This is a guest post by our incredible Young Life College Council stud Liz Ferguson:
Visiting Jerusalem was packed, full of people, holy sites, and messages of scripture shared. We visited the Pool of Bethesda, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden tomb, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, just to name a few. With the takeaways that we learned in Jerusalem strongly in mind, we have been seeing the love, sacrifice, grace, power, mercy, and servanthood of the cross come full circle here at Young Life camp. About 125 Palestinian kids, their local leaders, and an assortment of passionate people from all over, have come together at the beautiful Camp Murad for lots of sunshine, pool-time, soccer games, program skits, and most importantly the truth of who Jesus is.
At camp, every leader must cross a rickety wooden bridge in order to get to the Leader meetings every night. As I walk across the planks that are each different sizes, shades of wood, and ages, it is hard to understand how the bridge still stands. Every time we cross the bridge it bends and stretches more and more. Yet, it stays strong and sturdy because of the one, strong, reinforcement beam reaching to the ground. The bridge stands as a symbol for us JMU folks, and the Young Life Leaders from the Middle East, who have come together with the central focus of Christ as the reinforcing beam. Like the planks of the bridge, each leader has been stretched these past few days, expanding and growing in incredible ways. Even though we speak different languages and come from cultures on the other side of the world, we rest on one bridge, as planks side by side held up together by the Truth of the Gospel and the desire for our friends to know Christ.
As Jake Johnson, our lone non-JMU (so sad!) team member for these past weeks mentioned yesterday, it is a humbling and surreal experience to serve alongside the Palestinian leaders. Every time we cross the beaten down bridge here at camp, we can rest in the love of the Father and know the planks are held together with a strong reinforcement, just as God’s love is our continuous reinforcement.
With confidence we know that the Lord has been working in kid’s hearts as the week progresses. We are able to witness the message of the gospel changing lives- as kids cross a different bridge. The most life-changing bridge- the bridge from Death to Life! The rest of the week we will pray for the kids to cross that bridge and we will celebrate in the scripture of Romans 6:11 “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
From Pete: This is the last post of our trip. We leave tomorrow night. Thanks for going on this adventure with us. Many blessings to you in your spiritual journey.