A little over a month ago I flew out to Glorieta, NM where I met my new family for the summer. There's 37 full time FUGE staff here which makes us the third biggest camp in the country which means LOTS of stuff is going down. There's also 75 full time Glorieta staff here that help run this beautiful conference center site. Other camps use the facilities here throughout the summer too so there's never a dull moment. This is also my first experience with a combo camp which makes this an even more crazy place to be. I am a MFuge Bible Study leader so I take a group of kids from different churches into the city of Santa Fe to do mission work. There's also lots of Centrifuge, XFuge, and XFuge-on-Mission Bible Study leaders here which do similar work to myself, but we all cater to what the churches that come here need. You can ask me more about it later if you're curious about the differences.
Most of the sites the MFuge leaders go to are in Santa Fe, but the majority of the sites I go to are located near a small city named Espanola. I've gotten to go to two Boys and Girls Clubs in the area and the children I come into contact with are so special. There's a decent mix of home backgrounds for these children, but some of the home-lives of these kids just break my heart. I was eating lunch one of my first days on site and a kid just blurted out that his mom had died in a car accident a few years ago. It was just so random and matter-of-fact that it really just touched my heart in a particular way for these children. I've only actually worked two weeks of camp and I have this week off so I'm ready to get back to site and love on these kids some more.
I've taught Centrifuge before and grown up going to MFuge so I knew what to expect heading into this experience. It's still another thing to actually do everything you've learned/heard about and it's definitely a tiring experience. I'm using this week to catch up on rest and do things I haven't really had a chance to do yet. Leading kids on site is a unique experience and slightly terrifying if I'm being honest. I have a couple of adults to help me (thankfully), but I'm pretty much on my own out there and I really want my Bible Study kids to interact with my site kids and love on them. I'm teaching Games and Recreation so of course my focus is playing games which is easy. It's difficult being more of a facilitator than jumping right in and playing everything. I just try and make sure that everybody is interacting and things are running smoothly. God has proven time and time again that any worrying I do is pointless. I love seeing the work that God does through my Bible Study kids and in them.
I can't remember the exact numbers from weeks 1 and 2, but we had over 70 students accept Christ as their Savior last week which is incredible! Praise God for His redemption! That's my favorite part about camp and why I love Fuge camps. One of the mottos is "life change" and I get to see it every week. I know God has done a work in me through these camps and I hope that I can give back a portion of what was poured into me into these students. I'm looking forward to the grind of 3 weeks of MFuge and I can't wait to be utterly exhausted at the end of it. God is so good and I can't wait to see what else He has in store this summer.
"I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. " Philippians 1:6
In Love,
Bill
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