Peace

The summer continues to fly by and I still feel like I just arrived. I guess time flies when you are having fun. First session is about to come to an end and it is tough to think about a new group arriving to work with you for another session of the summer. Even after being here for 3 summers you would think that I would know how to handle the transition of new workers but it is sooooo tough. As a property we put as much time and energy in building these amazing friendship/relationships and then we watch them leave as a brand new group arrives. Not only is it a new group but it is a group that we as a property need to build the same kind of relationships with them.

Right now we have a unique transition camp in here for 5 days. It is the Mars Hill Church based in Ballard, WA. They rented out Malibu for the 5 days we had available to put on a outreach camp for kids in the Puget Sound area. It has been interesting. Different feel then a Young Life camp but a lot of the same events throughout the week. It has ended up being a light week of work for me which is great to prepare myself a little for the new session coming in.

About 4 times a week the guest services team has a devotional that is put on by the interns. This has been a great opportunity for me to share with the work staff what is on my heart. I want to share with you what I shared the first day I presented a devotional.


⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9

I knew going in to this devotional that my main focus was going to be on the verses 6-7 but I allowed the devotional to go wherever it went. The first things I asked the work staff was what caused them anxiety or worry. I made everyone share something of some sort so that everyone would get an opportunity even those who usually don't share. I thought it would warm up the space so that people would feel more comfortable sharing what they thought.


I then had them read out this passage of scripture so that they could hear what Jesus had to say about worry. From this we went to talk about ways to pray and how as human beings, especially Americans we are taught to ask for things and be selfish. We are constantly asking, dreaming about what God can give us rather then what we could do for Him. This isn't how the Lord intended prayer to be. He intended it to be a relationship. The word peace is used in verse 7 and I think it is very significant for when it comes to prayer. I think the Lord wants to give His peace. 


I encouraged the work staff to focus on releasing the things that cause them to worry. I referred back to verse 5 which reads that "The Lord is near." I believe that the Lord is always near but I think for some Malibu is a place where they really feel the Lord being near. I told them I believe that there is a reason for all of us to be here at Malibu and I think it is an opportunity to release these worries and FINALLY receive the Peace of God. 


While I have been here I have really tried to focus on the Holy Spirit's Peace. I want this peace to be so evident in my soul that is resonates onto others around me. May the peace of God be with you.

Summer has started

Wow! The summer is flying by. The whirlwind of a schedule leading up to the start of summer camp has lead me to be extremely busy moving from one project to the next getting camp prepped for a fresh beginning. The last big weekend camp before the summer started was discipleship camp which was over Memorial weekend. We had probably the biggest camp we will have the entire summer 350 kids! With a total of 550 people on the property. It was insane. The first club had so much energy and even without the kids jumping the club room still felt like it was shaking.

The speaker that weekend allowed God to do some incredible things through her. She really challenged those high schoolers to take their relationships with Christ further. It was awesome to watch. Some of the quotes from that weekend were:

• He died thinking of us, in hopes that we would live thinking about Him
• Royalty is made by blood... we are made royalty because of the blood of Jesus.
• Jesus doesn't deny us anything, but we deny Him all the time.

Since the discipleship weekend, full fledged camp has started!! Our summer staff and work crew came into camp and all of sudden our camp of 16 property staff/interns turned into a solid 100 people constantly in camp. 

With the new sound tech job I was still in the dark when it came to how much work and prep it was going to take to cater to the program team, speaker, musician and just about anyone who needs sound. This first week is almost over and I am seeing how the first week, especially the first 4 days of every session will consist of a lot of work and prep in order to make the rest of the session run smoothly. So far this session I have really established a great relationship with the program team and so far most things have gone pretty well. 

The first club was kind of a nightmare. Leading up to club there were about 3 straight little events that involved sound of some capacity which lead to the sound techs not being fully ready for our first club. The program team decided that they were ready and so we started club early. Once we started we realized we didn't have the kid's names for the games in the presenter program. Also during the beginning of club our video tech came in with the video that I needed to somehow present during club that day. This all combined to make confusion with the order of club. We ended up giving the names to the program guys just to read which worked but wasn't ideal. Then to top everything off... A mic didn't work for one of the program guys which was especially needed since the program character was wearing a box on his head. Overall it was super stressful but we learned a lot as a sound tech duo and since then club and everything has been pretty flawless. 

As a guest services team we are going through the book "Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller which is about the Lost Son story in the Gospel of Luke. It takes an in-depth look into the parable showing how the real title of the parable could possibly called the parable of the Two Lost Sons. We just started it but it is definitely something I will be looking forward to. In our first meeting/discussion about the book we talked about which son we identify with more. To me it felt like I have been the second son more often then the first. 

One instance which God was definitely working in was when I was walking to the meeting for the book discussion. As I was walking there I saw a leader praying with his fellow cabin leader. Now this was God showing me how I act like the older son. Throughout this week I saw this leader and judged on if he was truly a good influence on his guys. When I saw him and coleader praying before they went into their cabin time I saw that they in it for real. They were praying for the Holy Spirit to be with them so they could answer the questions and love on their guys the best they could. It was  humbling moment for me. Very powerful.