An Unlikely Story
Every camp has a student that seems impossible to reach. A student who does not seem interested in God and certainly not Jesus. At my first English camp, it was a girl who talked about witchcraft and seemed extremely withdrawn. She kept coming back every summer with more and more questions. I kept praying for her, and during her third camp, she told me she experienced Christ’s love that week. Somehow, the light of Jesus had broken through.
Recently, I chatted with Kelly Hargan, a Josiah Venture missionary in Latvia. He shared an unlikely story with me about a twelve year old girl named Agija who attended a Fusion camp in Latvia this summer.
When camp began, Agija could have been described as abrupt, aggressive, and even a bit of a bully. The youngest of five, Agija’s home life is pretty rough. Anete Jekabsone, a national JV missionary, kept praying for Agija even though she saw little change in her throughout the week.
On one of the last nights of camp, the students went through a Labyrinth that brought specific application to the week’s teaching about Christ. This year the theme was Collision. The Labrinth had six stations. One station, for example, asked students to write on a sheet of paper what they thought about themselves. After that, the students put the paper inside a balloon. On the outside of the balloon, students then wrote what they thought others thought of them. Finally, they brought their balloon to a leader, who popped it and shared from Scripture the truth about what God thinks of them. These powerful activities helped students experience the truth of Christ.
The last station of the Labyrinth gave campers a chance to put a rock into one of five bowls to show where they were in their thinking about Christ. The five bowls ranged from bowl one, “I’m not interested in Christ,” to bowl five, “I believe in Jesus, and I want to follow him.” Bowl four was, “I have more questions about following Christ.”
When Agija reached the last station of the Labyrinth, one of the leaders, Edgars, was praying for the students and felt overwhelmed that Agija was ready to make a decision. He went to get Anete. Meanwhile, Agija placed her rock in the fourth bowl.
Agija sat down with Anete to talk. Anete asked Agija what was keeping her from placing her rock in the fifth bowl. Agija explained that she had been to camp the previous year and had actually made fun of students who made decisions to follow Christ. She explained that she didn’t want to be one of the mocked students. Anete asked Agija if she could pray for her, and Agija said yes. As Anete prayed, she sensed that Agija wanted to make Jesus Lord of her life, so she prayed a prayer that Agija prayed with her. What happened next was the most significant. After praying, Agija got up and went to where the bowls were. She then picked up her rock from the fourth bowl and placed it into the fifth: “I believe in Jesus.”
After that, Agija’s countenance changed. She told camp leaders that she was their sister in Christ and invited her family the Fusion concert. No longer can she be described as the aggressive girl that she was when the camp first started.
My favorite part of this story is when the rock moved. It makes me think about all those unlikely people in my life. The power of the gospel is strong enough for the Agijas in this world and makes me want to pray harder and share more!
