Many might remember my first Kid’s Camp 2 years ago. \u00a0This was one of the moments when God challenged me a lot about being willing to sacrifice. \u00a0You might remember the story of the first night trying to fall asleep and me laying there in the heat unable to sleep. \u00a0You might remember my argument with God about how this was too much and how if I didn’t sleep I would be useless at camp. \u00a0It was at that moment when God reminded me that I could survive this camp on little sleep, and that if he was putting me in the situation that he would get me through it. \u00a0I learned that year that I needed to stop saying “I can’t to God”, but to say “I can, but I need your strength”. \u00a0Then you might remember the blessing that year of the unexpected move that I got the next day down to another building where I was able to sleep well the rest of the 4 nights.<\/p>\n
Well here I am heading off to camp 2 years later. \u00a0I have been asked again to be in the same room with the same group of kids. \u00a0I knew that this year there will be no escape like there was 2 years ago and that it would likely mean very little sleep. \u00a0I also knew that somehow God would get me through it. \u00a0We arrived at camp and we helped the kids set up their beds. \u00a0Ethan and Tyler are in a bed together on the bottom bunk. \u00a0I was going to get the bottom bunk next to them, but there were too many other kids who needed a bottom bunk and so I ended up moving myself up to the top. \u00a0The top bunk is worse because of the heat and and there is no place to hang up a mosquito net. \u00a0 Okay God here we go! \u00a0Our first night arrives and the boys couldn’t make it to the end with all the rest of the kids. \u00a0The kids here don’t go to sleep until around 10 and my kids are used to their 8 oclock bedtime. \u00a0So around 8:45 after dinner I took them up and tucked them into bed. \u00a0They fell asleep quite easily together even with the heat. \u00a0They even slept through all the other kids coming into the room an hour later and turning on the lights. \u00a0After getting all the kids down I climbed up to my bed. \u00a0I felt the heat and the sweat start dripping right away. \u00a0I lay there thinking and praying about the week ahead. \u00a0Then I rolled over on my side and felt a soft gentle breeze. \u00a0I looked up in wonder at the small crack of the window right at the edge of my bed. \u00a0It was one small corner of my bed that had that breeze, but that one corner was all I needed. \u00a0I crammed myself in the corner and just marveled at that little breeze. \u00a0It was God’s reminder to me, his whisper that he was taking care of me. \u00a0“Trust me”. \u00a0I can’t tell you what joy I found in that simple breeze and how much I thanked God for it as I dozed off to sleep. \u00a0When I woke up in the middle of then night to take all the kids in the room to the bathroom, I noticed that the breeze was gone. \u00a0It made me thank the Lord even more knowing at that moment the special gift that he had sent specifically my way. \u00a0The whisper of his love.<\/p>\n
Later in that week Ethan and I were praying together before bed. \u00a0Camp was a little harder for him this year because he was with the older kids, but he was the youngest of the older kids and so often wasn’t allowed to do much in the quizzes and game times. \u00a0This was hard on Ethan and we were praying about it together. \u00a0Then the next day he came running up to me and said, “Mom I found a friend”. \u00a0One of the boys there had taken Ethan under his wings and was making Ethan feel important. \u00a0I marveled again to see how God not only whispering to me, but also to my son. \u00a0Whispering to him, “that he was valued”.<\/p>\n
Thinking back over camp, I am reminded that when we trust God and follow where he leads that gives us exactly what we need to make it through the road he has lead us to. \u00a0Those reminders and whispers God sends my way are so important, because I so easily forget how he cares. \u00a0I am reminding myself of this as we head into a season that I know will be challenging for us. \u00a0I am reminding myself to listen to God’s whispers. \u00a0To listen and know that he will be reminding me of exactly what I need to hear in the dark and tough moments.<\/p>\n
How has God been whispering to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many might remember my first Kid’s Camp 2 years ago. \u00a0This was one of the moments when God challenged me a lot about being willing to sacrifice. \u00a0You might remember the story of the first night trying to fall asleep and me laying there in the heat unable to sleep. \u00a0You might remember my argument […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2545],"tags":[448,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-3820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-updates-and-news","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"tag-new-tribes-mission","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}