Each week at Fuge Camps, we begin with “P.P.” time. Usually at Panera, I sit down with the best Prayer Partner ever, Britnie, to reflect on the previous week of camp and pray over the week ahead. Before week 5, I sat with Britnie and prayed that the Lord would give me kids who were actually excited to be at camp. Up until this point, he seemed to bless me with a lot of sweet, but very shy and awkward students. I loved every single group of spitfires, but I was beginning to get discouraged because I couldn’t get them excited about anything. For my own sake, I needed to see a group who was really on fire, because I felt like I was the only person on staff who couldn’t get their students excited. I was letting the enemy convince me I was doing something wrong.

Enter the week 5 spitfires, who are arguably the most incredible, encouraging group of students on the planet. They screamed at Rec rally like their life depended on it. They dug deep in Bible study and hungered to see how the Lord wanted to transform their lives. They gave sacrificially to the missions offering, asked daily how they could pray for me, and offered so much support and excitement when I shared that the Lord had called me to go overseas this winter.

These students were the answer to the prayer we prayed that afternoon at Panera. After listening to Tim Wheat, the camp pastor, deliver his last message at closing celebration, however, I realized these kids were the answer to another prayer as well.

 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

John 17:20-23

This scripture has always been very dear to me. Something about knowing that Christ prayed on my behalf makes his love for me seem even more personal and intimate. When I read this passage and think of my Spitfires, I see that they are not only the answer to my prayer, but the answer to the prayer our Savior made 2,000 years ago. I saw these kids come together as a united team that built each other up in love. They left radically different than when they arrived 5 days before, and they went with the conviction that they had to share the reason for that change with everyone they met. They knew they met with the Lord at Panama City Beach, and they wanted everyone else to know it too.

So as I ended a week full of answered prayers, I’m trusting that Father will answer one more: that these incredible kids, who made such a huge impact on me in one weeks time, will spend the rest of their lives making an even bigger impact on those back home.

You’ve started something amazing in these kids, Father. See it to completion for your glory.