This past weekend the The Factory Youth Center along with Cross Connection Youth Center in New Holland and our own Backstage Student ministry of GPC traveled to Camp Orchard Hill in Dallas, PA for a winter retreat.  The 70 of us were part of a bigger group of almost 250 students.

It was a weekend of very difficult yet rewarding ministry.  Let me explain...

The weekend started off as usual.  What I mean by usual is the normal culture clash that one would go through in taking a group of unbelieving students to a Christian camp.  The teens from The Factory struggled with the rules.  "Why can't we go into the guys/girls cabin?".  "Why can't I smoke whenever I want to?".   "Why do we have to be in our cabins at midnight?" .   "Are you serious that we cannot stay outside and hang out all night long?".   "Why are we singing about "eating the word" or "I just wanna be a sheep"?  "Why are these people weird"?  "Why are these sessions so long?"

While the guys were having fun being up all Friday night and enjoying getting to know the youth center from New Holland and the guys from Grace Point Church of Paradise (all the guys from our three groups stayed in one big lodge),  the girls were having a very difficult night.  Our female leaders had quite a time trying to deal with bad attitudes and a few very disruptive girls.  The next morning we were able to calm the girls down.  We anticipated that the weekend was going to be extremely difficult.   On Saturday, things were going along well until we had a guy break our smoking policy.  The teens thought we were going to send him home and drama broke out.  They were upset at us.  One teen told me that if we send one of them home then they all will go home.  Well, we were not going to send him home anyway but it was stressful.  As the afternoon went on some of them were bored and restless. The girls were cold and wanted to just hang out with the guys in the guys lodge.  By dinner time, I was stressed and starting to doubt this whole idea.

During the Saturday evening session I began to have a conversation with God (or was it the devil having a conversation with me?).  I began to wonder why I do this.  Maybe it was not a good idea to bring troubled teenagers who have no boundaries in life to a winter christian camp for the weekend.  I had all but decided that the stress was not worth it.  I began to dialogue with God and felt bad for my lack of faith.  The speaker was right on all weekend and I knew that if they were listening that God could speak. The problem was that it didn't appear that they were listening.  The speaker then gave the students a chance to respond to the love of God.  He asked them all to bow their heads and raise their hands if they wanted  to experience the amazing love of God.

I began to cry as I looked and saw 14 of our students raise their hands.  In one second, I confessed the lack of my faith, began to cry, and watched with skepticism.  I thanked God but wondered if it was all fake or not.  What I saw next truly amazed me.  I began to notice that some students  began to cry, some crying uncontrollably.  Truly God's Spirit was working in a mighty way.  One by one, the staff began to reach out to these teens and hold them, love on them, and listen.  As we listened, we began to hear things like this:

"I never realized God loves me this much.  All he wants from me is to love him back and I can't do that."  This teen kept repeating this over and over.  He was so struck by God's love and his lack of ability to love him back. He said "I want to love him like he loves me."  

"I miss my dad so much" - this girl's father died last year.

"I have so much crap in my life and I know God loves me now"  This teen has been really struggling but now wants to meet with me and talk with me about his pain

"I want to let God love me but the thought of him never leaving me is too hard to believe.  Everyone in my life has left me"  This girls situation would make any of us cry.  She wants to love God but is scared he will leave her

"I felt something tonight that I never felt before.  I don't know but it was weird.  Whatever it is, I want it.  I want to feel God's love in my life"  

There were many other conversations that night that I have not even had a chance to debrief with the staff on.   The staff and students truly believed that something weird but amazing began to happen. As I said, it was as if God took his life rotor tiller and began to really soften the soil.  PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE TEENS AND THE DOZENS OF OTHERS AT THE FACTORY.  

While the weekend was unfolding, the teens from Grace Point watched what was taking place.  In their own hears, God was also working.  Several decided to live more the way God wants them to.  One of the GPC teens commented that they felt God speaking to them about being more proactive in building relationships with the Factory teens.  A few others echoed.  The staff feels it was very moving for them to see God work in the lives of the Factory teens.  We will be helping our teens discover ways they can connect with teens they go to school with who need Christ.

Pray for the ministry of The Factory.  Also, pray for the Backstage student ministry as it seeks to build a bridge of hope and trust with the students in our community.

Chuck