For my first week as an employee at Phantom Ranch Bible Camp, I was scheduled to be on dish crew. About 9 hours of each day was spent handling the dishes of roughly 250 campers and staff. This meant wiping tables, putting out place settings, filling pitchers of water and juice, putting food on the tables, washing the campers’ dishes, washing the kitchen staff’s pots and pans, wiping tables again, sweeping, mopping, and taking out garbage. All of that, three times a day. Despite being stuck in front of a sink for a week, I learned a few lessons.
Lesson 1: Women belong in the kitchen.
I’m kidding, but Grant VandeZande would say that spending a week in a kitchen was me learning my place in the world.
Lesson 2: My high maintenance habits are unnecessary.
I haven’t straightened my hair or put on makeup for five days in a row. I’m pretty sure that’s a record for me. And guess what? It didn’t matter. People still wanted to talk to me and be around me, even though I didn’t look fantastic.
Lesson 3: Discouragement is the devil’s most useful tool.
During my devotions this week, a common theme seemed to be discouragement. One of my favorites was Numbers 21:4-9, which talked about the Israelites complaining to Moses about being tired and hungry. Instead of focusing on God’s promise, they got distracted by their circumstances and became discouraged. When I get into high stress situations, I tend to become frustrated and that ultimately affects how I react to the people around me and to God. Having read this very early in the week, I was able to remind myself every day of God’s promises and to focus on Him rather than on the chaos around me. In the end, this allowed me to get closer to my crew members and to praise God for the work that was done.
Lesson 4: My fears are really just trust issues.
Coming into this week, I was terrified. I had a lot of anxiety about being in a new place and taking on big responsibilities. Although I was just on dish crew this week, I kept thinking about the upcoming weeks of counseling and panicking. I was nervous that I would fail, that the campers wouldn’t respect me, that I would lose my temper, not know how to handle homesick campers, forget some important piece of clothing at home, or any number of things like that. While I was mopping on Thursday, I felt the Lord very clearly convicting me. I felt Him saying to me, “You don’t think I can handle this? Don’t you know who I am?” I realized that my problem wasn’t being afraid of failing, but simply being unwilling to fully trust God. It’s not my responsibility to bring every camper to Christ; that’s His job. I’m just helping to clear the way and I have to trust that God is going to pull through.
That being said, I’m really looking forward to the next four weeks. I’ve grown pretty close to some of the staff members here and I’d love to watch those friendships go even deeper. I’m excited for all of the campers I’ll come in contact with and for the conversations we’ll have. I’m already praying for those kids and I hope you will too. Furthermore, I can’t wait to see what other lessons God has in store for me as I continue this adventure. Stay tuned for more next week!
"To know Christ and to make Him known."
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