August 21, 2005 — Pat Dryburgh

So, I’m back again, home from another week at camp. It’s weird coming back when no one is home. I’m just here…by myself…no one around…oh well, not the first, nor the last time.

This week was interesting. We had a fantastic speaker who’s been up for the last several years, Jon Halliday. However, the first few sessions, we were having a tough time getting any response from these kids. I know that we’re not supposed to be looking or doing it for a response, however these were kids we’ve known for several years as they’ve grown up at camp, and all of a sudden they had no interest, even from the week before, about what was going on. It was a struggle to lead worship for myself, and a struggle to speak into their lives for PJ.

However, on Tuesday, I approached PJ and told him that I felt that these kids were not thirsty, that they had no desire for God, and therefore obviously weren’t interested in knowing Him more. I told him that we should look up verses in the Bible concerning thirst. The obvious ones (the woman at the well, the beatitude concerning thirst) didn’t really help. However, during a bit of free time, I thought back to the Old Testament, at a time when Israel was still travelling with Moses. They had already been provided water from the rock, as well as manna, and after all this still complained about being thirsty. Moses then asked the Lord for help, and God told him to go to a rock near a mountain and command it to bring forth water. Well, instead of just speaking to the rock, Moses tried to beat the water out of it. While it did provide water, it was not in the way God had intended Moses to pursue the water, and led to God denying Moses the privilege of leading Israel to the promised land.

I realized while reading that verse that all we were to do this week was to speak God’s love into their lives, not try to beat it into them. We couldn’t try to force a response, but rather had to allow God to do it his way.

Later on in the week, I found out that Sarah’s grandfather passed away. Sarah was really close to her grandpa, and it’s been a hard week first seeing him so sick and then finally losing him. If you wouldn’t mind praying for her, that would be awesome.

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