For two months, I spent time serving on a summer staff with many other people. All of whom decided to spend their summer at camp all because we care about teenagers and love Jesus so much. I found out three weeks before I had to be there that I had been accepted to be on Summer Staff at Washington Family Ranch. On June 9th, I loaded up my car and drove 400 miles to the middle of nowhere, not knowing a single soul. I had seen them in the Facebook group and we all made videos about ourselves, but I did not know who anyone was.
I did two different sessions with two very different groups of people. Each session I walked away having made friends who I want in my life forever. We were all put in rooms which slept six to eight people and these were the people I would call my roommates for the next month. Some of us had the same role on the camp property and some did not, but we were all a part of the same summer staff. Little did we know was that by the end of each session, we would all be a family.
The first night we all met each other and tried to remember everyone's name and a little about them. At first this was hard, but by the end of the first week we all were so close. By the end of the third week, no one wanted to leave each other because we had dove in so deep through the month that we were a family. Each session was like this for me.
These people who had known me for such a short amount of time know as much, if not more, than my close friends do about me. These people know my struggles and my weaknesses. They know my hopes and dreams. They also know so much of my story and what I went through to get to the place I am at today. These people fully embraced me even after they knew all my flaws and I fully did the same for them. This is what friendship is all about.
These people were more; they were family. I look at them all as brothers and sisters in Christ. I have always heard this term used by other Christians, but I never fully understood what these words truly meant. This means you love someone unconditionally and that you have their back no matter what they have gone through or will go through. These people showed me this kind of love and they taught me how to reciprocate the same kind of love.
My friends and I may range from all different walks of life from all over the world. I made friends ranging from right down the road in Montana, to all the way across the country in Florida. The friends I made do not just stop in America, though. I became friends with people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, France and Germany. Some of my friends will be easier to see often and others I may not see again until eternity in Heaven. No matter the distance between us, all these new friends of mine will always have a special place in my heart. We all came to this place in the middle of nowhere with one common goal, and that was to love and serve Jesus together.
Each person I met through this time has not only become my friend, but they have all impacted me in some way or another. Summer Staff, Session 1, Canyon...thank you for helping me learn how to trust. Summer Staff, Session 2, Creekside...thank you for teaching me to love. Thank you all for teaching me who I am in my heavenly father. I hope I can keep in touch and watch you all grow for the rest of my life time. Anyone who has done summer staff or work crew at a Young Life camp knows and understands exactly what I am talking about.
