Post-Champfleuri

Yesterday we all said goodbye to the French students. One in particular was very hard to say bye to. D was in my room and as I learned before she got here, she became a Christian last year at camp. This made me very excited to meet her and just have fellowship with her. As the week went on we were in the same small group and "sports team" and we grew closer each day. It was really neat to see her grow in Christ throughout the week and just see how much she appreciates the fellowship, something that us Americans sometimes take for granted. When she gave her testimony one night in cabin time it was cool to see the other French teenagers intently listen and it seemed to have somewhat impacted them. Even though there was a slight age gap between us it was really cool to see how much we connected through Christ.

Something I learned this week was how powerful God really is and how wide his love goes. Like I said in my post before it was awesome to hear all the voices of the French and Americans blending as we would sing songs like "Mighty to Save" and "God of Wonders". It never hit me before how much influence and power God really had over this world. I knew that it was true but it was awesome to see it first hand. It was amazing to see how God worked in the hearts of many of the campers. Some of them who came as atheists began to question their beliefs, or non-beliefs, and it showed me how much control God has over every single place in the world. I have also learned to have more patience. With the campers who didn't know much English it was really frustrating to have to sit there and just do a bunch of hand motions and charades. God taught many people from the team and I just to have patience and love other people. Overall my main "learning point" was that God is so much bigger than any tangible and even non-tangible things and with him anything is possible.
Meredith DiRico