GREAT RESULTS ORCHESTRATED BY OUR GREAT GOD – Saturday, July 17, 2010

Written by Eric

“If you can’t paint like professionals, then don’t paint at all you @#^&* kids,” she said to the crew.

Girls sobbing. Built-up frustration. Phone call to me, the camp director. Thursday afternoon.

“Eric, please come out to our site. We can no longer work here because our resident (she) is not at all thankful for the painting we are doing for her. In fact, she is downright mean and swore at us.”

I headed out to the site with an ongoing debate in my mind. When we serve Jesus by helping a resident with home repairs, do we need to have thanks and praise OR do we continue despite ridicule by others because we know that ultimately we are serving Jesus, not the resident? What do you think?

I arrive. The resident was on the phone. Her husband had been sick for weeks and was now hospitalized. “A tumor in his lungs,” came the word on the other end of the phone. She was quiet for a moment and then hung up.

“Tough news, huh? We will pray for you,” I said.

Now it was time to make a decision about what to do with a group of youth who no longer wanted to work for a resident because she was swearing at them. The youth who were working on her house were doing an incredible job painting and repairing her house. She, nevertheless, demanded 4 coats of paint on her house and was constantly looking over their shoulders as this crew of first time workcampers worked their hardest in the surprising heat of a Canadian week.

As director of the camp it is my responsibility to make sure that all of our campers have a good experience serving Jesus. I do not tolerate swearing residents very well. Granted she had reasons why the stress of her husband’s illness could have triggered her anger, but she had no right swearing at youth who were there to serve.

“I am going to move you to a new site,” I told the group. The girls responded with a quiet, “Yes!” I knew I had made a good decision. The group worked hard to finish as much work as they could that Thursday afternoon and I moved them on to a different site with a great resident who loved on them all day Friday.

I went back Friday to check on the angry resident. It is never comfortable walking back into a situation where you do not know what will be the reaction. She greeted me with somewhat of a smile and said words that only could have been orchestrated by God, “You know these kids. They are angels and I can’t say how much I appreciate what they did.”

Only God can orchestrate that. I told the kids back at camp what the work they did meant to her even though she was never able to share it. Though he may never read this great praise needs to go to Ralph, the adult leader on the site. He handled things so wisely!

Please pray for this resident woman and for her husband. Can you imagine how hurting one has to be inside in order to swear at youth who have come to paint your house? Gotta be great need there!

It was an incredible week. 58 construction projects including a 60 foot wheelchair ramp and a second story deck. Wonderful worship. 1,876 cans of food donated. I learned to speak Canadian, “eh”! A boys group from Jersey wrote a song about me - Kristen taped it for you. And God was honored by 374 lives serving Him for a week.