CLINT PERCEFULL - CHILDREN'S MINISTER
As you probably know, our church took a group of kids to Crosstimbers camp last week. This was our first year back at this particular camp due to Covid restrictions and it was a great week. Our kids participate in activities such as archery, ropes course, swimming, canoeing, and sock wars! The kids had a great time, and after each activity, the gospel was presented in a way that connected to that activity. Pretty cool.
As you also probably know, God works in all things. Oftentimes, we never get to see what He was doing, but this year we got a glimpse of how He works. This camp is structured in a way that we have to reserve a certain number of beds way back in January. It is our best guess as to how many we will be taking each year, and once those beds are filled it becomes very difficult to add new beds. Okay, backstory done.
This year our girls beds were filling up very quickly, and a parent approached me and asked if someone they knew could come. I checked the list and noticed we had one bed left on the girls’ side, which this family quickly took! We officially had filled all the girl beds. However, a few days later I was going over the list and noticed an error. That last bed was actually already spoken for. I checked it and counted it over and over again and sure enough, we had one too many girls. I made the dreaded phone call to the parent explaining my mistake and my heartfelt apology. The parent was disappointed but understood.
That made for a pretty crummy week. I felt terrible about having to call this family and break the bad news to them. A few days went by and I received a text from a different family that was already signed up for camp. Something had come up and they were no longer able to attend. This was also really crummy. However, there was a silver lining. This child happened to be a girl, which opened up one bed. I reached back out to the family I had called earlier and they were still interested in attending! They signed up again and this girl was able to attend camp.
I know the child that did not get to attend was disappointed and neither of us understood why this was happening. However, God did. You see, the little girl who got to come to camp, the one who would not have been able to attend had the other girl not had something come up, accepted Christ as her personal Lord and Savior at camp. Wow, I am in tears as I type this. The girl who stayed home had already made that decision a few years back!
What a great God we serve. We may not always see or understand what He is doing, but we can know that whatever it is, it is good!
“Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” Habakkuk 1:5