Prairie River Camp, Bricelyn, MN

We were at Middle School Camp, week two. It was late at night after a surprise dance party on the last night of camp. He came running out of the canteen with a handful of candy bars, Almond Joys to be exact when some of our support team girls saw him. They ran after him hollering for him to stop. Nevertheless he continued to run up towards the lodge giving away candy bars to other youth as he went and then threw the rest into the hostas next to the well house. When the girls caught up to him the candy bars were gone and he proceeded to tell them he had never had any candy bars at all, they were mistaken. All of this led up to a discussion with the young man on the merry go round with myself and another staff person named Tim.

Jimmy* denied ever taking any candy bars so we did some investigating and found out he had indeed had the Almond Joys and I found three of them in the hostas where he had thrown them. Finally he admitted taking the candy bars. I was almost more frustrated with the fact that he had out and out lied to us then I was about the fact he had stolen them. This led to a discussion about telling the truth and then into being forgiven. You see this was the second time Jimmy had gotten into trouble at camp. We entertained the idea of taking him back to Albert Lea but weren’t sure if anyone would be home and it was late at night and we were tired. All of a sudden Tim said, “Jimmy I forgive you, I will pay for your candy bars but do not do it again”. I then chimed in and said “I forgive you too”. That led to Jimmy asking about forgiveness and wondering if he could really be forgiven by God for all that he had done in his life.

At about 12:30 in the evening Jimmy prayed and asked God to forgive him of all of his sin. During the week at our large meetings in the amphitheater Jimmy had always sat at the back on the ground playing with the sand while listening. The next morning at the closing session during the time of worship someone tapped me on the shoulder and said “look who’s in the very front”. There was, guess who? Jimmy, at the very front. He couldn’t get any more in front than he was at that moment, his hands outstretched singing praise’s to God. My eyes filled with tears. It wasn’t long and one of his friends came up and tapped him on the shoulder encouraging him, I think, to come to the back. Jimmy shook his head no and kept right on singing. Not long after that I looked up front again and there were two of his friends one on each side arms over each other’s shoulders swaying to the music while they sang praises to God. Someone once said, “people are not our problem, they are our purpose”. Jimmy could have been just considered a problem but he was our purpose and in the midst of the difficulty God touched his life. How is God leading us in the purpose of people?

- Greg Gudal

*name has been changed to protect minors and their families