In between grades 5-10, my favorite time of the year was going to youth camp in the summer and getting to do all of the outdoor activities involved with that. I really enjoyed the spiritual aspect, but as a young young person it never really clicked that learning about Jesus was the whole point of the camp. For SLAM students, I do not think there is any possible way they could walk away from the week not understanding that Jesus is the reason for everything we do.
Lets walk through the daily SLAM schedule… wake up, breakfast, worship, Word, serve, dinner, worship, Word, Word again but in a different context, and bed. In their schedule, there was very little room for typical camp things such as swimming, playing games, making bracelets, hiking, etc. However, there was time for one thing: Jesus. Students spent a great portion of their week serving the least of these all around Nashville and every evening were given moments to worship and connect their service experiences to the Word of God. At the end of the week, every student that I talked to was most deeply impacted by the service they gave to others; not the meals, the short games, or the funny skits, but the people they served.
What I learned about ministry from this experience is the best way to help kids learn the value of service is to put them in it rather than just teaching them about it. While fun is important for the kids, the only thing that will really last is the time spent investing in them and the time they invested into other people. At the end of the week, I was in tears when I heard the testimony of so many young people that were deeply impacted by serving the Lord this week throughout Nashville. While my youth camp experience was one I will always cherish, I can’t help but think how much more I would have learned if I went to a camp like SLAM where student’s main activity is service, worship, and the Word; a place where God is seriously worshipped and His word seriously taught. I think I am slowly learning that the best way to teach people God’s word is to put them in situations where they have to live it out; the only way these youth will gain a heart of service is by serving people now in their communities.
I often wondered why other people were not serious about Jesus when I went to youth conferences/camps, but as I reflected this week I realized that is because they were never serving Him. Maybe they lifted their hands during worship or took clear notes, but many of them never spent time serving the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. This week, SLAM students did that very thing and in doing so served Jesus. SLAM is indeed more than a youth camp, it is a trip where students lives are changed by their surrender to the Lord while they serve the poor and marginalized just as Jesus did. God moved this week in special ways and it was such a privilege to watch so many youth lay down their lives for their brothers and sisters in Nashville.