Tim Bit's in India

Connor (Tim Bit) in Northern Ireland

We love to tell stories about how camp is continuing to impact the lives of our campers and staff outside of our Summer Camp season. In the fall, we shared about Felicity (Hulkin) working in Brazil. This week - we'd like to share about another staff member, Connor (Tim Bit) who travelled to Northern Ireland to do a program through YWAM. We're excited to welcome Connor back in just a few weeks as a Spring and Summer Staff member. Connor wrote this a couple months ago but because where his team was travelling to, we had to keep it under wraps until they got back to N. Ireland. We hope you enjoy his story:

Lives are transformed at camp by the power of Jesus. I have seen lives transformed, and my own life has been transformed at camp. Three and a half years ago I did the PUSH Program (now Pit Crew) at camp and that was the first time I had ever lived in a community setting. I loved it and I knew I had to go back. I've been to camp every single summer since. And I can confidently say that my life has been changed at camp.
 
I have had a few different leaders at camp, one of which was Bam Bam, who happens to also be my cousin and kind of a camp legend. All of my leaders have shown me so much of what it means to be a servant of God. When I did the Arise Program in the summer of 2013, Bam Bam encouraged us to lead as servants and serve as leaders. This rocked my view of what a true leader should be. Since then, I have done the 6 week Internship Program and have come back to camp as Summer Camp Staff member. Some of my best friends have come as a result of these experiences.

DTS Team in Delhi, India

Something I learned at camp is that being a staff member isn't about our own experiences. It's about the kids who come to camp and this is what God has been making clearn to be in the past four months in YWAM (Youth With A Mission). At the end of September in 2015, I flew to Northern Ireland to do a Discipeship Training School with YWAM. It has been incredible learning so much. We have talked about the Father heart of God, Hearing God's voice, Spiritual Warfare, Servant Leadership, and much more. We have had some great speakers and I have met some many amazing people from around the world who are now my friends. We have people from Canada, USA, India, Lebanon, Sweden and Germany. Being one of the youngest people here, it has been very challenging at times to step up as a leader. I've learned that you don't have to be old in order to be a good leader. Being in Northern Ireland has stretched me, for sure!

As I write this, I am on the second phase of my Discipleship Training School, which is Outreach. I am working in Delhi, India. Our primary ministry is working with children and youth from the slums. I have found parts of it very exhausting when the kids constantly want me to play with them or carry them around because they are so desperate for love. This is when I have remembered what Bam Bam told me about servant leadership and what has been reinforced through my DTS training. I have really learned what it means to be a servant to God by serving these kids even when I don't want to because I'm sick or tired. It is in these times when I can ask God for the strength to love them more, and when God's love can really be shown to them. God's love is unconditional, and so when we show God's love out of His strength people are able to experience that love for themselves.

In May - I will be going to work at camp this spring and summer. One of the many things I have learned in the past year is the importance of going to camp in order to do God's work. I want to take what I've learned this year in N. Ireland and India and apply it to camp; working for God and for the people who come to camp. I am no longer a camper - going to camp for myself. But rather, it is time for me to serve, because it is when I begin to work for God that I will see lives changed by the power of Jesus.

See you this summer!
Connor (Tim Bit)