Hope is Found in Unexpected Places

Recently I watched a great movie on Net Flix.  The Movie was called Camp!  The movie was a Drama under the Faith and Spirituality genre section.  The trailer described the movie as such.  

"To impress a client, investment adviser Ken agrees to spend a week as a counselor at a camp for troubled kids. But he gets more than he bargained for when he forges a bond with 10-year-old Eli, whose life so far has been marked by abuse and neglect."

Without giving away the movie too much there is a couple of powerful points that I want to bring out that reminded me a lot of serving at Camp War Eagle.

• All of us have “thorns” and trials that can make times in our lives difficult.  (Matthew 13:7)
• God working through you can IMPACT a life here on earth and for eternity.  You can bring hope and light to almost any situation and life! 
• When we serve, sometimes it’s hard to tell who is impacted more.  The one being served or the one serving.  (Acts 20:35)
• True ministry isn’t supervising, or watching from a distance but rather intentionally caring and relationally meeting the unique needs of the kids.  (1 John 2: 6)

There is a trite saying we have all heard which goes like this: ―If you can't walk the walk, don't talk the talk.  At Camp War Eagle, we emphasize the walk.  As many of you know our campers come from diverse backgrounds.  Some come from beautiful Christian homes, some from non-Christian homes, and many in between.  The impression our campers take home is based on the relationship each counselor and staff member builds with them.  In John 21, Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”  Peter responds, “Yes three times.”  Each time the Lord responds, “Feed my lambs.”

At Camp War Eagle, your lambs were the 10-12 campers assigned to your cabin and the others with whom you came in contact with each day.  You hopefully showed daily your love for the Lord, you fed the lambs, not by talk, but by obedience to His commands, specifically, you "loved them as He loves us."

This is my ninth summer at Camp War Eagle.  I’ve seen God work in powerful ways through the staff.  I’ve seen campers, camper’s families, and staff’s lives impacted and changed.  My prayer is that we all continue to impact outside the gates of Camp War Eagle with the same passion as inside.   I encourage you to check out the movie.  It may remind you about your past at camp and inspire you going forward.

The closing application questions.

1. Who was the person (s) in your life that loved and impacted you?  Showed you the Hope found only in a relationship with Christ?
2. Who are your campers/lambs right now?  Neighbors?  Co-Workers?  Friends?  Family?  Youth at your Church?
3. How are you intentionally caring and relationally meeting their unique needs?

Camp

Director: Jacob Roebuck

Cast: Michael Mattera, Miles Elliot, Asante Jones, Matthew Jacob Wayne, Grace Johnston, Casey Leet

2013PG-131hr 49m

Christmas Dad, Dad Jokes, and Shepherd Dad

Christmas season is upon us!  With it comes holiday parties, tacky sweaters, white elephants, chestnut roasting, cancelled classes, final exams, shouts of “you’ll shoot your eye out,” long drives to see distant family, and Jello molds.  It’s a time that massive families draw together and dinner tables all but collapse under the weight of side dishes and casseroles. Even in the ministry world, December a full month, as the season marks a time to reflect on the year and celebrate the year’s end. It’s during this noisy, busy time of the year, with jingle bells ringing in my ears, that the still, small voice of our infant Messiah whispers to be heard.  I’m grateful that every so often something forces me to stop and listen.

This year will be my third Christmas season as a dad – which further solidifies that I’m no longer the Hamburger-Helper-eating-and-barely-bathing-weekly bachelor Noetzel I was in college and am instead thoroughly a dad.  The Christmas story is a story of a dad far superior to me loving a son far more perfect than mine revealing a plan I could never make to people who don’t understand what He’s up to.  Perhaps as a dad, I should engage the story of a loving Father and his begotten Son – but the characters often feel lofty, and God’s model of Fatherhood humbles my own experience of it.  I have trouble engaging it, because I’m not the hero.  Enter Slugs & Bugs!

Dewey, my little man, loves Slugs & Bugs, Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson’s music group out of Nashville.  They write silly, fun, thought-provoking children’s music.  They’ve also happened to write one of my favorite Christmas songs – one that I can relate to.

Shepherd Dad tells of a dad and son who are visited by the angel Gabriel on that hillside outside of Bethlehem.  He tells them to “go and see the king,” and the dad leaves the son in charge of the flock while he goes to the inn to inn-spect (dad joke…) what the angel has told him about.  The song always moves me at this part:

The shepherds found the stable there

in quiet Bethlehem.

But one look in the manger,

and one shepherd turned and ran.

The shepherd dad ran through the streets

back to the fields where tending sheep

he found his shepherd son

he found his shepherd son

and leaping like a mountain cat

he scooped his son up on his back

and said “Hold on tight!

Our savior is born tonight!”

It moves me because it’s a father flinging duty to the wind and running with abandon to draw his son into the majesty of God’s great revelation in Jesus Christ.  It moves me because it’s a father drawing his son into a grand adventure.  It moves me because it’s a dad showing his son how little self matters and how much Christ matters.  This is the kind of dad I aspire to be.

May you be swept off your feet and rushed to the savior’s side this holiday season.

-Matt Noetzell