Work Week!

Our team of ten college students got back from Work Week a few days ago. Work Week is a week where volunteers travel to camps all over the country to get the camp ready for campers during the summer. In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and be a random for many."  It's easy and natural for us to want it to be the other way around, but as our team found this past week, there is great joy in serving and giving their lives away. Psalm 100:2 says to "Serve the Lord with gladness..." Most of our girls were in the dining hall, which was not the most rewarding job because they felt as if they weren't doing anything that seemed to have lasting value, that years from now they could say "I built that!" or "I painted that!", but it ended up being an incredible experience. It was powerful in large part because they got to work alongside the Capernaum group. The unity and love between the groups was overwhelming. Their Capernaum friends were so amazing, fun, and full of life. They worked hard and played harder. They danced, told jokes, and always put a smile on everyone's faces. The second to last night, they put on a Capernaum talent show for the whole work week crew, complete with program, characters, and everything. They did dances, stand-up comedy routines, recited poetry, sang Justin Bieber, and did the infamous Banana song with strobe lights and the whole shabang. At the end, they turned on some music and, in true Young Life form, everyone had a huge impromptu dance party. The whole Fayetteville crew was on stage jumping up and down in a huge mosh pit with their new Capernaum friends. It was a beautiful moment of fun and laughter and that John 10:10 abundant life. Everyone on that stage was loving with wreckless abandon...loving each other like Jesus loved. The entire week was full of moments like those... When you're able to have deep and meaningful conversations with people you'd only met two days before, or having a dance party with hundreds of college kids that you don't even know, but you're all their for the same purpose; spending time with Jesus in one of the most beautiful places on earth, sharing life stories, finding ways to laugh hysterically even when you're cleaning disgusting bathrooms or picking up sticky plates for the 8th time, or playing freeze tag with the Capernaum group. It was moments like those made everyone so incredibly grateful for Jesus and the work He calls us to. It's not because He can't do it. It's because we experience Him so richly and completely when we experience the freedom of walking in His will. It made the team realize that He's the common denominator in so many lives. He breaks down all barriers so that we can work and play as one unified body of believers. Work Week is truly an incredible opportunity to serve with joy and gladness. It's an incredible opportunity to give your life away only to find it.