The life stories our high-school students, Timuk, Dyilin, Hilin, Arlin and Maribel, told were horrific. Only one of them still had two living parents. Two were orphans, and the other two had lost their fathers. Some of these young people, now ranging in age from 17-23, had been taken in by people who enslaved, tortured or neglected them. Those without fathers to defend them became targets for slander and gossip, leaving them feeling very vulnerable.
As I listened to each story over the course of our week-long Bible camp, I caught a small glimpse of the pain Jesus feels for each person on this earth. Many of these students seem happy, but I was reminded again that smiles, joking and laughter can conceal deep hurt, and giddy chatter is easier than quietness and reflection when painful memories rush in.
Over and over, these students asked me, “What do I do with these memories?” “How can I have peace from all the thoughts that bombard my mind?” “How can I forgive?” They would tell me, “You may think that I’m happy because I always have a smile on my face and laugh a lot, but really, deep inside I’m crying.”
As the staff of the Kemantian Missionary Training High School were planning and preparing for Bible Camp, we felt led to prepare our themes around the video “Facing the Giants,” the story of a football coach who seemingly had everything going against him. But when he experienced a renewal of his spiritual life, he was able to impact his players, who in turn impacted their school. We prayed about this camp and all the various aspects we felt were important to include. But in our preparations we kept reminding ourselves to be open to the Holy Spirit leading in an entirely different way. And He did.
The Sea of Galilee, a beach-side meeting center offered to us by friends of ours, gave us the privacy we needed and space to be outdoors most the day and still have a structured area for classes. On our first evening, we had planned to show the video and then review the themes throughout the week, using scenes from the video as illustration. But when I sat down with my staff before our opening worship, we all questioned the wisdom of opening with the video. Instead, we decided to sit around a camp fire, sing some songs and just talk with the kids. The students had never been to a Bible camp like this before, so they didn’t know what to expect. I explained that we, their teachers, were investing this week in them.
I asked them what they needed and what they hoped to get out of this week. Their answers surprised me. I thought they would say something like, “To have a break from school,” “To see and do some new things,” or “To eat different kinds of foods than we usually have, [e.g. ice cream].” An older student was the first to speak up. “I would like to learn how to understand people better. I want to know how to work with people and help them with their problems.”
Another said, “So many times, I see hurting people, but I don’t know how to draw them out or how to comfort them. I would like to learn that.”
And another said, “I would like to learn how to not react in anger when someone is angry with me. I would like to be able to communicate in a helpful way with them.” I was amazed at the maturity these statements showed. They were not focused on themselves and what they needed or wanted personally, but they wanted to acquire skills to better impact their world! How humbling to get to work with kids like these!
As we went along, we found the underlying theme of the whole week was to lighten the burdens these kids were carrying, to mentor them and give them tools to cope better, and to teach them how to recognize and help others who are in emotional and spiritual pain. The Lord helped us as we processed with them. We marveled at the illustrations He brought to our minds from our own experiences that we used to help them understand what God wanted to do in their lives.
One girl told me, “I came to this camp with a very heavy burden on my heart, and I didn’t know how I was going to get through any more learning. My heart hurt, and my head was so full of all my tormented thoughts. I am so relieved to have a place to share my burdens and learn how to cope. Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to talk!”
These are kids we interact with every day in school, church and work, and we are always available to them. But in this camp atmosphere they were able to lay down some burdens they had been carrying a long time. Yes, they still joked around a lot, and it was often hard to bring conversations down to serious topics, but now I better understand why. I just kept thanking the Lord for the opportunity to be used by Him and to open the door for further heart-to-heart conversations.
One of the highlights of the week was the Great Controversy game the kids played Wednesday night, though we didn’t call it that, and we didn’t tell them to look for spiritual insights during the game. The object of the game was for the team to assemble a flashlight from parts hidden in the dark over a large outdoor area, all the while avoiding one of their teachers who could tag and “freeze” them. They could unfreeze their teammates by tagging them. When they finally assembled the flashlight and shined it on their teacher, they won. During the debriefing afterward, it was great to hear them draw parallels to the Christian life. At the end, one of the young men commented, “Wow, I didn’t know you could learn so much from doing an activity. That is so cool!” We closed the evening with each person praying for someone else that they would have victory in the fight against Satan and his deceptive ways.
Another highlight was the Friday-evening communion service. The foot-washing took place out on the beach. After several songs and a short introduction, Kent invited everyone to walk out on the beach for at least five minutes of quiet introspection to make sure they had confessed everything in their hearts. The ensuing foot-washing was very meaningful.
After that, we moved to the gazebo where we had been holding worships and classes each day. For the communion service, it was transformed into a candlelit garden scene. In deep reverence, everyone entered over the candlelit bridge and partook of the Lord’s supper, sang songs, listened to special music and shared testimonies.
The testimonies were what delighted me most. During testimony time, Palawanos tend to tell their life stories up to their conversion, not grasping the concept that a testimony should be something current. So I was particularly thrilled when the students began sharing testimonies about what God had done for them that week! One girl thanked the Lord that I had taught her a visual way of laying her burdens at Jesus’ feet. She praised the Lord for a new sense of comfort and release and for new tools she could use to help others whom she knew were struggling. Another said she was so happy to have gained a deeper appreciation for what God had done for her, and she wanted to use what she had learned to reach her family and her village. One young man said he had gained a clearer idea of where God was leading him and that he wanted to give his life in service to others. He wanted to be faithful to finishing school and gaining the education he needed to be effective.
As I sat listening to the testimonies and praises to God, I thought, Lord, here is the cream of the crop! Here are five young people determined to accept Your heart healing, grow in their knowledge and love of Christ and impact their world for You!
Earlier in the week, as some of the teachers and I were running the orienteering course Kent had set up for the students, I commented, “How many other 50-something women would be out doing what I’m doing today, running across rice paddies, shakily tiptoeing across rotting bamboo bridges and trekking through mud? I lead such a privileged life!”
And indeed I do. There is absolutely nothing more thrilling than knowing you are where you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing, and seeing God working through you to bring healing to broken hearts, hope to the hopeless and love to the unloved.
Please lift up Timuk, Dyilin, Hilin, Arlin and Maribel as they develop leadership skills to impact the elementary schools, their church, their families and their communities. They are the catalysts for change. And when our high-school enrollment doubles next year, they will have underclassmen to mentor as well. Christ is raising up an army of youth!
