My team, alongside two other World Race teams, are working at El Rancho for our month in New Zealand. El Rancho is a camp about 45 minutes outside of Wellington (NZ’s capital city). Last week, we were leaders for a kids camp and next week we will be working on the hospitality team as the camp hosts New Wine Worship Conference. We have had bunk beds, showers, great food, and incredible people to work with here. We have been beyond blessed. My teammates and I find ourselves saying time and time again how we are getting “spoiled” and we know that the rest of the race won’t be this “comfortable”. People keep telling me not to get to comfortable here, because it won’t be like this the three months we are in Africa, or the month we spend in Cambodia, for instance.
I know people’s intentions when saying that. However, it scares me to death. The fact is, I’m not comfortable. I have a bunk bed, a shower, and delicious food… yes. But that doesn’t mean that I am comfortable. My heart was broken last week for the children that came to camp.
Children who live with older siblings because their mother died.
Older siblings that hate God and teach them how to cut themselves in order to handle what the world has thrown at them.
Children who openly share about their parents’ drug habits like it is a normal thing.
Children who have no idea what it feels like to have someone love them.
Children who find it hard to trust the Lord because they have had no reason to trust anyone ever before.
If this is comfortable, then I fear what is to come. We often sing the words “break my heart for what breaks yours” without thinking about what we are singing. At launch a couple of weeks ago, we were challenged to really think about those words. Am I ready for my heart to be BROKEN for what breaks his? My prayer is that if I’m not ready, He readies me…
In the midst of the pain that I saw at camp, I also saw redemption.
I got to see relationships built between campers and leaders. I saw the love of Christ flow out of us onto those kids. I saw girls give their lives to Christ for the first time. I heard excitement in little boys’ voices telling me that they got rid of the sin in their heart the night before. My prayer is that each child won’t forget the love they experienced from the Lord this week. That even though they go home to broken families, mother’s on drugs, or no mothers at all… that they remember that God is with them. That they are loved by their Maker. Protected by their Father.
