What a delight to share about what God has taught me recently! For the past several years, God has been prodding me to raise my eyes from my narrow-minded view of life to look at his expansive, beautiful world. Though my family has lovingly taught me about God’s kingdom, only in the past few years have I grown in my desire to know how Jesus is applicable to all classes, races, and tongues. Most recently, God used my travels to India to show me the beauty of his creation. While spending my Christmas in Delhi, I contemplated the meaning of “a people walking in great darkness,” and was overjoyed to realize Jesus came to be a light to the very situations I encountered. In the midst of striking poverty, I was given the incredible gift of relationship with local women who continually astounded me with their struggles and perseverance. Jesus taught me that he cares deeply about their dignity. I learned that if God created the whole world, which he did, then he calls me to rejoice in his creativity and in all people who bear his image. Psalm 113 says that the Lord “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people. He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.” Some may interpret this only figuratively, but I see it also as a promise of Gods faithfulness in specific situations. I have seen the poor who live in the dust and quite literally on the ash heap. I’ve met women who are scorned because of their barrenness or lack of a son. These are the people whom Christ came to shower with dignity and worth. The good news is that Christ came to give dignity to me as well! I don’t have to be living in a third world country to be burdened by shame and fear. Here is the West, too often it’s our spirits that are malnourished, our hearts that are ragged and bare. But guess what! Christ was born as Jesus of Nazareth so that he could preach good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and bring freedom to those who are imprisoned. He promises that he will rebuild the places in our lives that have been ruined (see Isaiah 61). Jesus came to get his hands dirty working in the broken world of India, the mountain of Camp Lurecrest, and the barren places in our relationships and hearts.
It would be awfully nice to say, “Camp Lurecrest changed my life.” But it didn’t. Jesus changed me (and continues to change me). Thankfully, he taught me many things during the summers that I worked at camp, but he has used other places and people as well to speak the Truth to me. But whether I’m on the mountain or sitting at home on my couch, the freedom Jesus proclaims is relevant!
Rachael Adams
Counselor for the Summers of 2003 & 2004
Volunteer Nurse for the Summers of 2005 & 2006
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