7.2 years
God changes everything.
8 years ago, I had just finished my first summer at a camp in north Houston working with a couple of hundred foster kids. God changed my life that summer. He grabbed me, spoke love and Truth into my life, and set me on His solid ground.
College was college, and I was determined to get everything I could out of it, and I did just that. Luckily, I found God out of that everything.
I remember stepping into that sophomore year of college, not exactly sure what it meant to have God beckoning me, but I was soon to find out. He hooked me up with an incredible college ministry, Chi Alpha, and had some awesome men of God pouring into my life, and pulling me along towards God, as they sought after Him themselves.
Saved, Baptized, and set on fire by the Holy Spirit, I was determined to change the world for His glory, and where did God take me? Camp Eagle, in Rocksprings, TX.
7.2 years ago, God lead me to Camp Eagle.
Mike was dropping me off, and was unsure if he was comfortable leaving me 1.5 hours from civilization, and 8 miles down a LONG dirt road. "Josh are you sure about this," he said. I wasn't sure, but some how I convinced him I would be.
I was a counselor at an outdoor adventure camp, desiring to inspire Christ-Like change through outdoor adventure, authentic relationships, and biblical truth. I was met by some of the most incredible people I know today, one being my wife, and others I had the honor of spending life with the next 3 months, 12 months, 7 years....
At no point in my life, did I ever think I would work at a camp, at no point did I think I would intern for a non-profit and learn more about myself than ever anticipated.
God has glorified Himself with my life.
After that summer, I interned at Camp Eagle. I spent life very close with 5 others. S'mash, Kellye, Sarah, Cobi, and Micah. In these 9 months of interning, I learned what work was. While it seemed like a fun new idea, of just being poured into, and working alongside these crazies, it was so much more. Well so much more work, but also so much MORE!
God opened my heart. He opened it to Love. He instilled in me a deep desire to know Him so much more. He asked me to Love in a way I didn't know how to, and trust in a way I never wanted to, and to forgive.... Oh, sweetly forgive. Forgive others, and more importantly myself.
God used incredible people to opened my eyes and my heart to the things of the past that had destroyed me. How my eyes opened to my need for Him like a Hurricane, walls torn down, thunder crashed, wind and rain just ripped me open raw. Which is what was exactly needed for Him to gently and sweetly mold me back up into what He had for me. The road trip that changed my life forever, thanks to friends that I will never forget pushing and pursuing me to be open and vulnerable. Allowing the Holy Spirit to sweep in and mend the pieces of a broken and corrupt heart.
Thus leading me to trust a woman with my heart. Bandaged and bruised.
Taking on a full-time role after that internship. Starting to work alongside someone who has deemed himself to be trustworthy and constant through the years. Watching him faithfully serve a God in a way that I had never witnessed. Being able to befriend this person who was my boss. Letting a man lead me and guide me as I learned so much from him. God teaching me to trust this person, to let him into my life and to let him teach me what it means to serve faithfully. 6 years under him I spent, never once has He broken my trust, or treated me without respect or love. I have been blessed by this man in so many ways. I have now the opportunity to see God bless Him in his faithfulness. He has a beautiful wife, child, and family. He is leading strongly an organization that he loves so much, and has poured so much into.
I saw this land I worked at, redeemed as my soul was. It was used to glorify God as my life was. It was restored to newness as my heart was.
I met the woman God specifically picked out for me, she won over my heart, and was placed as a blessing I never thought I would receive. She was trustworthy, she was honest, she was true, she was grace, she was mercy, she was beauty, she was love, she was hope, she was patience, she was kindness, she was gentleness, she was faithful.
She was used by God, for God, in God to show me His face, and to make me fall in love with Him all over again. She was and is the epitome of His blessings. I have now seen those blessings come wave after wave due to her incredible love of God. Her persistence to choose God over me. She serves hard, and loves hard. She is my wife. For now, for tomorrow, for eternity.
~Married~
What do I have to pour out? What do I have to offer?
Nothing, that wasn't given from the Lord. I have had the incredible incredible incredible opportunity to pour into so many people's lives. Starting with my first straight laced boy from Lubbock, where God showed me what it was to make disciples for Christ. What it was to speak Truth into someone's life, despite their emotions or circumstances. To allow God to fully have them, and to bring them to Him completely. The number of guys I have had the incredible privilege to walk alongside, and see God CHANGE!
The mission statement that is so real and so evident here. The complete change the God requires of us. The complete regard for Himself and His kingdom.
Christ-Like Change.
So many lives.
How do I even count them? How do I even start to compare the onslaught of friendships that I have made. I have been so blessed. So blessed. So incredibly blessed. I deserve none of this, but He gave and gave and gave anyway. Thank you God.
From Intern to Full-Time...
Then?
I was given the incredible opportunity to fill some very large shoes. Director. Who was I? 25 years old, trying to run and manage a department.
I was blessed with a very supportive wife, and a God who took great care of me.
He then gave me 2 very awesome ladies to work underneath me. Ones that without their grace and patience, I don't know where we would have been. We figured so much life out. I had the incredible opportunity to watch them fall in love and marry their husbands. I had the even greater honor of calling them friends.
I had incredible couples at camp love my wife and I, and call us out, and bring such great joy and friendships. So many cool people pour into us, and care about us through the years. The numerous guests that became great friends, the plethora of relationships built with walkabouts and summer staff, and retreat guides.
We got to live such rich lives with so many people. Knowing so much of their ugliness, which gave us even greater perspectives on God's beauty over them. Showing them so much of OUR ugliness, which gave them even greater perspectives on God's beauty.
We've been blessed.
Hugely blessed.
But now we go.
We move.
We now leave this land, we leave this ministry, we leave this place in our lives that has grown us and molded us over the last 7.2 years. We go to...
Glorieta. We go to our sister camp, which also inspires Christ-Like change. Which is also ran by and incredible God that desires His glory alone.
What do we have to fear?
