You know, looking back at my life—I know I’m twenty-one years old and that is considered young to most people—not to my campers, by the way, at UCLA—they didn’t even know who N’SYNC was!! That makes me feel way old, along with one of them sharing a story and they referred to a person as older, ‘like you, Charlie, around your age’. --__-- --I am realizing more and more that this life is not about me but about others. These past two weeks, culminated with my experience last summer in Europe doing sport ministry, have showed me truly what it means to serve others. You are tired from getting barely any sleep, hungry, thirsty, hot from the beating sun—complete exhaustion—yet you need to keep pushing through, knowing that the week isn’t about you but about these kids you are there to serve. It seems so crazy at the time—waking up at 7AM, leading, coaching, eating with, being with your campers all the way until 11PM—while all at the same time making sure they’re safe. And then repeating that process the very next day. As crazy and as tiring as this gets, it’s literally nothing compared to how Jesus served us. One of my favorite passages of Scriptures—what I used to preach on this past Friday—that God revealed to me last summer is in Philippians 2: 1-18:
“Therefore
if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort
from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and
compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same
love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition
or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking
to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your
relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who,
being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness. And
being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the
highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now
much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will
and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Do
everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and
pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like
stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be
able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But
even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service
coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too
should be glad and rejoice with me.”
If we all
did what it says in verse 5: “In your relationships with one another, have the
same mindset as Christ Jesus” –this world would truly be a much better place to
live in. How many times do we go about our days thinking about me, me, me—how
am I going to get entertained, what am I going to do, who can I meet that will
be my spouse here at this camp, what can I get out of this—we all think like
this in some way or another. But, serving at camps, I realize and have learned
that IT”S NOT ABOUT ME. He will provide the energy I need and He has EVERY
time. God will provide a woman for me and I think a lot of times guys go into
summer camps intentionally looking for one and focusing their attention solely
on that. This should not be our focus, guys. That is not even on my radar when
entering camps because my one-hundred percent focus should be on serving God
and these kids. As men, we need to be the leaders and not mess with girl’s
hearts and let them focus on the kids they’re counseling as well.
What if
we all had this same mindset? All looking to Christ Jesus as the ultimate
example of how to treat others and be in relationship with one another—whether
that is friendships, family, dating relationships, marriages—any relationship
with another. A Holy God came down from His throne to take on literally the
form of a “servant”, or slave, all out of love for us. Wow. This really is the
prime example of how we should love one another. Our culture is surrounded by
people going day-to-day concerned with self. A lot of us are in it for
ourselves: ‘what’s in it for me?’ ‘how can I be entertained today?’ ‘how can he
or she please me or serve me?’ ‘when do I get my turn?’ –are we not? True joy
is found serving others—and if we all were to have this mindset—the world would
truly be a better place.
So: UC
Davis…
The
difference between here and UCLA was the number of campers attending. 200
campers came to this camp and there were 30 huddle leaders here compared to 80
at UCLA. So, this was on a smaller scale compared to UCLA but still a huge
camp. Especially considering this was the first year the UC Davis camp was run.
We did this camp because of the location for high-schoolers in northern
California to be able to come out to camp (Davis is near Sacramaento). Since it
was the first year running this camp, there were some learning curves
obviously, but overall it was absolutely amazing!
Man,
shout out to my boy Alex Riopelle! A couple of weeks before the camps began, we
were in need of huddle leaders, including a baseball huddle leader. Being in
the camp office, I jumped on this opportunity and called up Alex, knowing he
played ball in college. It was such a blessing that God provided a way for him
to get out here. He flew in to San Diego and Josh, Lisa, Alex, and I all got
into Lisa’s dad’s new Ford F-350 to road trip it up to Davis. What a long
drive. It took about ten hours overall and we had a long stop in the middle of
the trip. We were in the middle of nowhere and it was time to video call in to
my internship class back at Oakland. Facetime wasn’t working with a girl in
class back home, so we kept on trying to get it to work on the road. We finally
saw an exit and stopped at a Denny’s to Facetime to class from a laptop. We got
to a hotel in Davis—with other huddle leaders who were there early and we all
stockpiled into a couple rooms—15 dudes in 2 rooms—to crash for the night.
