My Camp Experience from Christ

            Good day to you all my brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Year. As you all know, from this title that this part of my “testimony” is about my experience at camp. I hope you receive as many great blessings from God reading my “testimony” as I have by writing it. First of all, I would like to thank God and all those out there, especially pastor Dang, for giving me the opportunity to write in the Hosanna.

The first time I saw the camp brochure, I did not want to go. Familiar friends could not attend the event with me and it was too expensive. However, I was at a crossroads in my life. Either take this leap of faith and hope that the Lord will do wonders at camp or stay home and gradually let God fade away in my life. You see, the temptations of home became so strong that I could no longer resist. I failed terribly. So coming to camp, I was more or less very depressed, very sad, and very weak as a Christian. I decided to leave this “worldly” place where all things are so familiar and so “warm” to me to find another place where I could find God. Instead, God found me. So without the comfort of any friends, I decided to go alone. I prayed that God would give me three things from this camp; The first was to find peace within myself. The second was to find forgiveness from Him and the third was knowledge

Before I share what God has given me, I would like to share what God taught me through the teachings of Pastor Samuel Yun. There were three days of camp - Friday through Sunday. Each day, he taught us three different topics that were based on the theme: Grounded. The first day Samuel asked us “Which type of grounded are we and which type should we be as Christians.” Pastor Yun began in Ephesians chapter 4. He spoke about how a Christian life should not be grounded as a child, being grounded by his or her mom but rather grounded in Christ. Mom and dad are mere humans, Jesus Christ is God! The fundamentals of our faith, our foundation should be in the Lord and not in people. In turn, we ought to make a “You-Turn” and change our life from an unholy ground to a holy ground. Unholy ground was described as being “self help” where we all say, “I can do this” or “I don’t need this”. On unholy ground, we depend on our own strength, talents and abilities. That is ok for a while, but in time, all that we depend on within ourselves will eventually run out and leave us empty. Holy ground however would be described as being one with Christ.

If we can learn to fully trust in the Lord, His promises and Hope, our lives will always be complete. An example from the bible would be Moses. God chose Moses but he could not see. Moses made excuses because he relied on his strength or lack thereof. In the end, Moses worked for God willingly. We should all walk to the will and purpose of God and finish faithfully with an obedient life.At the end of this lesson, our main application was to understand that our life is “finite (numbered)” but with an Infinite God and a Finite us will lead to Eternity. (Ephesians 4, Exodus 3, Psalm 39:1-7, 12, Matthew 16: 24-25, Ephesians 1:8-11, Hebrews 13:7)

The second day’s lesson was titled “Living on Level Ground”. Level ground is solid and where a Christian must build their lives. We aim to build on solid rock, not sinking sand. Think of an earthquake. Life tends to be shaken up when we least expect it. We can never truly predict an earthquake’s coming. We cannot avoid life’s shaking events, but we can be prepared. God’s master design for us is that we be built on solid/level ground. Pastor Yun then asked us, “at this moment, what is the ultimate foundation of our life?” To understand this we must recognize that a hard life does not discriminate. Everyone will go through heartache and sorrow. The storm in their life will no doubt come. It is just a matter of when. For example, when rain falls, it will fall. When floods come, it will come, and when the winds blow, it will blow - on the wise as well as the foolish, on the rich as well as the poor and on the young as well as the old. A hard, difficult life does not discriminate. The solution is what he called “the formula for full proof foundation.” Jesus tells us that in order to prepare wisely, we need to: Hear the Word of God and act on it. Pastor Yun then tells us what our weaknesses are. There are two type of people or two type of weaknesses. The first is “I have a hearing problem.” This means that many of us cannot hear God when he speaks. The second is “I hear just fine, but I just don’t do it.” Many of us can hear God, but do nothing in return. Therefore, our application is to stop being foolish and start committing and putting ourselves in a better hearing position. We should commit to actively apply God’s word without hesitation. So, on holy ground (the calling to which we are called for by the Lord) we must lead a life worthy of His calling and in turn respond to it. The bible verses for that day are: Ephesians 4, Matthew 7:24-29, I Corinthian 10:12, I Peter 1:13, Romans 3:23.

