rachaelbenson@c
07-15-2008, 09:09 PM
Hi everyone I'm back from camp. I've been recouping all weekend. Since the people at the Young Life know that I'm a writer they asked me to write something for their newsletter that was 1 to pages about what camp meant to me. Of course since I have so much to say as usual it ended up being two pages. The camp was in Sacramento. It doesn't need to be crtiqued I just thought you guys might like to read it for fun. Enjoy! What an experience! There were people there from all different states. That's why I put my name and the city and state I'm from at the bottom. Texas, Ohio, Illionis, etc. This is an International ministry. Ten of us were from Santa Clartia. Here it is Enjoy! P.S. I refer to the guy who did the messages as speaker Scott because the guy who played the music for us was also named Scott. Scott Cash was our musicians. They told that he has a band and I brought home one of his CDs. So when you see the words, "speaker Scott" in my writting It's because they were trying to help us identify the two so we wouldn't get confused.
The week at Woodleaf was very unique. I’ve been to other camps but this one was the best so far. It was the camp experience. I did activities I’ve never done before because I have CP and it’s hard to do them without the proper equipment and the right people. Things like the zip line, the swing, and the rope course. I was a real dare devil. I was totally trusting of everyone around me. I even got two Bammy awards from Coach Larry and Coach Terry. B.A.M. stood for Be Aggressive, Anticipate Success, and Move like you mean it! “One, two, three Bam!” One of them says, “Danger is my name", right on it! They must have heard me say it or somebody repeated it because when people would ask me, “Are you okay?” “Do you want to go all the way?” I would say something like, “I’m fine. Let’s go for it! Danger is my middle name “! I wanted to do as much as I could and experience camp to the fullest! It was like being on a roller coaster ride for me. It was great! I had so much fun that I did the zipline three times! I love going fast and that flying sensation like I’m Peter Pan! I love that sense of freedom when I’m out of my wheelchair!
Besides the fun activities, I also learned a lot from Speaker Scott. Club time with the skits and messages was my favorite part of the day. The skits and the costumes were hilarious and the messages were powerful! I’m already a Christian so he just helped to reinforce principles I already know. It really helped me to be around other people that were in the situation I was in. Every time Scott did the messages he left me with some powerful images that I can never forget. When I read my Bible I will have those images stuck in my head. He really made the gospel simple and the Bible come alive. Now, because of the guy on the stretcher Monday night coming down through the roof I will never look at the story about the man waiting to be healed at the pool in Matthew chapter five again. Or, the image of the kite flying to remind us to stay connected to God. One thing that really stuck in my head was when he told us that, “A person who is truly disabled is one who is not connected to God. When you’re connected to God you don’t have a disability, you have God’s abilities.” Whether or not you have a physical/mental challenge if you’re believer, you are called to serve God and be a “fisher of men.”, as we got to each individually experience what it was like for a fishermen to try to catch a fish The narrow gate was another image symbolizing Matthew 7:13 as I wondered how I would get my wheelchair through it on the hike. I just barely made it! I could go on and on about how I was touched by the visual images. We saw how a baby was formed as we learned that learned that nothing in life that happens to a person either good or bad is a mistake. God, our creator, has each one of our days carefully planned out. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139: 16). We learned that we are like a little glass of water and God is a big pitcher that wants to pour his love into us. When He pours his love into us we are like a flower that continues to grow. When we come to Christ he transforms our lives and changes us from a caterpillar in a cocoon to a butterfly. I have the sticker right on the hand control ion my wheelchair so that I can be reminded of that all the time. Also, when people ask me, “Where did you get the butterfly sticker?” I can tell them about my experience at Young Life Camp and be an even stronger witness for Him.
The best part for me about camp was just the fact that it was a break from all the responsibility and the daily routine. I’m 25 years old, and I have aides come in my house and take of me Monday through Friday from 9-3. I’m responsible for planning out the day. It was nice to be able to just come and know that I don’t have to do a thing except come and go along with whatever the camp staff had planned that day. That was fine by me! Many of the aides that take care of me aren’t Christians. Even if they are, they’re very weak. The word Christian is used very loosely. I only have one person whom I consider to be a genuine Christian. It’s a government run agency. Most of them preach the idea of tolerance. There’s more than one way to God. It was good to be reminded that Jesus is the only way to the Father and why and not have to worry about saying something I shouldn’t have said because now we got into a big argument. Or, they’ve upset me and now we are not getting anywhere because we are hitting a brick wall. If I think about the word disability the way speaker Scott described it, then most of the people I work with have disabilities, not me. Because I don’t want to turn them off away from he gospel, and I need the help, and we are really not supposed to talk about religion on company time because of the whole separation of church and state thing, but it ends up happening anyway as they get to know me, I have to try to be very brief with my answers. I end up biting my tongue a lot. It was nice to be able to speak freely and have people either agree with me or add to what I was saying when we talked about the lesson during cabin time. Jesus is the only way to heaven because God gave up his one and only son sent Him to Earth so that we could be made whole.
