besu hulu hone…

…all happened because of Him

These are the Amheric words on the bracelet made by my Ethiopian friend/little brother, Sami. He gave me the beaded bracelet last week at Selah Vie. Selah Vie was a retreat for Passport Camp summer staffers, Student.Go summer missionaries, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Collegiate Congregational Interns. About 150 young adults came together after a summer of ministry to share, reflect, worship, celebrate, and engage in theological conversations about the good work of God we got to join in this summer. We brought a wide range of experiences and perspectives from our summers, and it provided helpful space for processing my experience with Passport Kids.

As our team trusted, followed, shared, and served this summer, we encountered Christ in the faces and stories of children and each other…

When one girl gave all of the $40 her father gave her for camp to the mission offering, she said, “the people in Ethiopia need water more than I need something from the camp store”.

I taught a refugee child from Tanzania to float in the swimming pool. Then she was confident enough to go down the water slide with the reassurance that I would be waiting for her at the bottom!

At the end of worship one night, another camper brought forth a rock grasped tightly in her fist, a symbol of a burden that kept her from following God. She squeezed her eyes tight and said a silent prayer over the rock, and laid her burden on the altar.

Our team met one of our staffers in his grief. In doing so, we became a true family.

Another staffer told me he learned the value of hard-work this summer. But I also saw him reach a place where he realized the value of depending on God and on the team.

One camper showed she understood the importance of mission work that empowers when she said, “So, when we give our mission offering, it’s kind of like ‘If you give a man a fish he eats for a day… but if you teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Exactly!

…besu hulu hone

Here are some of the things I celebrated at Selah Vie from my summer as Director of the Passport Kids! East Team:

mud…