Summer Camp Highs

The late 90's were an excellent time to be a Christian teenager. There was a huge surge of Christian subculture including music, movies, clothing, and accessories (heavily featuring crosses and W.W.J.D.? embroidery). If you lived it, you know what I'm talking about. Another huge part of that era of life was summer camp.

Summer camp was the highlight of the Christian youth's calendar. From dawn to dusk and well into the night, youth like me would do little else but eat, sleep, pray, play, and worship. It was awesome, and we'd commonly come back from the week super-hyped about whatever the speaker had challenged us to do.

As time wore on, I began to notice a pattern with these weeklong summer camps. The first night was always about getting saved. Night two was God's plan for our lives. Night three was the big picture of how to fulfill that plan. Night four was what we needed to do once we got back to "real life".

Night four was always the worst. While each of the other nights were a glorious escape from reality, night four reminded us only that reality was right around the corner. Most of these sermons centered around two main ideas: that we were about to go back to our normal lives, and that it was probably going to be hard and painful.

Fast forward about fifteen years to March of 2015. I'm on my fourth Key West Bike Ride--a 300 mile journey by bicycle from Fort Myers, Florida to Key West. One afternoon, my dear friend Sean McIntosh and I are running together. We were discussing the "high" of the KWBR and the subsequent "crash" after we returned home. I'm not quite sure how the idea originated, but we realized the formula that makes the KWBR so powerful is: 

Mission and togetherness.

When combined, these two things make for seriously incredible community--unlike anything else I've ever experienced. Maybe you've experienced it too. Like on a short term mission trip, for example. Or a Habitat for Humanity day. Or even in the military. Something happens when people come together to accomplish a cause bigger than any one individual. And it's indescribably powerful.

Mission.

Togetherness.

Back to camp and that fourth night. So much of night four was how difficult and different life would be after we returned home, and how we needed to brace ourselves for the inevitable spiritual crash. It was almost as if the past three days of spiritual ecstasy were looked at with scorn. Anyone can get excited about Jesus at camp... Let's see how you do at home. Or at school. All by yourself. With nobody alongside you.

To be fair, I get the point. Jesus is still enough and we're never truly alone. But maybe we had things backwards. Maybe real life isn't the isolated desperation many of us have grown accustomed to. Maybe camp was amazing precisely because for one week we came together on a mission and believed we could change the world. And we believed it because we saw how we ourselves were changed and empowered by the community around us and the God we worshiped.

Mission together.

If you've been feeling aimless or isolated, ask yourself: Do I belong to a community whose purpose exists outside of itself? Many of us belong to organizations. Many of us feel passionate about a cause or our life's goals. Yet precious few have experienced mission together. Where these two intersect, behold, the kingdom is there in the midst. 

One reason we go to Bulgaria, then, is how few local youth know Jesus. While these students have a strong and clear mission--to reach their classmates--they often miss the critical component of togetherness outside of camp gatherings. There is simply, to few of them and their lives don't intersect on a day to day basis. So, while we go to make disciples, we intend to do so by helping to start youth ministries where students can find these two vital components of kingdom life. Jesus said it was not good for us to be alone. And he also taught that we have a mission to make disciples of the whole world. The two go hand in hand. And where you find them together, there you find the purpose behind Jesus and the church.

Monday Musing - Mountains Seem So Big

Over Labor Day Weekend, Matt and I were able to unplug and travel up to the family cabin. It was time much needed for me to put my mind at ease with everything that seems to demand my time and energy.

As think about returning back, I am met with what seems like a mountain before us as we continue to raise support. 

It was like this familiar song lyric-

"The mountains seem so big 
and my faith it seems so small.
So hold me Jesus, 
'cause I'm shaking like a leaf.
You have been King of my glory.
Won't you be my Prince of peace."

I was comforted by how Jesus was with me. He has never left me, especially in my weakness. He's held me. I am in awe. 

Today I embrace the completed work of Jesus on the cross as my only hope for the transformation of my heart. He is worthy of my adoration. And He is the hope and adoration of the youth of Bulgaria.

Sometimes I think that God is taking us on this journey of support-raising to help me understand more personally and deeply the message of hope that we are bringing. And that I, each day, would hold fast to Jesus as the answer to every circumstance.

- Britney Sue Hagsten

Lily and the Canada Sunset

The Least of These

Let's start by just getting it out there: it's fun to watch people. And there's hardly a better place to people watch than church.

Recently I was standing in a church lobby and noticed a young boy. This boy was excited about some sort of gadget he had, and was energetically seeking an audience to wow with his toy. I was surprised to see that after approaching perhaps five or six people, none of them showed any interest whatsoever in him. Eventually the boy became discouraged and wandered off.

The reason this troubles me is because of Jesus' words in Matthew 25--"Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." It also works the other way in verse 45; what we don't do to the least, neither did we do for Jesus.

Why does Jesus go so far out of his way to honor those society deems "the least"? And lest you think I am blowing one verse out of proportion, consider these:


Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.  Luke 6:20

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.  Luke 4:18-19

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."  Mark 10:21

When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.  Luke 14:12

Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 19:14

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.  Mark 10:15


This says nothing about about his treatment of women, which was revolutionary for the time. Consider the fact that women could be treated as property and yet Jesus' resurrection was first witnessed by none other than... a woman.

What's my point? My point is that these people ignored this boy because they believed his worth was only in what value he could add to their lives. He was boring and annoying and irrelevant--therefore he was useless and could be disregarded.

But the narrative of the kingdom of God says something different. It says that value is intrinsic. Your worth is not determined by what you do but who you are--a child of God. And therefore, nothing you can ever do can either add nor detract from that sum.

That means when you're at your absolute best, you are no more valuable than at your absolute worst, and vice versa. All your striving and struggling gets you nowhere. Neither will uncovering your failures and flaws reveal you to be somehow counterfeit. Rest in God. Trust your Father. It was never about you to begin with.

And now that we've established this identity for ourselves, it stands to reason that the same goes for others too.

Like the boy with the gadget.

Like the homeless begging for change at the intersection.

Or the billions of people who live on less than a dollar a day.

Or your super annoying coworker.

Or your mother in law.

The list goes on. Become like children. Love the poor. Love the meek. Recognize God in people--he's the one who made them, after all. Pay special attention to the ones that seem least important. Recognize that they are blessed precisely because they have nothing but God. And when you come without a thing, you come with all you need. It's all this other stuff that we think we contribute that actually gets in the way.

Peace.


P.S. - Lest I be accused of throwing stones or judging motives, I was one of the people ignoring the boy. For what it's worth, once I realized what was happening in my heart, I went and spent time with him. I believe that's what repentance is supposed to look like.