It seems like it was just May 24 and I was getting ready to board the plane to move to Kenya. Now it is August 4. Oh, how time flies! Camp has come and gone…five sessions of camp with 545 campers total who came to Camp BlueSky and heard the Gospel this summer. Praise God! Last night I said goodbye to camp staff, and I moved into my new house in Nairobi. It’s crazy! Today I am unpacking, and tomorrow we leave to go to Mombasa on the coast of the Indian Ocean.
As I think and reflect upon the summer, I know that this is just the beginning of something beautiful that God is doing in the city of Nairobi. The Holy Spirit worked in such powerful, tangible, and evident ways at camp this summer in the hearts of kids. I can’t wait to see what God continues to do this next year, and how he brings revival to this city and it’s people.
One of my favorite stories from the summer is about a boy named Sahil who came from a Hindu family and was in Bradyn Boone’s cabin. The whole week Sahil continued to tell Bradyn how much he loved to hear and listen to stories. Each day at morning devotionals a story from Bible was told to all of camp. And each morning Sahil asked tons and tons of questions about the Bible stories he was hearing for the first time. He was so curious! By the end of the week, God had completely captivated his heart. Sahil was making connections with the stories that most young children would not have made, and God had given him an understanding and revelation that the stories he heard (like the story of Adam and Eve, Moses, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Jonah, and Paul) were all connected to the story of Jesus Christ and the cross. He understood that these stories told the bigger story of God’s plan to rescue us and reconcile us to himself through Jesus. Each Bible story told one big story and pointed to a bigger picture of a God who has always had a plan to rescue and redeem his people through Jesus.
Sahil decided that he wanted to have a relationship with Jesus, and give his heart to him at camp! He told Bradyn that the Hindu gods he was learning about all had individual stories he loved to learn about, but none of the stories were connected in any way. He realized that the Hindu gods did not look like him, and understood that he was created in the image of God, and that Jesus loved him. Sahil left camp BlueSky as a new creation—with a newfound relationship with Jesus! He now has a Bible and is excited to tell others about the love of Jesus and the hope we have in him.
God was obviously working in the lives and hearts of these children. Evidence of the Holy Spirit’s radical transformation was obvious throughout the entire summer, and there are so many other stories of children like this who learned to trust God for the first time, and of kids who learned to trust Jesus again with their lives.
The Tooth Fairy came to camp this past week! Ella lost her tooth...& She wanted to make sure her tooth was super clean so the Tooth Fairy would come. 
I love this post! The story of Sahil made me tear up, I love how curious and intelligent a little boy. It makes me think of the verse were Jesus tells us we need to become like children to enter into heaven. What an incredible story.
ReplyDelete