The camp that saved my life

Who knew so much could change about a normal teenage girl in just a month? Who I am today has been strongly influenced by Skills Training for Emergency Preparedness (STEP), a camp that my parents sent me to the summer of 2010. STEP was a four-week challenging outdoor adventure program for girls 15 years and older. I did not want to go at all because it seemed like I was going to waste my summer at this camp. But after I got there, it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with it. There are 3 main things I learned there, strength, trust, and confidence in myself and in God.  

      

      Throughout STEP there were many challenges that taught me strength, like our hikes, self defense classes, canoeing, river crossing, and a lot more. When we went river crossing, we had to set up our system, and pull ourselves with our heavy backpacks on across the rope and over the river that we were crossing. I didn’t think I could do it, I was sure that I was too weak, and that I would just slow my team down. It was hard, and as our teams started racing each other across, it soon became my turn.

As I started pulling on the rope, I learned, as one of the leaders had told me, that “pain is overrated”. I just needed to not think about how badly my arms burned, and just keep pulling myself across while remembering that I am the master of my body, and I could get across the rope without stopping if I put my mind to it. And it worked! Our team did excellent, and I learned that when I worked hard, my body could do things that I never dreamed I could do. But I did not only learn physical strength, but also how to be strong emotionally. The leaders taught me that even though the pressures of life may be overwhelming, a strong person is resilient, gaining knowledge from her struggles and developing emotional ammunition to recover and move forward with the knowledge that God is there.

    

      Secondly, I learned how to trust at STEP. I had always been very shy, and all my life I barely trusted anyone. My team leader would try to talk to me and get me to share my problems with her, but I was afraid to share what was in my heart with anyone. After over a week of being completely closed off, I began to realize that these people weren’t out to get me after I had called home one night. I had been talking to my dad and told him how badly I wanted to come home. My team leader saw how distressed I looked, and asked if she could talk to me. She shared her own heart with me, and told me about her struggles and how imperfect she was. Instead of trying to get information out of me, she just told me about herself. I realized that she loved me and wanted to be there for me. I started to share a little with her - that was a big leap for me to make. Not long after that night, my fear of trusting people began to slowly decrease. I became more open to girls on my team and other girls that I saw were struggling. Some of our sessions in the evenings taught me that God was more trustworthy than any friend I could ever have, and that He would never leave me or betray me.

I had no idea what I was capable of until STEP showed me!One way I developed self confidence was through the self-defense class. Through a couple lessons and helpful tips I became confident that I would be able to handle a dangerous situation if it ever occurred. I have used my self-defense skills acquired at STEP several times actually since I got home, including a time when an older man tried to get me into his truck at Taco Bell. Before I went to STEP, I didn't know anything about survival or how to protect myself. I was also able to develop confidence simply by learning, and putting what I had learned into practice. The last day of STEP, we had a challenge day. It was a day packed full of pretend situations where we had to use every skill we learned, and it was a race to see which team could do it fastest. I was nervous, and didn't think I could remember everything. My team leader shared with my team and me that if we worried about it and had bad attitudes, we would definitely fail. But if we were confident, asked God for his help, and looked at it with a "let's beat this" attitude, we would prevail. But, of course, I didn't only develop confidence in myself, but also in God. He showed me that He will never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5), and that He will always be there for me. What I can do of myself doesn't even compare to what God is able to do.

STEP really changed saved my life. I know I wouldn't be the person that I am today, or maybe even be here if I hadn’t gone, and I'm so glad that I did. I guess there comes a time in everyone's life where they have to do something really hard that gives them a new outlook on things, and I know that's was STEP was for me. I went back the summer of 2011 as a team leader, and learned even more and was able to share things that I had learned with my girls. Thanks so much to my amazing team leader, Camelia Chan, and to STEP, God used you to mold me into who I am today!

Seeking purity and understanding true love in a sensual culture

What is love?
I used to ask myself this question alot. I mean, people tell us that they love us, but...we have also heard them say that they "love hamburgers."So what is your definition of love? In our culture today, so many people confuse love with lust. People believe that a base, sexual desire to "get" satisfaction from another person constitutes love - nothing is further from the truth. My definition of love is that real love involves giving, a sharing of plans, hopes, and dreams between two people who want to build a life together until death does them part. My pretty cool pastor, Bro Jerry Backus, broke it up like this - there are two kinds of love that I guy and a girl can have for eachother.

The first love is eros, from which we get the English word ‘erotic.’ Eros is the word used to express sexual love or the feelings of arousal that are shared between people who are physically attracted to one another. The second love is agape. The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. Agape love doens't refer only to romantic or sexual love. Nor does it refer to close friendship or brotherly love. It is the deepest love someone can have for another, and this love is not self-centered. Everything is centered around the one who is loved. Agape love is unique and is distinguished by its nature and character.

 So we all have agape love, right? How do we know? Well now that we know the definitions of these two different kinds of love, I have come to the conclusion that true love (agape) waits, lust (eros) doesn't.

If we want God's best in our present/future relationships, we have to do this His way. God didn't give us all the details about how to go about in our relationships, but He gave us some clear guidelines.

Ephesians 5:1-5
Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance  in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.

Ouch...so that means if we only have eros love...which is basically just lust for another person, we aren't seeking God's best and we are disobeying Him. Just because you think that you may have fallen in love doesn't mean that you will never fall out of love. Look at the world around us, do you think that all these divorced couples got married when they weren't even in love? Of course they were, but this is where agape love is different. It goes beyond feelings, it's a decision.  So, decide what kind of love you have right now, or that you want to have in the future. Keep it real, love God, pray, and check out what He has in store for you, because I can promise you that it is His very best. Don't get in a rush and fall for Satan's best, God's choices for us are always better. :)