God Meeting Me Where I Was At
This year’s Sonshine Day Camp has been an amazing experience so far, with how I have had the opportunity to learn and grow once more through service. Returning for my fifth summer, it is a true blessing that TCM has given me the chance to experience serving in a different context.
After four summers with the Jesse Ketchum site, I was placed at a different one this summer–Don Valley Village. While I was anticipating a change of setting since the school year, even trying to help that anticipation by volunteering with Don Valley Village this past school year, I could not help but worry about how the new setting would affect my summer experience.
The new setting would take me away from the site I grew accustomed to, the one my home church hosts, the one I have served for four summers up until this point. It felt like everything I was familiar with would be different, which worried me even more. As I would also be acting as Co-Director, I worried that my own adjustment period would affect my own ability to help the rest of the team in their initial adjustment period to camp. I feared missing what I knew would affect my ability to meet others where they were when serving them.
But as camp started and continued, everything ended up fine. The team settled in fine, the kids engaged in both Bible lesson activities and games, and no major issues arose. It hit me while doing morning worship one day, seeing all the kids participate, hearing their voices praise God for His goodness; it made me realize how, in all my apprehension and worry, God was still faithful.
It was surprising to see how, in those brief moments of worry, I made my approach to ministry focused on myself. I forgot what motivates me to serve and realized that in wanting to ensure I can meet the needs of those I am caring for, I made it about myself.
This season of serving has been a blessing in reminding me what true servitude ought to be like. While caring about the quality of our own work can help keep ourselves accountable, it is an easy way to forget what serving is all about. God’s faithfulness provided me with the team, setting, and opportunity to meet me where I was, showing me once again how to serve with Him at the center of it all
“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time”