Here is the story I wrote for the CSSM Ontario Newsletter:
At the end of supper on the second night of camp I would have voted to send him home. Any attempt I made to get Kolton to sit down was completely ignored; I might as well have been talking to the plate in front of me. My husband Josh spent the entire meal following Kolton outside, then inside, then outside, then inside, then…you get the idea.
But there was something about someone actually following him that must have connected with Kolton somehow. Josh told him he was not leaving him alone because God does not want us to be alone. I am not sure if that is what made the difference but from that point on Kolton always sat beside Josh at each meal because, “He’s cool.”
The next morning at breakfast I was at the front doing an object lesson showing how right from when we are born we have sin and no matter how good we are we cannot become sinless again. It’s only when we accept Jesus and He comes into our lives that we can be pure and clean. Kolton was all eyes and as soon as I was done he came up to figure out how I had done the object lesson. At that point I think he was more interested in the science then the message I was giving. (It WAS a pretty cool object lesson)
But the following night was different. My topic was Heaven. I was telling the kids about things we know that will be in heaven. For example music, relationships, beauty and, best part of all, the One who makes it heaven, Jesus. While I was speaking Kolton said to the staff person beside him, “I want to go there!” When I started talking about hell and how opposite of heaven it will be without Jesus, Kolton said, “I don’t want to go there! I want to be with Jesus!”
After chapel was dismissed that staff person called Josh over to talk to Kolton. Kolton had a hard time believing that God could really forgive him but as Josh talked to him and then prayed for him he wanted to pray to God for himself. A simple and sincere prayer followed where Kolton shared his heart with God and asked Jesus to come into his life.
The next morning Kolton had a question for me, “Not that I ever want to do this, but could I ever ask Jesus to leave my heart?” I was able to share with him that God is now his Father and that he has been adopted. That means that he is a son and therefore even if he would get angry at God or if God would become upset at him (even though God is slow to get angry) he would still be God’s child.
Kolton was still not a perfect camper. He still got talked to a few times. But what a story! The boy I was ready to send home became the high point of my summer! Here was a boy who realized he was a sinner but heard the good news of Jesus and saw His love at camp and so trusted in Jesus to save him.
If you think of Kolton, please pray for him. He’s had a great start but there’s still more growing to do!
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