You might be on the receiving end. Or; you might be volunteering, hard at work, slaving away for hours upon hours for someone you barely know and may never get to know.
On the 20th, I will be leaving on for a week-long mission trip, called Reach with about a dozen other kids and leaders from my church and community. We are going to a town about 45 minutes away from the church, and we will get back on the 26th. It will be a work of hard work, compassion, teaching about God, and learning more about how Christianity impacts my, and my co-workers, lives.
I will have limited Internet access during the time; my only contact with the Web will be through my phone which will not have wifi, and therefore a slow and halting connection. However; because I am dedicated to blogging every. single. day, I will be posting a small manuscript of sorts about my day's experience, guiding you through how the work day went and how the Lord affected me through the day.
I do not intend, in any way, for this to be a "Christian blog." I want it to be about what it says in the subtitle - a teenager figures out life. So, my posts during the 20th-26th will be structured with the first half being about what happened that day, and the second half about how God impacted said day. You can feel free to stop reading before the Christian section, if you so desire.
This year, as well as last year which was the first year I was eligible to attend Reach, I brought along my Christian-Jewish friend, Nadia. Last year, Nadia was much more split on which religion she wished to practice. Now, she has been bat mitzvahed and is a full Jew. I respect that.
However, Nadia still wished to attend the camp, and attend she will. She is told from the start that if she wishes to exit the prayers at any time, she can; but Nadia is a respectful young lady and I believe she realizes the importance of taking place in the prayers and hymns at a Christian camp. And anyways; in retrospect, it is the same God worshipped in both Judaism and Christianity.
Last year ended in quite a good percentage of the 602 campers being sick, and somewhere around five of them being sent to the hospital to receive IVs because they were so dehydrated, one of them being a girl from my church's group. It was over 100 degrees F (37.7 degrees C) three consecutive days and over 100% humidity every day. Not to mention, there was no AC and very few power jacks for fans. This had been their largest, and arguably worst, camp ever. But, even with my sickness, I was able to see the impact I had the woman whose house I worked on.
If you have the chance to look into Reach, or spread the word, or perhaps even go yourself, I beg you to please give it a chance! I have only met one person who did not want to go again; but she did admit it changed her life. It's eye opening. It's amazing. It truly does make an impact, on the volunteer and the receptor.
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