Summer Plans!

I'm the new lifeguard at Malagash this year. So excited. Such a God thing.

Summer!

Here are Joshes answers to my camp application questions:
1. How would you handle a homesick child?
"I'd tell them to man-up."

2. How would you handle a homesick child?
"I'd make them feel like nothing. Like dirt."

It was really good to be forced to write out my testimony.

Here it is:
I was introduced to God and the Bible early in life. My mom accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour when I was five years old. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour at a summer camp called Circle Square Ranch when I was 8 years old. It seemed like a very simple and logical decision for me to make at the time. I understood that God loved me, he sent his son Jesus to die to take away the punishment that I deserve for my sins, which were keeping me from knowing God and going to heaven. I decided to commit my life to God and accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour that summer.

As I grew up, God began to show me what a relationship with him was really like. At first, my relationship with him seemed like a strict one and my relationship with God meant that I got to go to heaven and I needed to be really careful to obey the Bible. As I got to know God more by reading my Bible, praying, and learning about him, I realized that there was more to a relationship with God than going to heaven and being good. I learned what it meant to say that Jesus came to live in my heart when I accepted him. The Holy Spirit inside me was what helped me to live the Christian life. I couldn’t do it on my own, like I couldn’t save myself from my own sins.

God has taught me many things about himself. There are two really important things that I learned which I’d like to share with you. One special moment in my life happened when I realized how much God loves me. I had always heard that God loves me. I heard it many, many times. One day, it finally went from knowledge in my head to knowledge in my heart. I finally understood that God’s love for me is different than any love I could experience, from parents, friends, or a boyfriend/husband. God’s love was the deepest and strongest than any love I could ever experience. God’s love never changes no matter what I do and he knows everything about me (even more than I know about myself) and still loves me with a perfect, everlasting love. I realized that I could only find security in God’s love because humans, no matter how much they love me, will eventually let me down. God never will. I learned that only God’s love for me, not the love I get from other people, can truly be my security- what gives me value in life. This is a God-sized need, the need for value and security, which everyone has. God’s love for me gives me value and security. A verse from the Bible that helps me explain this is, and really shows what I desire for you is: “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19” This verse says that God’s love surpasses knowledge. So we can’t fully understand it completely, but we can begin to. I’ve learned that I can share anything and everything with God. I can tell him exactly how I’m feeling and he cares about everything, big or small.

God has brought me to the point where I have decided to make him the centre of my life and it is my goal to obey and serve him any time, any where, to do any thing, at any cost. This has redefined what it means to have Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I realized that God sees the big picture and he knows what is best for me much better than I could. Seeking God’s guidance and will for my life has brought me to the schools, workplaces, and wonderful opportunities that I likely wouldn’t have experienced on my own. Allowing God’s Holy Spirit to work through me have allowed me to serve God and given me the boldness to share my faith when I never could have done that on my own either. God wants us to have an amazing, fun, and exciting life- Jesus came that we “may have life, and have it to the full! (John 10:10).” His guidance brings me peace and gives meaning to my life. A lot of people think that the Christian life is boring. It’s the opposite!

In the fall, our family had an unexpected decrease in finances for a few months due to sudden money problems. I was extremely worried, stressed, and questioned God’s care for me and my family. God provided for my family in amazing ways through help from friends and our church. The situation was eventually sorted out. Worry is something I struggled with and sometimes still struggle with. God has been teaching me what it means to trust him with all the details of my life. He has been teaching me to cling to truths like, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19)” and “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).” These words came alive to me this year. God has totally changed how I view his provision. In the last few years, especially in this year, I’ve learned to cling to him and depend on him instead of push him away during difficult times. He tells me that he “knows the plans he has for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a hope and a future (Jer. 29:11).” I believe that and I have a peace about the future that I didn’t have before. I am amazed with his provision in my life through: experiencing his love, finances, a new home, amazing friendships, and awesome opportunities to serve him, like at camp :).