I didn't grow up in the church and, although I had faith, it wasn't particularly strong. When I started going to youth group when I was 14, the hilarious games and warm people drew me in. I started going to church, partly to learn more about what Christianity was, but mostly because I had made friends at youth group. After a while I started to listen more, and to question my faith. Eventually, I believed in Christ and wanted a personal relationship with Jesus. There was no 'aha' moment or any time when someone tried to force me into Christianity. God used fun, games and caring people to prepare my heart and then planted a seed.

This is why camp is such an important ministry to me. It provides the combination of games, fun and people that first introduced me to real faith. I have had the opportunity to work as a camp counsellor with Hope Alvinston Ministries for the past few summers and it has impacted me, and especially my relationship with God more than I can ever hope to describe in these few words. Working with Hope Alvinston Ministries allowed me to live out my faith while learning how to plan camps, teach chapels, lead sing-songs, prepare skits and work as a member of a team.

There is a saying by Confucius, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." It is difficult to grasp the challenges and realities of patience and love until you are leading camps with the same five people all summer, or are surrounded by 100 campers. It is hard to fathom the meaning of God-given peace until you feel a sudden calm strength while leading a pack of rowdy day campers, after not having slept the night before due to a special overnight for the older campers. Mercy is a distant concept until you lose your temper in the heat of the summer sun, and need to ask forgiveness. And, when you watch the campers you thought might never work together perform in a worship service that brings tears to the eyes of their parents, or when you see your campers becoming leaders that exude the patience and love that you and your team-mates tried to model to them over the summers, you begin to know joy in the Lord and begin to comprehend that we are all instruments of the Creator.

I have certainly not come to understand every single one of the wonders and promises of God by working at camps. I have also made many mistakes through the years but they have been forgiven and my faith has been blessed and strengthened by a God who knows the power of doing. He jumped into loving action here on earth as Jesus. The opportunity to do something real and faith-based in the community is one I wish everyone could have. "But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (Matthew 13:23)