“The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.” –Psalm 145:13
The LORD was kind enough to bring me back to Byron Bible Camp as a part of their summer staff, to lead me through many moments of joy and sorrow, and to teach me more about His heart and steadfast character this summer. It feels impossible to pick a single story out of the hundreds I could tell, but the one I want to share took place at day camp.
Day camp is usually when the younger kids who aren’t old enough to spend the night get to come to camp. However, this year I had an older group of girls who were so kind, enjoyable to be around, and spiritually mature. Small group and devotional times with them were so fun, and I loved to see them process what they were learning and ask really good questions about the LORD and His Word.
On Wednesday, we talked about ways to love like Jesus. We discussed several ways during morning devotions that they could practically love someone at camp that day and then at home. At the end, I gave them a little challenge: I said that they should find one way to love someone like Jesus would at camp today, or look for ways that others were loving like Jesus, and that we would talk about what they’d seen in small group time later. At the end of the day, they all came back excited to share what they’d seen or what they had done. The girls had cleared other people’s plates, held doors, and witnessed many other acts of love by those around them. I was floored by how much they’d been looking for acts of love throughout their day and not just to see love, but to show it to others through their own actions.
The next day during devotions, the theme was once again love. One of the Scripture passages was 1 John 3:18, which says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” I realized that we had been talking a lot about loving people through actions, which is good, but hadn’t talked about what loving people in truth meant at all yet. Myself and the other counselor in my group explained that part of loving people in truth is encouragement, sharing with others the true things about them and the parts of their character that reflect Jesus. We gave each girl a piece of paper with her name in the middle of it and sat in a circle. The papers were passed around the circle, each camper and counselor writing a note of encouragement on every paper. I wasn’t sure how this exercise would go, but they blew my expectations away with how thoughtful their notes of encouragement to their peers were. They were kind, intentional, and took it seriously (and had fun with it!) Not only that, they encouraged me so well, too. I felt so seen and loved by the words these middle schoolers spoke in truth, and I know their friends did too.
If you remember anything from this, remember that all the LORD’s works are kind and He is faithful to finish what He’s started in the hearts of the campers—and staff too. What a privilege to watch Him work. ♦
This summer has been an enormous blessing in so many ways. This is my first summer serving as summer staff at Byron Bible Camp, and I wasn’t expecting to see God working in so many miraculous ways this summer! Picking only one story to share seems almost impossible; there have been so many amazing things that have happened this summer. However, this story is one that I’ll remember forever, and it gives me so much hope for what Christ can do in one short week at camp and how that can impact an entire lifetime.
June 2025 seemed like a blur. By the end of June, we had finished three full weeks of camp, and we were coming to the end of Junior camp, the fourth week 0f camp for the month. This is the youngest age group of campers for overnight camp (grades 2nd-4th), and these kids gave us so many opportunities to plant fresh seeds. At our final small group discussion as a cabin on Thursday night, my co-counselor and I wanted to take a moment to ask our campers about their relationships with Jesus. Each of us (counselors and campers) shared if we had accepted Jesus as our Savior, haven’t accepted Him but want to know more about Him, or hadn’t made a choice. We listened to many of our campers who had made a commitment to Jesus that day or that week, but one camper answered that he hadn’t make a commitment yet because he wasn’t ready, but he was open to God and wanted to learn more. We told this camper that making this choice was really important, but that he had to be ready to make that heart commitment himself, not because someone told him to. We also told him that Jesus really loves him, and we did too, so if he had any questions that evening or following day, he could come to us for help.
Firstly, that level of honesty and self-awareness from a nine-year-old was amazing, and we were glad to get a clear picture of where he was at spiritually. However, God was really working in his heart. The next morning, we were working through devotionals as a cabin, and this camper suddenly interrupted what I was saying. “Christian, do you think you could write down in my notebook what I need to do to be saved? I wanna know so I can look at it when I’m ready.” I was floored. I was sure that this camper had forgotten our conversation the previous night as soon as we left small group to play games. To my surprise, God had been watering seeds, creating a desire for Himself in this camper overnight. While this camper still wasn’t ready to make a leap of faith, he recognized that Jesus was someone he needed and wanted to know eventually, when he came to understand more. Jesus was working in his heart at camp to pull this child closer to Himself, which was beautiful to see. I have so much faith that God will continue to water the seeds He planted, and this camper will come to know Jesus fully. God isn’t confined to the borders of camp. He works greatly in such little time, and that gives me so much hope for the great things He will do in these campers’ lives outside of Byron Bible Camp.
This whole summer, God has been showing me a few specific things. The first is how beautiful childlike faith is. This summer, it has been such a blessing to see how children of all ages interact with Jesus and other Christians differently. We often hear about childlike faith, but it’s been such an amazing thing to see it firsthand all summer. It has made me think: I’ve been watching childlike faith all summer; how can I approach Jesus myself with childlike faith? Another big thing I have learned is that God has a heart for all His people, and He works outside of what I can do for Him. So much happens outside of what I personally can accomplish, and God loves all His people way more than I could ever begin to love them. I can be a faithful steward of the work He has entrusted me to do, but God works and loves so much more than me, so I can trust that He has greater work planned for these campers after camp.