In the
morning, we made our way to Davis. I was exhausted still from UCLA camp, so my
main prayer was asking God for ENERGY. Huddle leader training was for the first
couple days. What I loved about this training was it was a lot more laid back
and intimate. There were only thirty of us—so we all eventually felt like
family—looking out for one another.
What I
love about FCA camp is that we have huddle leaders at camp who are college
athletes and head coaches who are head coaches currently in college or high
school. The requirement as well is that those in these positions have a solid
faith. This surrounds the high-schoolers with quality coaching in their sport
while at the same time having strong examples of college kids living for Jesus
and coaches implementing Christian values, as well as Biblical teaching at
program during the night. Huddle leaders are trained two days in advance of
each camp in order to be properly equipped for leading Huddle meetings through
Bible passages and also to prepare spiritually—by praying and giving the week to
God. This training was especially good for me. We had some quiet time to
reflect and give the week to God. There is so much peace and rest we can
receive by going to Him for help.
When the
kids all came, our job was to be hype and get the campers excited for camp.
Once they all came in, I met my huddle for the first time. Five of the eight on
my list showed up. I knew every one of them were each here for a reason.
Miguel, Robert, Robbie, Noah, and Nathan. Huddle 15. At first, I was thinking
of how amazing my huddle was at UCLA and that there was no way this huddle
could repeat that. I realized that this was a completely different situation
and what I had at UCLA was great—this would just be new memories with a
different huddle.
In the
huddle meetings, a lot of them were quiet at first. Throughout the week, I
truly saw God transform their lives. I’ll start with Miguel. Miguel was one of
our best players on the lacrosse field. He showed promising talent that I told
him would really get him somewhere in college. He was a very quiet dude and I
could sense when having our Huddle meetings he had very little ‘Christian’
experience in his life. The other boys opened up their Bibles and found the
passage easily, I could see out of the corner of my eye he didn’t know where
certain passages were. I prayed about this and from the bottom of my heart
wanted God to do a mighty work in this group, and especially in Miguel. I
prayed and gave the situation to God. He did His thing as I stepped aside and
let Him work!
When leading
the Huddle meetings, I would give a brief background and context to each
passage we went through, as well as let them know what page number it was on—in
order to not make Miguel feel left out but to bring a certain cohesiveness to
the group. After the first night of program, Miguel said in our Huddle that it
was awesome—that he used to go to Catholic church as a kid but hasn’t gone
recently. He said when he gets home he wants to go more. From that moment I
knew God was doing work, showing Miguel His relentless love for him.
I pulled
Miguel aside and told him to not feel left out of the group, whenever the boys
in the group would give some extravagant answer—they are just at a different
stage in their faith and that’s okay. I encouraged him to share because his
answers were real and genuine. I asked him if he ever heard the gospel. He told
me he never did. This surprised me because he went to church as a kid. So, I
sat down with him on the stairs in the UC Davis dormiratory, opened the Bible,
and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Miguel for the first time. I told him
about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, that it’s an amazing
journey—it’s not going to be perfect and there will be valleys we face but we
know we are living forever in Heaven with God and we’re living with a
purpose—the joy of living for Christ is incredible. Since I knew he had some
Catholic background, I made sure to tell him that this faith has nothing to do
with what we have done—we cannot be saved by our good works because of our
sinfulness. But that God loved us so much He sent His son to die for us that we
may have eternal life. All we have to do is accept this greatest gift in the
world, repent of our sins, and commit our lives to Jesus. God loves us that
much—it’s a relationship with God and works come out of that love—works alone
cannot save us. He was diggin’ it and I told him that I’m here, as well as the
other leaders and staff in case he ever wanted to talk anything through. Later on in the week, he opened up more and told me that he was raised by his mother. He met his dad one time but his dad lives in Texas with his wife. His father had an affair and was seeing Miguel's mother. Once Miguel was born, his father left back for his marriage in Texas. Miguel grew up not having a dad--that pivotal male influence in a boy's life. This week God showed Miguel His relentless love for him and that he has a true Father in Heaven.
Our
speaker for the camp was Tom Randall. He’s from Detroit—whaddupp!!—and did
mission work his whole life in the Philippines, adopting 51 kids there. He
played pro basketball in the Philippines as well. This man is right up my
alley—sharing a lot of my passions: faith in Jesus, the Philippines,
basketball, from Detroit! It’s cool how God works—I went up to him after
program one night and he told me he’s making a team in the Philippines this
December and will be in contact with me. Barret led worship with his wife. They
both are from Hawaii and we worshipped God ukelele style this week—it was
different and really cool.
