By: Gavin Pedder, Summer Intern in Kingston-Galloway
If there is one thing that I have learned at Sonshine Day Camp, it is that I am not able. There have been countless situations and conversations that have revealed to me that I am not able to teach the kids everything they need to know about God. I, alone, am incapable of getting them to change their actions and attitudes towards others. But through my inabilities, God is showing me that He is more than able, and that it isn’t supposed to be solely me who leads the kids to Him. Learning this has been such a humbling and exciting experience!
I love the kids so much and want nothing more than to show them the love and comfort that they are so desperately searching for. The thing is, I am incapable of showing them this love fully because I am not perfect! I can plant the seed but I am not the producer! I often teach the kids a lesson or speak to them during small group time and they don’t seem to have any interest in what we are talking about. But the next day, I will see the kids will be living out exactly what we talked about the day before. Sometimes they don’t seem to get it at all when you ask them to forgive someone and stop fighting with that person but the next week, out of nowhere, they are best friends again and have made up. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). It is truly amazing to see how God is the one who works in the kids’ lives. All we can do is be faithful to what He tells us to do and then watch as the God who knows their hearts, changes their attitudes and actions. I have had so many cool conversations with the kids that I would have never had at the start of camp, all because of what God has done in their lives. It’s when I step back and allow God to step in that He truly works His wonders.
The kids surprise and amaze me everyday! I am so thankful for the work that God is doing in their life! It has been my prayer to see the children grow in their walk with Christ and I am so privileged to see that change happen, and to witness the change they will make in their community! “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).
Gavin is interning at Kingston-Galloway for a first time this summer. He is most looking forward to using this great opportunity as a way to share the gospel with those he meets.