As speaker Scott said, “God is in the business of transforming lives. He takes broken people and makes them whole, he takes dead people and makes them alive.” Amen! I couldn’t have said it better! Whether you are someone coming to a Young Life Camp trying to find God or you’ve been a believer for many years, It’s a great camp for anybody! The people who run it really know what they’re doing! That is camp! Thank you so much for such a fun week and a refresher course to keep my life in check. I needed it! I can’t wait until next year to do it all over again! It was worth every penny! Thank you to all the people who helped take care of me throughout the week and God bless the work of the Young Life ministry! I pray that it keeps going strong for many years to come!
Rachael Benson
Santa Clarita California
The week at Woodleaf was very unique. I’ve been to other camps but this one was the best so far. It was the camp experience. I did activities I’ve never done before because I have CP and it’s hard to do them without the proper equipment and the right people. Things like the zip line, the swing, and the rope course. I was a real dare devil. I was totally trusting of everyone around me. I even got two Bammy awards from Coach Larry and Coach Terry. B.A.M. stood for Be Aggressive, Anticipate Success, and Move like you mean it! “One, two, three Bam!” One of them says, “Danger is my name", right on it! They must have heard me say it or somebody repeated it because when people would ask me, “Are you okay?” “Do you want to go all the way?” I would say something like, “I’m fine. Let’s go for it! Danger is my middle name “! I wanted to do as much as I could and experience camp to the fullest! It was like being on a roller coaster ride for me. It was great! I had so much fun that I did the zipline three times! I love going fast and that flying sensation like I’m Peter Pan! I love that sense of freedom when I’m out of my wheelchair!
Besides the fun activities, I also learned a lot from Speaker Scott. Club time with the skits and messages was my favorite part of the day. The skits and the costumes were hilarious and the messages were powerful! I’m already a Christian so he just helped to reinforce principles I already know. It really helped me to be around other people that were in the situation I was in. Every time Scott did the messages he left me with some powerful images that I can never forget. When I read my Bible I will have those images stuck in my head. He really made the gospel simple and the Bible come alive. Now, because of the guy on the stretcher Monday night coming down through the roof I will never look at the story about the man waiting to be healed at the pool in Matthew chapter five again. Or, the image of the kite flying to remind us to stay connected to God. One thing that really stuck in my head was when he told us that, “A person who is truly disabled is one who is not connected to God. When you’re connected to God you don’t have a disability, you have God’s abilities.” Whether or not you have a physical/mental challenge if you’re believer, you are called to serve God and be a “fisher of men.”, as we got to each individually experience what it was like for a fishermen to try to catch a fish The narrow gate was another image symbolizing Matthew 7:13 as I wondered how I would get my wheelchair through it on the hike. I just barely made it! I could go on and on about how I was touched by the visual images. We saw how a baby was formed as we learned that learned that nothing in life that happens to a person either good or bad is a mistake. God, our creator, has each one of our days carefully planned out. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139: 16). We learned that we are like a little glass of water and God is a big pitcher that wants to pour his love into us. When He pours his love into us we are like a flower that continues to grow. When we come to Christ he transforms our lives and changes us from a caterpillar in a cocoon to a butterfly. I have the sticker right on the hand control ion my wheelchair so that I can be reminded of that all the time. Also, when people ask me, “Where did you get the butterfly sticker?” I can tell them about my experience at Young Life Camp and be an even stronger witness for Him.
The best part for me about camp was just the fact that it was a break from all the responsibility and the daily routine. I’m 25 years old, and I have aides come in my house and take of me Monday through Friday from 9-3. I’m responsible for planning out the day. It was nice to be able to just come and know that I don’t have to do a thing except come and go along with whatever the camp staff had planned that day. That was fine by me! Many of the aides that take care of me aren’t Christians. Even if they are, they’re very weak. The word Christian is used very loosely. I only have one person whom I consider to be a genuine Christian. It’s a government run agency. Most of them preach the idea of tolerance. There’s more than one way to God. It was good to be reminded that Jesus is the only way to the Father and why and not have to worry about saying something I shouldn’t have said because now we got into a big argument. Or, they’ve upset me and now we are not getting anywhere because we are hitting a brick wall. If I think about the word disability the way speaker Scott described it, then most of the people I work with have disabilities, not me. Because I don’t want to turn them off away from he gospel, and I need the help, and we are really not supposed to talk about religion on company time because of the whole separation of church and state thing, but it ends up happening anyway as they get to know me, I have to try to be very brief with my answers. I end up biting my tongue a lot. It was nice to be able to speak freely and have people either agree with me or add to what I was saying when we talked about the lesson during cabin time. Jesus is the only way to heaven because God gave up his one and only son sent Him to Earth so that we could be made whole.
As speaker Scott said, “God is in the business of transforming lives. He takes broken people and makes them whole, he takes dead people and makes them alive.” Amen! I couldn’t have said it better! Whether you are someone coming to a Young Life Camp trying to find God or you’ve been a believer for many years, It’s a great camp for anybody! The people who run it really know what they’re doing! That is camp! Thank you so much for such a fun week and a refresher course to keep my life in check. I needed it! I can’t wait until next year to do it all over again! It was worth every penny! Thank you to all the people who helped take care of me throughout the week and God bless the work of the Young Life ministry! I pray that it keeps going strong for many years to come!
Rachael Benson
Santa Clarita California