Day Three
Again, day three started the same as day two with one exception… I was very tired today because of the events of the previous night. We had Praise Rally and after last night, I really could feel the walls that Tracy was telling me about before I prayer walked.
The question for today was, “Am I Like Christ?” To answer this question, we looked at John 13, where Jesus washes the disciples feet. To illustrate this we took a bunch of dirty socks and threw them all over our room. When we entered the room, we asked the kids to help us pick them up. We also asked the counselors to act very indignant with the socks; we had them react very snobby about not picking up those dirty socks. The other leader and myself had a scripted conversation with the kids (our part was scripted, not theirs) that was just to introduce the lesson.
We introduced what was going on in Scripture and had them look for themselves and fill in blanks in their journals that were verses taken from John 13. After they did that, we asked what they learned about Jesus, and what they understood about foot-washing. We discussed for a few minutes and then I reminded them about the dirty socks and tried to share with them what shoes were like and that their feet were a whole lot dirtier than those socks….
After that, I gave them two pieces of paper and pencils. I gave them these directions (one at a time):
- Draw a medium circle at the top of the page.
- Under the circle, draw a large rectangle.
- In that rectangle, draw a heart.
- Draw two long, skinny rectangles on each side of the large rectangle.
- Under the large rectangle, draw a triangle.
- Under the bottom of the triangle, draw two small ovals.
- Go back up to the circle; draw two tiny circles in the medium circle.
- Draw a half moon in the medium circle.
Now, just telling these directions produced some interesting pictures. Some got it right though. After asking them what they drew, I said, “Ok, now I’m gonna do it with you, but this time, ya’ll follow my example.” This time, we all drew people (I had to draw it earlier that day, so I knew that I could do it….). The point was to show them that Jesus our example and that we have to “pay attention, follow what He does, listen, and copy Him” in order to be like Him. We then asked our identity question for that day (Am I Like Christ?) and asked, how do we know what Jesus looks like and what do we have to do for our lives to look like His? “I drew the picture to you them an example just as Christ washed the disciples’ feet to give them an example to follow.” In closing the morning Bible study, we looked at Romans 8:29 and I had them do something with it. I had them put their names into it.
“God knew Benjamin before He made the world, and He chose Benjamin to be like His Son, so that Jesus would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters.” (NLT)
That was the end of the morning Bible study and the afternoon picked up right where we left off. The afternoon session showed the kids why Jesus would do something only a slave would have done in those days. It was love. Jesus gave us that example of how much He loved us and for us “to be like His Son…” we have to love just like Him. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”(NIV) We also showed them that this wasn’t an option. Jesus was commanding us to love one another and then we went further. It doesn’t matter who the person is, how we feel, if we wanna be like Christ, we will serve. This is where the humility aspect comes in. Christ was humble and so we must be humble as well. We closed by asking the campers to work in their journals. They had John 13:34-35 in their printed in their journals and also on the page was the beginning a statement, “Because Jesus loves me, and He showed me how to serve… I will… I will not….” They had to finish the “I will” and “I will not” parts. We asked them to ask God to speak to them showing them anything in their lives that He wanted them to change so that they may be more like Christ.
After that I went to my track time, but this time I was helping lead Drama because they had so many kids and Late Night tonight, was the performance showcase of all the performing tracks. They had been having 26 kids in the drama track, but today only 13 showed up, so we were blessed in that regard 🙂 They ended up doing a skit were pairs of them traded things, sunglasses for a hat, ham sandwich for turkey, etc. And then there were things like disobeying parents, death, etc. and Jesus walks on and says, “I’ll trade you.” Anyways, that night was filled with some amazing things, ribbon praise, human video, drama, trashcan drumline, worship banners, puppets, and clowning. I can’t think of any others, but if you’re reading this and I’ve missed some, just comment…. Anyways, a great night and a lot of fun.
After that Late Night, I was prayer walking again, except just around the building we were worshipping in and I was pretty discouraged right then. In worship that night, which I forgot to talk about, but it was very good and centered around Jesus having paid the highest price ever and that we need to get rid of our opinions about ourself because we must humble ourselves as we saw Christ do in the Bible studies. Anyways, during worship, there were still so many walls up and it was killing me. I was so broken-hearted about these kids who were not letting Christ in. While I was praying about this around the building, God simply said, “The walls are cracking. You are doing what you’re supposed to be doing what you’re supposed to be doing and the walls will come down in My time.” When I heard that, I was immediately at peace, still had a burden, but at peace. The answer to today’s identity question was, “Remade.”
The song below has really nothing to do with this blog, or at least it doesn’t seem to to me, but it was a song that really impacted me at camp and I have fallen in love with it.
