Reflection from Lynea Brubacher Kaethler, 2015 Summer Staff

During Junior High Camp when we had campfire on the beach, we took about fifteen minutes for counselors to spread out on the beach and campers had the opportunity to come to us with prayer concerns, joys, or just to come for prayer for nothing in particular. I really struggle with prayer, how to do it and what it does. I will gladly pray in my head, but I am so incredibly uncomfortable with praying aloud and on the spot. As the counselors spread out on the beach, I felt very shaky and nervous because I didn’t know what I was going to have to pray for or how I was going to do it.

The first time someone came up it kind of hit me that these girls were really trusting me and counting on me, and I just had to do it. Over the prayer time, eight of my campers came up to me for prayer and three came up twice. One girl came up with a joy/concern and at that point I felt really connected to the camper and to God. We hugged and prayed and at that moment I felt God with me, and I gained confidence in my ability to pray. I thought about our theme, “Jesus our Teacher,” and realized that Jesus was working through the campers and teaching me how to pray.