A Win - Win for the Kingdom

Being one of Echo Ranch's fuel truck drivers, I often have the opportunity to sit in the business section of downtown Juneau, waiting for people to cross the street and for traffic control guards to let me continue to the fuel depot. There are sometimes five or more cruise ships docked in downtown Juneau, almost doubling the population of this little capital city.

It's interesting to watch the people, some scurrying into the stores for t-shirts and souvenirs, some watching the eagles drifting in the currents above, some capturing photos of the float planes taking off in the channel.

But one thing I notice late in the day is that, as the people return to their ships, tired and footsore, most are carrying a bag full of treasures from their day, items that will remind them of the time they spent in our small town. The satisfied looks on their faces are matched with the satisfied looks on the faces of Juneau's business owners, both happy to have spent the day together. 

At Echo Ranch, we just wrapped up our week of Sabbath rest, a midpoint in our camping season when we stop and reflect on what has happened in the first half of summer. It's a time when we observe what's happening around us. We live in the reality that God's word will not return void, and that God's people, as we grow in our understanding of who God is, create an environment that draws campers, staff, and visitors to want to know who our God is!

As we pause and look around, we see all the different moving parts that have to work together day after day -- the campers coming, the counselors serving, the kitchen and facilities and program and all the departments seamlessly working together to facilitate ministry, together producing the desired outcome that God created us for, the fruit of ministry.  It's a little harder to discern than filled shopping bags in downtown Juneau.  

The desired fruit of ministry is changed hearts, lives who have been broken and damaged being made new in the love and power of Jesus Christ, and souls saved for the presence of God in eternity. We live expectantly. We have the knowledge of God's faithfulness, but we love the evidence, and sometimes God allows us a glimpse of what His love and grace can and will do.
A recent camp leading up to Sabbath week ended, and it was a real battle for the souls of several of our campers that week. On the hike to the end of the cove where the parents picked up their children, counselors shared the gospel one last time, and several campers prayed for the gift of salvation that day, huddled by the rocks at the end of Echo Cove! While we as staff rejoiced and prayed for these new converts, we never expected to hear the rest of the story, trusting in a faithful Shepherd who knows how to take care of His sheep!

However, it was on an airplane ride several weeks later, from a grandmother who was seated next to one of our staff, that we heard how God was continuing to  work in the life of one of these campers! From the prayer at the end of the road, to a tearful revelation to the parents of her new relationship with God, from a teen who struggled with everything and everyone in her world, to one who now was beginning to embrace a new reality with an attitude reflecting her new faith, this grandmother was in awe of what God has done!  This is the fruit we seek -- not trinkets to be thrown away in the near future, but treasure that will last for eternity, valued by God, saved for His Glory!

A new child of God, excited in her newfound faith, and we as God's family, excited to see another child brought into the family by the gift of salvation! You have to love a win-win!