One Counselor’s Prayer for His Camper

In December every year, we have a weekend called Winterfest, which is basically a mini-week of camp during the winter. It’s a blast. The weekend is similar to a normal summer week at camp. Campers get counselors, we have skits, and we do a lot of activity classes, not to mention an awesome concert for the weekend.

This past Winterfest, we had a counselor named Danger praying for one of his campers to get a free week at camp. As Danger got to know this camper throughout the weekend, he learned he had a very hard home life and didn’t have the resources to come to camp this summer. Danger felt very strongly that his camper was the most in need for the free week of camp out of anyone else.

Much to his surprise and thankfulness, his camper ended up winning the free week! Danger specifically remembers the joy on his camper’s face when he heard his name called. This camper loved everything about camp, and he was so thankful that he would be able to come back.

The camper ended up coming to camp week 5 this summer. For so long, he had been weighed down by guilt and shame, and didn’t think the Lord could love or forgive him. But after hearing his senior counselor’s testimony, he immediately knew that his sin was not too big for the Lord. All of the old lies he had believed were shattered because of Christ’s sacrifice and love.

The Lord had big plans for this camper, and camp was a huge part of that! It wasn’t anything that the counselors had been pouring into him or convincing him of. The Lord just worked out so purposefully for this camper to get to camp where the Lord could more intimately speak to him, and He sure did!

After the camper was done with his week of camp, he stayed a little while longer on Saturday. Meanwhile, Danger is a second half counselor, which means he comes to work starting week 6. To the camper’s joy and surprise, he spotted Danger as he showed up to the Timbers. The camper sprinted to Danger with excitement exclaiming that he had been saved!

It wasn’t just another experience at camp. Not only did he have the best week of his life, six days prior his life had been transformed and he couldn’t contain the joyous news. He could even tell Danger the exact time that he came to be a son of the King! The joy on his face was overwhelming, much like the happiness he had felt when he won the free week.

This wasn’t just a coincidence that he came to camp. It wasn’t just a camp experience filled with emotional times. This week was life transformation because of one counselor’s prayer and God’s grace and sovereignty. Praise Him!