Has God ever taken you on an unexpected and difficult journey?
My guess is that He has. In my life, I have found that oftentimes there is tremendous and unexpected blessing at the end of that journey, and the difficulty along the way made that final blessing even sweeter.
That’s exactly how this year has felt at Mount Hermon, and we are thankful!
After 15 months of being closed to overnight campers, this summer seemed sweeter than ever! This year at Mount Hermon:
- More than 100 kids made first-time decisions to follow Jesus at Redwood Day Camps!
- Thousands grew closer to each other and to Jesus at Family Camps!
- Kidder Creek ministered to more campers than at any point in its history!
- This fall more than 5,000 people have come as part of a Guest Group or Fall Retreat!
For all this and more, we are thankful!
There is one story in particular that I want to share with you. It demonstrates so well what God can do in just one week of camp. This is a story of a youth camper who attended Family Camp, as told by his counselor:
Jonny was going into 8th grade, and came into the week extremely shy. He was friendly, but was hesitant to participate in small group times or activities.
On the last night of camp we have a very intentionally crafted time of worship. After that worship time, Jonny came up to me and was sobbing. I asked him, “What’s going on?” and gave him a big hug. The first thing he said was, “Adam, I love God! But there’s one problem, I just haven’t accepted Him into my heart yet.” Immediately I started tearing up. He was so captured by the Holy Spirit.
I told him, “Jonny, I think this is Jesus knocking on the door to your heart, are you going to let him in?” He paused and said, “Yeah, I am. I’m ready.” So I prayed with him as he committed his life to Christ. Then he lifted up his head, looked at me, and said “I feel like a new man.” I told him, “That’s exactly how it’s supposed to feel, you were just reborn!” I said, “June 18th at 8:04 pm, you gave your life to Christ. You will remember this day forever.”
Then I asked him if he wanted to go tell the other guys in our small group. He was so excited. As we approached them, one of the campers said, “Jonny, is everything ok?” And he said, “Yeah, I just gave my life to Christ,” and the others immediately stood up and started celebrating!
We are thankful for stories like Jonny’s. We are thankful for God’s faithfulness in bringing us through the most challenging season in our history. And we are thankful for you!
We anticipate another incredible year of ministry in 2022 and hearing from thousands more campers of how God has renewed, refreshed, and transformed this lives.
Will you join us in celebrating Jonny’s new life? Your gifts to Mount Hermon make stories like this possible every day. We know many of you have already given a generous year-end gift to Mount Hermon, Thank You!
If you have not yet had a chance, will you prayerfully consider
a year-end gift to Mount Hermon to make
more stories like Jonny’s possible?
Jonny’s life was changed forever, and we look forward to seeing so many more stories like this next year. And we look forward to seeing you back at camp in 2022. Thank you for your partnership, we are so grateful!
For King and Kingdom,
J.R. Loofbourrow
Vice President of Advancement
P.S. To make a gift online, please go to www.mounthermon.org/give
