“I love MVM So Much.”
Katie Campbell has been involved with YFC for 15 years, first as a student and now as a staff member (and a married mother of three). She detailed her week at MVM through a blog. Here we share excerpts of her experience.
We made it safely to camp!! Starting off strong. Family groups seem to be going well!
One cool thing — we “unknowingly” brought students that had jumped (beat up) another student we brought. Some drama was brewing, but we were able to talk to both parties and they agreed to be civil for the week. EVEN BETTER — the boy who was jumped initiated with the girls who had done it (and their boyfriends who aren’t at camp) and apologized for his part. The girls apologized for jumping him all on their own. It was a beautiful thing!
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We’ve had some hot tempers, attitudes and tears. The last few hours involved a lot of problem-solving and conversations. I am exhausted and considering crying in a corner LOL.
On the flip side — my family group seemed to go really well! Two of the girls have not accepted Christ yet and we talked a bit about that! I gave them some verses to read and they said they were excited to talk about it more on the worksite tomorrow. They want to know if God is real why there so many bad things in the world.
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We woke up really early to get to the worksites and beat the rain! Kids have been up since 6:30 and working since 8! My group is killing it!
Pray for energy for us leaders. Some of us were up late dealing with situations and then had to wake up early.
Pray for wisdom on appropriate loving discipline and redeeming conversations between leaders and students who had a difficult interaction last night. Pray for humility and boldness and loving grace!
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We were able to finish our project!! The whole camp woke up early and stayed at the spot for lunch and ate there in order to get right back to work!
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A common theme this year was kids dealing with their anger. We have had so many mini/petty conflicts that most of my free time has been spent in conflict conversations. It’s good because they normally don’t have people who can talk this stuff out or get to have a follow-up conversation with the person they have conflict with. But boy is it hard.
A lot of our students have dealt with the loss of a parent. Some recent, some when they were younger. So there is a lot of pain. Lots of our students are grieving tremendously and sometimes act out because of that pain. We need Jesus!
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We had three students accept Christ this week! I guess it makes sense that it was such a difficult trip because some significant spiritual movement happened.
I love MVM so much. It’s for leaders as much as it is for students. I can’t wait to process the things He taught me this week. It is truly an honor to participate in the work of God in changing lives.
Even though I wouldn’t describe the week as fun, I trust that it was exactly what I needed for continued growth. I really do love Jesus and His intentional working in each person that attended even if we never get to see all the fruit of it!