One night
of program, Tom invited anyone who wanted to ask Jesus to come into their lives
to come forward. The whole time I was praying for Miguel. Kids started to come
forward and at the very last second, Miguel went forward to PUBLICLY PROCLAIM
HIS DECLARATION OF BECOMING A BELIEVER IN JESUS CHRIST! The feeling I had is
indescribable. I was truly amazed at what the power of prayer can do. That
night, Miguel was full of joy.
(I know
people have problems with alter calls and some may consider this was one—I have
as well in the past because I truly believe that someone who is born-again is
moved by the Holy Spirit and convicted—not because their friends stood up to
make a decision but a one-on-one thing with God.) But, after being at these two
camps, I saw the intentionality behind this whole week. These camps were
planned a year in advanced, with much prayer and making sure it was all of God.
The huddle leader trainings were focused on leading these kids Bilblically,
pointing to the Bible and the TRUTH—not just some watered-up message. FCA camps
share the Truth. I believe God truly blessed the work of His servants and is
raising up a generation that humbly seeks His face and truly saved the lives of
hundereds of campers this week—including Miguel! Amen!
I
encouraged Miguel strongly to get plugged into a Bible-believing church back
home and also surround himself with solid friends who love Jesus. I told all my
boys this—how important the body of believers is—in encouraging, edifying,
building each other up, and also keeping each other accountable. Also, to pray
and read the Bible daily in growing in their faith. These are all so important
take home points. These kids have an amazing time at camp experiencing God, yet
what happens the moment they step down in their home town? Back to reality. Back on the grind. It
gets tough because a lot of their friends aren’t going to like this new-found believer
of Jesus and there will be flack from people. Friends are going to want to go
out and party and get drunk and high and look at porn and sleep with girls…the
only way you can stay focused on Jesus is looking to Him each and every day for
strength—He speaks to you through His Word—dig into it! I mentioned that there
are so many different denominations out there because of what man-made ideas
put on top of the Truth. At the end of the day, it’s important to hae
theoliogical stances but it doesn’t matter what denomination you are: The
bottom line is that we need to follow Jesus Christ with our whole lives and repent of our
sins. Pure and Simple.
I, of
course, shared Matthew 5 with this Huddle after what happened at UCLA! I had us
all make a pact to stay pure and flee from sexual immorality. I gave them a
list of Bible verses to help them in their walk with purity and will be sending
all my boys a copy of “Every Young Man’s Battle”—a book that helped steer me in
the right direction in my commitment to stay pure throughout high school and
college.
Nathan
always was encouraging to the other guys and could tell he was strong in his
faith only being a sopohomere in high school. I told him he was going to be a
pastor someday and he told me he was very encouraged by my testimony and that
it IS possible to remain pure for your wife, even throughout difficult
circumstances. So, I was stoked about that—again confirming my favorite verse:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God showed me in a
very real way how the circumstances I’ve faced in life have all been for a
reason. I was able to be transparent these past two weeks and encourage younger
dudes because of the work God has
done in my life in saving me from very difficult situations. At the time, it
sucked obviously—But I knew it was for a purpose—and I was able to see a little
of ‘why’ by being able to share it with these boys.
The other
guys: Robbie, Robert, and Noah all were chill dudes and now are going home
stoked to grow in their faith! We all got Miguel and the other lacrsosse guy
who was in a different huddle, Alex, a shirt from the FCA store and wrote them
each a note (Alex said he would frame the note) to welcome them to the family
of JESUS! It’s a celebration! Party time!
There are
many stories that came from the Huddles that would take up a novel to write and
I would love to talk more about this in person—so hit me up and let’s grab
coffee!
I was the
only lacrosse huddle leader—lax is still gaining popularity on the West Coast.
There were six lax players overall.
Davis was
amazing. Thank you for your support. Because of it—hundereds of campers etiher
rededicated their lives to Jesus or accepted Christ for the first time. Lives
were truly changed. One of the huddle leaders, Jess’, foot was healed simply
after some of the guys prayed over it. I saw transformation within one week. I
know God can transform you life within a moment.
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