While I’ve been here at camp I’ve witnessed so many
miracles, mainly because the community here expects them. To pray for healing
and have it happen is not something big that we all write books about
afterward... it’s something that as children of God, we expect to happen. When they pray for rain, they expect it to
happen and plan the programme around it, even if it hasn’t rained in weeks.
They pray with authority, believing truly that when we ask in the name of Jesus
that it will be done.
At first, this was unusual and I would stand at the edges
and watch, unsure about how to join in and speak with the same authority... but
over time, I came to love this way of praying and of faith and I’m learning to
pray and speak words over people with the authority that we have been given as
children of God, children of the kingdom from whom He withholds no good gifts.
I want to share with you just a few of the things I’ve witnessed
while being here... I could write all day about this, but I will just say a
few.
There was an LIT (Leader in Training) here in third
session who has a bad knee, it had been injured for a long time and recently
she had dislocated it again. She came into the kitchen, barely able to stand
up, crying from the pain of it... Anne the staff prayer lady was in the kitchen
and she put her hands on her knee and prayed. Patella (that’s her camp name, I’m
not really sure of her real name!) began to weep and said that it was feeling a
bit better, then she stood up, took off the bandage and began running and
dancing across the dining hall! Amen.
There were a few girls over the summer who suffered from
insomnia and after staff prayed over them and over their chalets, they slept
the full night through, some of them for the first time in years.
This summer began as a very dry one (actually the biggest
drought in North America in 800 years!)
And everything was hot and we had a fire ban for a large
part of the summer because the fire risk was just too high...In third session
the staff team felt that the theme of this session was water, of a big wave
that would crash over this place, that it would rain and when it did,
breakthrough amongst the girls would also happen, that chains would be broken
and people would be set free. So we began to pray for rain like never before...
everyday calling it down from heaven and thanking Him for what it would do when
it came... On the Thursday I was part of a drama during bible study, I always
feel some heaviness when it comes to doing this drama and today I felt that
too, but also an expecting that today something would be different...so we
performed and afterward I walked out of the dining hall and raised my eyes and
hands up... and the heavens opened! A downpour like there hadn’t been in months
opened up over girls’ camp, a solid wall of water coming down! So instead of
finishing bible study like normal, most of camp ran outside and played in the
rain, dancing and singing worship songs, lying down underneath it all.
Half way through the summer I rolled my ankle during a
wide game and I was in a lot of pain from it. While I was hobbling back up the
hill to my chalet, I came across Becca and some campers coming the other way.
They stopped me and asked if they could pray for it, then they knelt down in
the middle of the path and prayed for healing in the name of Jesus then
continued down to dinner. I continued walking and it was still hurting. Then I
felt in my spirit, His quiet whisper telling me to take off the bandage... I
was confused because it was still so sore, but I stopped and took it off
anyway. I stood there for a minute waiting and it was hurting so I was about to
put it back on but I felt His voice again saying “Walk.” So I did. And the
second I took the first step all the pain disappeared, the swelling went down
and my ankle was totally normal! Hallelujah!
Those are some of the bigger things, but also everyday
there were little miracles...
Girls being freed to dance during worship when before
they have never been able to.
Girls understanding for the first time that they do have
value and they are loved.
Girls who felt safe enough to tell secrets they had kept
in the darkness for a long time and because they spoke up they were able to get
help and begin healing.
Girls who were so shy when they came to camp, but left
feeling so much more confident and sure of themselves.
We serve a God who loves to give good and wonderful
things to His kids when they ask Him...
“Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find.
Knock and the door will be opened.”
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