Speaking at Missions Camp!
I was recently invited to speak at several chapel services of one of our partner church's family missions camp. What an amazing opportunity, not only to connect with amazing prayer and financial partners, but also to get to share my heart for the Lord and the Great Commission with the next generation of believers, missionaries, and missions partners! There were so many exceptional kids and teens at this family camp - and I couldn't believe how engaged and attentive the young people were during the chapel sessions! It really was remarkable how much they focused and got into my and the other missionaries' talks about missions!
The gist of my talks was sharing how much I loved fishing when I was a child and teenage boy growing up in northern Wisconsin. There's something exciting about being out in God's peaceful creation, and then feeling the thrill of a largemouth bass explosively striking a surface lure, or a brook trout rocketing seemingly out of nowehere to attack a spinner flying by in the rapids! I still like fishing to this day. However, when Jesus' captured my heart and revealed to me that, if I will follow Him, He will make me into a 'fisher of people' (Matt. 4:19), that calling usurped regular fishing in my heart. The thrill of a trout slurping up a dry fly can't compare to the thrill of seeing an unreached person responding to the Gospel of Jesus! I believe that, if you and I follow Jesus faithfully, He will transform us into fishers of men and women over time. And it's not just about the 'fish' near to us; rather, our calling to fish for souls extends to the ends of the earth, to "every tribe and language and people and nation" (Rev. 5:9).
For security reasons, I can't share who I shared the stage with at this camp, but you can ask me about it personally sometime...