Working at camp this summer has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. Pouring so much love into so many campers has been so fulfilling, and God has worked in my own heart so much. The staff here is unmatched, and Christ is the center of their hearts and of the camp overall, which is a beautiful thing. All glory be to God! ♦
This was my second summer on camp staff, and I came into it with more confidence. However, at the start of one camp, I had a small group time that was really discouraging. My campers were answering questions in a way that pointed to skewed perceptions of the gospel, and I felt like it was my responsibility to correct it. Having just finished my first year of college and learning so much about God and myself, I had so much knowledge I wanted to impart. I knew, however, that it was not possible to fix all their problems in one week, so after the second day, I was very discouraged. On Wednesday night, our speaker, gave an invitation to accept Jesus. He had everyone put their heads down and raise their hand if they wanted to make a decision to follow Christ. As each person raised their hand, he acknowledged them with “I see that hand.” As this was going on, it was a beautiful moment where God told me that he was the one doing the work. I hadn’t even met all the campers and yet they were giving their lives to Jesus. It was a clear reminder that God is the one doing the good work IN SPITE of me. When the speaker said, “I see that hand” it was God speaking through him saying to me “I see these kids.” That’s one way God worked in my time at camp.
The next week I saw God work again in a big way. I had a wonderful group of girls in my room, but it always felt like our small group discussions were distracted and off topic. One night the discussion question was about if the girls had ever trusted God for salvation. We talked about it for a little bit, and then one of my campers said she wanted to do that very thing! It’s worth noting that this particular camper was very fidgety, and the least focused. I asked if we could talk about salvation at the end of discussion, and when the time came, I ran out of words. It was like the file in my brain to lead a kid to Christ was locked. But, before I knew it, she was praying on her own. She acknowledged she was a sinner, expressed her need for Jesus, and asked God to come into her life. I never gave her any of the words which made it so clear to me that God was working in her heart. Right in front of my eyes, God was stirring her heart to repentance and faith in Christ. It was such a beautiful moment. The best part was that she happened to be standing (because of her restlessness) and so her declaration was all the more sincere.
I have so many other stories of God working through me, and in spite of me, but those are the ones that I will never forget! This summer was a huge blessing in my life. I had such good conversations with campers and found myself truly enjoying their presence. After Junior Pro camp, I felt like I was saying goodbye to my dear friends, not campers. Time spent with these girls was spiritually strengthening for me when I thought I would be doing the strengthening! I just keep thinking that God is so kind to me, and that’s what I’m taking away from this summer. ♦
This past summer in 2024 was my first time serving as camp staff and I have been blown away by the work that God has done in my heart and in the lives of campers. There are two main stories that stand out to me at camp where God did a work in campers.
In my third week counseling at Junior Plus camp I absolutely loved my cabin. I shared my testimony during the first chapel, and included the story of when I was in 6th grade one of my friends suddenly passed away, and how I still don’t know if she is in heaven with God or not. After chapel my cabin had our first small group, and the discussion amazed me as the girls were listening and asked more questions. All were eagerly learning from me and my co-counselor as well as listening and learning from other girls in the cabin. The last part of the night as we were walking back from the campfire I noticed one of my girls looked extremely anxious. I asked her if she was okay, and she responded with saying yes but asked if we could talk the next day. I told her that I would love to, and as we walked a step further she asked me if we could talk “right now.” My camper and I sat down on the steps that go down to the Gym, and she told me how she had been thinking a lot about heaven, but didn’t know if she would go there or not. While she is from a loving Christian home, and knew about Jesus, she had never been ready to personally invite Him to save her. After I asked her questions and could tell that she was ready to do this, she prayed out loud, and at the end of the prayer asked, “And… Jesus, any other kids that don’t know you yet, please let them invite you to save them too.” That night she told Jon what she did, and was so excited she kept telling other counselors the next morning of the decision that she made. Her prayer was answered that night as I heard over and over again from other staff how campers chose to invite Jesus as their savior for the first time at camp that week.
