My summer has been spent at camps. For two months, I was at a Young Life camp. Then I was asked to be a camp counselor at a camp in the Beartooth Mountains, located in Fishtail, Montana for a week.

This summer camp changed my life. While I was working at Young Life, God did a lot in my heart, but I went in fully expecting that. What I did not expect was for my heart to change while I was a camp counselor. I have been counseling camps since I was a sophomore in high school and I have attended church camps since I was going into fourth grade. I knew the drill, or so I thought.

I had prayed and asked God if I should go to this camp or not. I felt him telling me to go. I found out the night before I got there that I was going to be the lead counselor. I was hoping this would be the case since every other time I had either been a junior counselor or a equal co-counselor with someone my own age. I got to thinking about this before I went and I was suddenly nervous. I found out last minute and had nothing prepared as far as devotions or decorations for the cabin, but God worked all that out and it ended up being fine.

I started thinking, "Wow, I get to be the head counselor. This means I will get to impact a younger counselor, plus, all the little girls who will be in my cabin." The opposite happened!

My co-counselor impacted me so much. This 16-year-old girl was filled with so much wisdom for someone her own age. The way she loved the kids and took charge reminded me of my ambitious self at that age, but she did something every morning that I have never done. She woke up at the crack of dawn every morning to hike to the top of the zip line to do her devotions. I am not a morning person, nor have I ever been, but seeing her do this amazed me. She was so on fire for God that she was willing to give up two, sometimes three, hours of sleep to spend time with him. There was no wonder she had so much wisdom. I am so thankful for her wisdom when it came time for the campers to ask me difficult questions. It was such a blessing to share my camp counseling experience with her.

The campers also had a huge impact on my walk with Jesus. From the moment these girls heard the Gospel presented, emotions hit them hard. They were emotional over the fact that Jesus loves them so much that he was willing to die for their sins. I have never seen kids so young be emotional at all over the gospel of Jesus. This made me realize that ever since I asked Jesus into my heart I have become numb to the fact that Jesus gave his life so I can live. I should thank God everyday for this and really mean it.

These fifth and sixth grade girls change the way I view my relationship with Jesus, but they also asked me the hard questions we all think about and push to the back of our minds. They asked me questions such as "How do we know we believe the right way and that there is not another way out there?" Before when I had thought of this my answer to myself was always because God says so. This time I had to really think about this answer. I realized the more comprehendible answer is that being a Christian is about having a relationship with Jesus and not just a religion. Christianity is also the only religion that has the beginning to the end in it. It is also the only religion that can back itself up. The hard questions these girls asked me made me realize why I believe what I believe.

I had the most amazing group of girls in my cabin. Not only did they help me grow in my faith, but they showed me so much love. They all loved each other and me from the moment they arrived Monday morning, to the moment the bus drove away on Friday. Even though as their counselor, I was there to show God's love, they all helped me gain a deeper understanding of what love really is. I love these girls so much.

All of the other counselors and the summer staff also helped me grow in my faith. They challenged me to think deeper about who God really is and why he does what he does. I learned that the reason God sent his son, Jesus, to die for me and the reason he loves me is not just because he loves me. God does this because he is perfect and people are so imperfect that it brings him glory. I had never even heard this, but suddenly the Bible made perfect sense.

I also heard another thing that I never heard before while I was there. When we were in debrief, the camp director was talking about what we would do when we got home. He was saying that the mission did not end when we left camp property and how we should be lights to the people we are around at school and in our communities. I had heard this before, but he also was explaining that everyone deserved to hear the good news of Jesus and if we did not share it with the people around us, then who would? I had never heard it explained this way and it made so much sense to me. I learned so much from these people in this one week of my summer.

I never thought being a camp counselor for a week would be so life-changing.