Kids Kamp Story #2

Friendship in unexpected places......and with unexpected people.

I have always made casual friends somewhat easily. I enjoy people, getting to know their stories, am a little nosy about what makes us tick and am fairly outgoing...so I usually have no problem making casual friends.

That being said...I was not prepared to make friends with so many people at Kids Kamp. I knew I'd have fun, meet some great people, have a lot of laughs...but not meet true brothers and sisters. Now there are different kinds of friends...this is very true. Not every friend is that close, daily accountability person, not every friend is that first phone call when something good or tragic happens...but that doesn't mean they aren't friends just the same.

Scripture tells us, "Where two or more come together in my name..there am I with them." (Matt. 18:20, NIV)

At Kids Kamp...we were ALWAYS coming together in His name. We played together, laughed together, ate together, praised together, learned together, prayed together, taught together, danced together...all in the name of Jesus. And I felt His presence in a way that paralleled my experience at the She Speaks conference.

Now the majority of the people that I spent significant time with for an ENTIRE week...are no longer a part of my daily life. Nor were they before camp. And yet...I consider them friends just the same. I pray for them. I smile when I think about them. When I randomly run into them I hug them and catch up. I genuinely love and respect them.

It has given me pause because it has made me realize the power of prayer and praise in another way. I've always loved the fact when I pray...when I communicate with my Father...I feel close to Him in a way that nothing else compares with. One of the reasons I love praise/worshipping through song so much is that I experience His presence in an incomparable way and can feel the Spirit move in me.

But what I now also see is that when I pray and praise Him with others...the connection and closeness I feel with them is something that not much else compares to either. Leaders that I hardly knew before that week...I now can't imagine not having met. This includes an intern who is only 18, a counselor who is 23 and a village leader who is 52! We have hardly anything in common...but that we love our Lord! Yet there is a bonding I don't quite know how to explain when you join together in His name. It's family. His family because He is there with You. And He is love...a Divine love that we will never fully comprehend and yet He allows us to experience it.

To God be the Glory!