09/28/2026
Enjoy this story from Tanya, one of our amazing summer staff!
Teen camp was my first experience as a counselor ever. I gave my worries to the Lord and trusted that he would give me the words to say when the time came to minister to these campers. The week started out well, and it seemed like most of my campers knew the Lord. My campers would encourage each other during small group time, and they would especially encourage this one camper and tell her that she was such a strong Christian. Towards the end of the week, this camper and I had a one-to-one conversation. I asked her if anything stuck out to her during chapel and she didn't respond other than a shake of her head. I continued to ask her questions in which she responded with a head shake. After a while, I simply asked her what she was thinking about. She told me that she was thinking that she wasn't even sure of her own salvation. This shocked me. I thought this was the camper who had it all together. She read her Bible and her friends recognized her faith. As the conversation proceeded, she revealed that she struggled with a lot of things, like we all do. I asked her the question, if you died today, would you be in heaven? She said that she was a good person and that means that she would go to heaven. I told her that we aren't good enough, that if it were up to our own goodness we would not make it to heaven. She began to recognize that it was Jesus who could save her, not herself.
When we talked about the different thoughts she struggled with, I pointed her to 2 Corinthians 10:5, which says, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." She told me that at that moment she was overthinking some things, and she asked me to pray with her, to take captive of those thoughts with her. We held hands and she repeated a prayer after me. This prayer said that we take these thoughts captive in Jesus' name. These thoughts had no power on her because she is guarded by Jesus. When we finished praying, she looked up and smiled at me. She had found victory, victory that was given to her by Jesus! She could not have accomplished that by herself, rather, the Holy Spirit granted her the power to avoid sin and to choose Jesus.
We walked away and she told me that I was so strong because I had gone through some hard things in my past. I had shared my testimony the night before, so it was fresh on her mind. I told her that it was not by my own strength at all. She looks down with an intense look and says, "I get it, it was Jesus." It was Jesus' strength and provision that brought me through those hard things! And that same strength was available to her. God worked in incredible ways in this conversation, and I know that God's work at this camp had an eternal impact on this young girl.
Read more camp stories here:
https://byronbiblecamp.com/camp-stories/