Another story is from the week of Junior Pro, we were playing a night game called ‘Bible Smugglers.’ The goal of this game is for the campers to bring as many ‘Bibles,’ which are small pieces of paper with Bible verses on them, to the ‘church’ which is different counselors who are around camp. This game there are other counselors who are the ‘boarder patrol’ or ‘secret police,’ and their goal is to make it harder for the campers to bring Bibles to the church. I signed up to be a boarder patrol, when I caught campers I would ask them where they were going and make them beat me in a game of rock-paper-scissors or sing a simple song like the ABC’s or Happy Birthday before letting them go on to the church. There were two campers, young boys, maybe in 6th or 7th grade, and I asked them my normal question of where they were going, and instead of them saying they were going to ‘visit a friend’ or ‘see the country’ like the majority of the campers did, they told me they were missionaries. I asked them what a missionary was and asked them questions about who Jesus was, what sin is, and more about the Gospel message as they explained to me my need for salvation and how they wanted me to be in heaven with them someday. These young boys both shared the Gospel message with me so well, and ended up leading me in a prayer where I invited Christ into my life as my Savior. I pretended to repent of my sins and ask Him to forgive me. After this, both boys told me I had to start living like a Christian, so when campers would ‘come into my country,’ I let them in easily, and pointed them to the Church, and told them I was now on their side. While this was a fun game, I was amazed how these young boys knew the Gospel and were able to confidently share it with me and encourage me to live my life like Jesus wants me to live. ♦
To me, limiting camp to a couple of events seems incomplete. So much more happened at camp than I could ever recount. However, a couple of times stand out to me from this summer. The first one was the comfortability the kids had while at camp. One kid was comfortable enough to divulge some really hard things from back home. While this event may not have been an obvious experience with Jesus, I see it as the environment a Christian community offers that allowed this kid to be fully open about hardships and traumas that may have never seen the light of day before. Being able to heal from the past is incredibly important in walking with Jesus. If we can’t confront our past, understand it, and allow Jesus to work in it, then it’ll be hard to ever have a full life in Jesus.
Another story, one I find truly remarkable, resulted from Junior Camp in July. Starting even on Monday, I heard stories of a couple of kids giving their lives to Christ. As the week went on, the number of these stories grew. Wehn the week ended and we were at debrief, it felt as though twenty or more kids had given their lives to Christ. Almost all we could talk about was the large variety of stories of kids who had given their life to Christ. God was moving that week. He brought not just one, but numerous precious children to life with Him.
The last week of the summer yielded incredible results from two different camps. The first was from wrestling camp. My experience has been that most of those kids come to this camp for the wrestling part. Despite that, the impact the speaker/coach had on the kids throughout the week culminated into one moment. The speaker asked the kids to close their eyes and raise their hands if they accepted Jesus that week. Then he asked anyone else to raise their hand if they already had accepted Jesus in their life. I was later told a vast majority of the kids initially raised their hands and practically all the rest raised their hands after the second question. I find that so incredible. Despite the kids being focused on just wrestling and not on God, God still worked wonders through that.
The last time that stood out to me from camp was from Native American Camp. At first, I was nervous about being at that camp. I thought it might be rough, which was a bad mindset to come in with. I could not have been more wrong. I was blessed to counsel the older group of boys. The maturity and curiosity those boys had in spiritual matters was refreshing and inspiring. Throughout the week, a couple of them asked good questions and genuinely wanted to know more about God and the Gospel. Two of them wanted Bibles to keep and take home. Upon receiving those Bibles, the two boys could not put them down. The teen boys displayed an almost child-like curiosity in knowing more about God. I found myself learning from them because of this. After all, we are God’s children, and we should yearn to be curious and know more about Him like a child does. ♦
One of the best weeks of my summer was Native American Camp. God answered a ton of prayers, and I was able to rely on Him each day for what I should do. I got to spend most of my time with a 17-year-old girl. Sometimes it can take the older girls a while to open up with us, but she opened up right away. I had so much fun just being her friend and listening to her. We laughed a lot, talked about hobbies, and had deeper conversations about the situations she was in and how God could make a difference in them.
During small group times she was super open and asked really good questions. On Tuesday night during small group time, we had gotten through all of the questions we were supposed to talk about and then we just asked them if they had any questions at all about God. The 17-year-old girl I had been spending a lot of time with asked some difficult questions about if God puts her in hard situations on purpose and why she is in a hard place and others in easier places. We got to talk together about that and share the hope of eternity when Jesus will come and make all things new. It was so cool to be able to tell her that this is not the way God intended for the world to be. After this conversation we started talking about creation and how God intended the world to be. This conversation led straight into getting to clearly share the gospel with them. It was amazing to see how God used that small group time.
A cool detail about that story is that earlier in the day we were working on a watercolor project and it was pretty quiet because we were all focused. Because of that I just started talking to God while I worked on it. He reminded me of a really cool doodle I could draw that shares the gospel, so I thought about that for a while. That same simple drawing was what I ended up using to share the gospel with my girls in our small group time. That is just one example of how God answered prayers that week. We ended up sending 15 Bibles back with the Native American kids that week. I am praying that they will read it and come to the life changing decision of following Jesus. I know that God’s word will not return void, and I trust that it is working in the lives of my campers even now. Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” ♦
This summer was my first time being on camp staff, and that meant that I was going to counsel at every camp along with other responsibilities outside of camp. I felt some anxiety about this because I doubted that God could use me. I knew that wasn’t true, but I couldn’t help but feel like my abilities would not be good enough. Turns out, I was right! Having this mentality, I tried to be better on my own. During Junior Camp, I felt so drained and exhausted. On the last night of camp, I was walking to the campfire by myself, and I just broke down and cried. I realized that I was trying so hard to be there for the campers, and for counselors, but I forgot to rely on Jesus. He reminded me that I always need him. Nothing I do is of my own strength or ability. It helps me be humble and remember that I can’t do anything without Jesus’ help. This summer I have learned to ask Jesus for help all the time and in any moment.
Byron Bible Camp 