The next lesson’s topic was titled “On Higher Ground”. This lesson was about the different callings we have from God. There are two levels of calling. One is a calling from home and the other is away from home. Many of us are confused and ask “why are there are so many callings and how do I know what God’s calling is for me.” Pastor Yun tells us that there should not be so many ‘layers’ of callings.” But rather, we should all think of these callings as one. We should all summarize it into one calling which is the calling of “discipleship.” - a higher ground calling. The definition of discipleship is “being like and following Jesus” for we are all created in the image of God and therefore should want to be like him. (Genesis 1:26-27). If we are walking on higher ground people should see the glory of God in us. In the world’s view: we live in a world that says “who you are is how you look, what you have, how you talk, etcà” but in God’s view: God want us to live in His world that says who you are is who you know. From the beginning of time, God has wanted us to be like Jesus. God wanted us to know Him for all His glory. Reaching higher ground means living differently; living a life as a Christian experiencing the one-on-one relationship we have with the Father who created not only the heavens and the earth, but who created you and I! (Ephesians 4:7-18, 22-24). An example that was used is clean underwear vs. dirty underwear (he used this to keep us awake. It is really funny!) Living spiritually, we cannot have filthy clothes but clean clothes. We have to look different so that people can ask us how we are different from them. Then, we can say “it’s the cause of discipleship! We know our creator!” To reach higher ground, we must also speak boldly. We have to speak the name of Jesus, the power of his name - boldness. Sometimes, as Christian we tend to say “our action will show us that we are Christians.” It is ok to say this, but we should not forget that we shouldn’t let our action be an excuse to not talk about Him. To reach higher ground we must also be Christly or Christ like. To be Christly, to be imitators of Jesus, we must spend time with Him. The bible is viewed as a “love letter that God has written to us”. So for us to know what he wrote, we must read it. If we are not Christly, we do not know Christ at all. The most important part of this lesson is to understand that discipleship does not come in a day; it takes patience. There is no short-cuts for this and it cannot be rushed. We must all take the time because just like quality is better than quantity, God is more concerned about how strong we grow than about how fast we grow. Living a Christly life is like dancing on a dance floor. We dance in the music with God while He takes the lead in our life. We should all say “God if you take the lead, where are you taking me or what do you want me to do?” We should listen to the rhythm of his heart and we all HAVE to move. The Bible verses for this lesson is: Ephesisan 4:10-5:2, Ephesian 4:1, Genesis 1: 26-27.

Lastly, the most important part of camp and the lesson of being grounded in Christ is going back to Ground Zero. Ground zero is the “rebuilding” ground where we are called back to “rebuild.” There is still hope in the world when we open our heart and give him our frustration. As Jesus appeared to the disciples (after His death) He will also appear to us to tell us we are not alone in this road. One of the reasons for the last supper was for us to see and understand that Jesus will always be with us. He gave us the symbol of his presence - communion (to do in remembrance of Him). We must all see Him in the spiritual eyes and not the physical eye. To apply this lesson to our life, Pastor Yun divided us into different groups (by church). We then talked about the different strategies of how we could go back to ground zero back home, back to the world, our life, and comfort zones - and share our faith to our friends. I have decided to share this with you as of my life “going back to ground zero.”

Going to this camp was definitely different. I came in there and was very surprised that I did not belong. But I am glad I came because God answered my prayers. It is an encouragement for all of us to go to different places, or camps, to see and experience different types of Christians. It should be important that we know more than one type of Christian and more than one church because we will see (like I did) that we have not grown enough in Christ. To grow in Christ is to have devotions each day. It is the ABC method to a Christian growth as Muc Su Thi said. So back to the reason I came to camp. As God gave a calling for me to go to camp, I came with a reason, in search for God and thank Him for showing me what I was looking for. I liked camp for one reason. It was a place of solitude, a place where I can be separated from others. It is easy for us to find peace there because it is true that there is noting that we see at our normal life like cars, television, phones, internets, or anything like that. For me, it was easier because I was alone. It was easier for me to make friends because I did not have a church to “cling” onto. It was also easier for me to share my personal life as well. In my small group, I learned many things. One is how open they are to me and to the people they never knew before. Everyone shared about their daily life, their confusion about God, their bad times and struggles. We spent a lot of time telling each other how sometimes we just want to let go of God and say “whatever” or sometimes the only thing we could say is “why this and why that.” We never reached a conclusion to these questions but it somehow made us feel that we are not the only ones going through these things. To know that other Christians were experiencing the same things was encouraging. Some talked about a death in the family, a car accident that saved their life, their gangster influence or a run-away with a boyfriend. All of these stories showed me that my life is somehow, compared to them, not as bad as I though it once was. Like a friend of mine says: as she pass through all these difficulties, her life problems before seems so small and meaningless. When she felt sad about a break up with her boyfriend or a friend, she felt like her life could end. But later in life, God again touched her with the death of her best friend. She then saw how childish she was about thinking how she could never be able to pass through the break up with her boyfriend. And so seeing how she is now, I became encouraged. I was even more comforted by the testimonies and the solos many of us did on the last night of camp. Individuals sang songs and played the guitar. I was touched because I could see their Christian heart so pure and so filled with the Holy Spirit. Leaving camp, I was very happy. I saw that God has again filled me with peace - what I wanted to feel again in my heart. I felt the peace in my heart that says my life is forgiven and my past will not hurt the future that God has planned for me. I came home with this knowledge and was thankful. I don’t regret coming to camp a bit. Returning home, filled with these things, I have also prayed one last prayer to never forget this one holy moment I experienced at camp. I am hoping that my daily devotions with God will continue so that I will be stronger and more grounded in Christ so that I can also hear the calling of “discipleship” in my heart.

Please go to http://wc.vpns.org/ for more information on the camp. I also brought home great tools to sharpen your Christian life with topics such as: How to study the bible inductively, How to have a daily devotion and of course Dating for the guys and gals in church. If anyone would like it please ask me. Also, if this paper did not make any sense, I am willing to help make you understand more by personal contact so please don’t be afraid to ask. Thank God for you all who have made a special moment in my life. May God fill you with his blessing throughout this year so that you will grow in Him and be grounded in Him and not be shaken!

Thao Nguyen