Rockbridge work-crew weekend

I had the privilege of going to Rockbridge Alum Springs this passed weekend for a high school outreach camp designed to support Young Life clubs throughout Virginia in their mission to introduce high school students to the person of Jesus Christ. My role this weekend was simple: help set tables for the camp meals.

Easy.

Oh, uh...there's going to be 523 campers this weekend.

Oh, and over 100 other workers and visitors in the camp.

Uhh, and you'll be heading up over 35 college freshmen who are working on minimal sleep, getting a break from calculus and term-papers to volunteer for the weekend, who are on a sugar-high like a clan of 13-year old children at a sleepover because you decided to feed them lollipops, cookies, and skittles all weekend. The highlight of our first night together was a Wrestlemania-esque battle royale between "dudes" (a term affectionately used to refer to males who ravenously wrestle one another for the right to claim alpha-male status at Christian weekend getaways). I felt like I was witnessing a classics battle of Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant at times-- it's moments like these that make me grateful to be a leader of the this burgeoning generation of leaders.

On to the actual work: I liken being a dining hall boss to being an NFL football coach, in that you go in with a plan of what you want to accomplish, but something always goes horribly wrong and you need to be creative on your feet. Luckily my co-worker for the weekend, Lauren Odderstol, was brilliant in said respect, castigating renegade workers as they strayed from their assignments. Okay, so neither of us needed to actually discipline anyone during the weekend. In fact, working just over 24 hours total for a weekend (from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) seems like a breeze upon considering the workload for Summer camps, where the 5-week assignments teach work crew and work crew bosses an extraordinary amount about patience and poise under fire. For us, this was a great opportunity to get to know the freshmen from the University of Mary Washington (Eagles, not Fightin' Eagles...) and Virginia Tech (Hokies, not turkeys...).

Getting to witness to the glory of God through the quality of work we conducted was a huge priority, in that the campers spend almost 10% of their time over the course of a weekend in the dining hall facilities eating and witnessing various forms of entertainment: apparently someone misinterpreted a desire for music from the mid-90's group "Smashing Pumpkins" and decided to find their own alternative by taking a sledge hammer to a series of produce, including the ultimate moment of one rather robust high school boy exploding a healthy-sized pumpkin all over the first halo of tables surrounding the stage.

One work crew boy slowly siddled up to me as this display was taking place.

"Um, do you think they're going to get someone to clean that up?"

Oh, the innocence of youth, I thought.

"Definitely, bro: why don't you go grab some rubber gloves from the kitchen and get on that!"

I loved being able to witness club, a time where the gospel was presented in a very clear, concise way for high school students (and everyone in attendance) to hear who Jesus Christ is and what his purposes were while he was alive on earth in the flesh, not to mention the ruckus party-like attitude out of which a potent group of students are poised for hearing this message with skits and Justin Beiber's latest hits (don't worry, "Baby"--he's Canadian).

I prayed for tender hearts of high school students ready to receive this message as they heard the speaker at club telling the truth about sin in the world, its implications on their lives, and what Jesus promises through himself as a result of faith in him, his death, and his resurrection: a relationship with God. On Saturday night, the students were given 20 minutes during which all of the lights in camp were shut off and everyone was silent. This time was designed for them to be confronted with these truths by God himself. When you consider the daily life of your average high school student from suburbia, it's stunning to realize that this might be the longest they've ever had to simply be alone and interact with their God for any period of time!

Unfortunately, I had to leave early in order to go to work at The River church on Sunday morning, so I didn't get to see the last club on Sunday morning, during which students who accepted Christ and began a relationship with Jesus during this weekend had the opportunity to stand up and "Say-So".

All in all, the weekend was a great opportunity for meeting new friends and getting to really dig into the lives of the people with whom I served. I was honored to be led by Josh Nicoletti; serve with Julie Smartt, Lauren Odderstol, Brooke King, Brendan O'Connor, and Candace Newcomb; and be set-up for success very well by the staff at Rockbridge Alum Springs Young Life camp.