls in my Orientation cabin were reading it, and continued to discuss it throughout the summer. On a day off, my mom called and asked if I had read it, or if I had any desire to. And when I got into the car to drive back home, concluding my wonderful summer at the beautiful Lake Quemahoning, Kisses from Katie was lying on my seat. I picked it up and was instantly captivated. On one level, the author, Katie Davis, was eighteen when she left, not for college, but for Uganda, to serve as a kindergarten teacher in an orphanage there. She was a normal teenager from Tennessee, in the exact same position as I was a year ago, and felt God's call on her life to go to Uganda. So she did. At twenty, my age now, she had started a nonprofit organization called Amazima Ministries and adopted nine Ugandan girls as her own.
On another level, Katie ministers to everyone around her in the same way we are called to do at Summer's Best. Katie's whole mission in Uganda is to first and foremost, show the people Jesus's love, both through physical aid, affection, and radical kindness; secondly, to educate children and provide a way for them to go to school. Though SB2W doesn't sponsor children to go to school, the principles of ministry and loving kids for Jesus are the same. Katie's commitment to radical love, ready and willing to give everything she owned, everything she had to others in need, resonated with me deeply as I came out of a time in my life where I have tried to give everything I have, emotionally, physically, and spiritually like never before.
Fundamentally, Katie gets it: the best ministries are grounded in relationships. Her first goal is to love people with the love of Jesus, not in a condescending way but in a real, true way. As I found out very quickly at camp, my words would mean nothing to a camper until we had a relationship, an understanding that I loved and supported them. And my love was certainly not enough for them; I had to be filled with God's love often multiple times a day in order to love those kids well. In fact, every day for a week of the first month I was back, it was a nearly hourly struggle. I would pray constantly that God would fill me with love for my campers, since they were driving me up the wall! And though I laugh now at how frustrated I got with them, the truth is that by the end of every day (except one memorably disastrous night-time devotional), my heart was filled with love for them and I was teasing, giggling, playing with, and loving them genuinely. God's love is big enough; my own is not nearly sufficient.
Katie relates many stories of how God is working in Uganda, losing no opportunity to explain the lessons she finds in every story. Often, she admits that she was about to pass a hungry child by, to simply look away or continue with her business, not allowing herself to be interrupted. Yet the Holy Spirit persists, and when she follows His voice, the rewards are great. As I read this, I knew exactly what she was talking about. Even though our environments could not be more opposite, I have felt this same thing. In the past session of camp, I had many girls in my cabin who needed to know God's love; I felt the weighty importance of this from the instant I met them. Though it was my last term at camp and I was tired from a demanding previous term, I resolved to begin anew: I prayed God would give me the strength to give 100% for Him.
He began sending me opportunities left and right to talk to my girls one-on-one: I would often come upon them sitting alone and looking upset, walking in the back of a line, or on one memorable rafting trip, limping along in the back of the hike with me as I carried the med pack. Each time, I was in rare conversation with another counselor, taking a moment for myself with my friends. But the times when I chose to leave the easy conversation and go begin one with a camper, God blessed and brought about conversations that needed to happen, where He was glorified and hopefully explained well. Doing the selfish, lazy thing and not making the effort to be with a camper would have been easier, but I am so thankful I took those opportunities when I did.
Katie's story has inspired me as I leave a summer of ministry. She is my age, and her ministry requires more daily of her than I ever gave this summer. My ministry is not over; what I have learned at camp about denying myself and loving others for God doesn't only apply or "work" in the camp setting. And the "God First, Others Second, I'm Third" motto doesn't just apply at the BLQ (Beautiful Lake Quemahoning). As I head into my second year of college, I can't wait to approach everything from this perspective; to love people radically as only God can; to make the hard choices in doing that, and to follow His call on my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment