8 days…8 long days…8 long and tiring days…8 long, tiring and unbelievable days.

that’s the only way I can describe it. So often we forget as Christians that we have to go out and serve, to do things that push our personal safety zone, to be in a place where God can use and challenge us, and I believe that all those things happened to some of the Threedays team at The Rock; Gareth, Jo, & Myself all gave up 8 days of our holiday to help serve and be leaders on this Cyfa Pathfinder venture for 14-18 year olds.

Matthew 20:27 talks about a leader being a faithful servant, that they are not above any job, and this is so true in the arena of camps, we get given jobs which no one wants to do, and it’s easy to moan about the things that annoy us, but one thing that struck me during one of my moans was – John who are you here for, is it you? Or is it the 60+ young people who are here to find and get into a relationship with God? I had to completely humble myself and admit that although I enjoy everything about camp, it’s not about me!

It’s an amazing privilege to be placed in a position of trust and respect and have young people who are searching and finding themselves in the Lord share their experiences of life with you, asking if you would pray with them and being in the same place worshipping the same God.

I could go on for hours writing about all the things that happened at camp but no doubt you would be bored, but let me tell you God was so present from the outset, yes there were problems of both physical and spiritual to overcome, but it’s at times like this we realise that we cannot do anything in our own strength (and after 8am-2am, everyday this is very true) but we need to rely on the promises God has given to us, that he is with us every step of the way and that we (the leaders) need to get our hands dirty once in a while and stop telling people what to do and do it ourselves!

So I really wanted to use this as a challenge to all you people who read the posts on threedays, to go out and serve, serve the youngsters in church, serve the tea and coffee after the church service, go and do someone’s garden who may not be able to otherwise do it, it’s quite easy as leaders to get into the point of view that I am a leader and don’t need to do these things, but as Jesus stated he came to serve the world, so why aren’t we?

If we actively serve as leaders others are only going to follow suit! Remember if you want to walk on the water, you have to get out of the boat!!!