Big camp is many things. It’s more than staying up late and hanging out with friends with a cup of Milo in hand. It’s more than hearing your favourite speaker preach on stage and enjoying special items. Big Camp certainly is a great opportunity to socialise and soak up inspirational messages, but for me, it brings me to the cross. That’s my core memory.
Years ago, they had an actual, large, wooden cross as part of our workshop. Like the one used at Road to Bethlehem. They had us write on a piece of paper a sin that we struggled with. I put down one of the biggest problems I had in my life at that time. A secret thing that I knew wasn’t good, but which had a hold on me.
I wrote the name of this ugly thing and, as instructed, folded the paper before literally nailing it to the cross. Only God and I knew what was on that paper.
Picking up that hammer and nail felt strange, but it made me think. I considered the sacrifice Jesus made for my sake. How He bore not just my sins but those of every person ever. To ponder the weight of that is humbling.
“God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 CJB
Contemplating my Saviour hanging there on a bloodstained cross fills my eyes with tears. How deep must the love be to drive someone to make a sacrifice of such magnitude?
I wonder if whoever cleaned up after that exercise unfolded those papers and prayed for us. As I did eventually, “Praise God”, overcome that sin.
Your encounter with God may look very different from mine, but He has a way to reach all of us. Big Camp is but one place where you can see and feel His Spirit move.
If your spiritual awakening happens on camp, don’t let it end there, let it be the beginning of your journey with Christ. You won’t be hearing from world-famous pastors each day, but you have something better, God’s Word, plus a direct line to God through prayer at any time.
God will meet you wherever you are and work with you from there. Perhaps for you, that might just happen at Big Camp.
“Let us, then, feel free to come before God’s throne. Here there is grace. And we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it.”
Hebrews 4:16 ICB
WRITER: Stephanie Davies, attends Oasis SDA Church in Victoria.