The summer I turned 12, the church plant across the street in our community center organized a week of summer camp. The moms saved up to send their kids but my parents weren’t part of the church and camp money wasn’t in our budget.
However, those church moms who could barely put food on their tables held a contest sending the winner to camp if they wrote in 100 words or less why they wanted to go. I’d already written a play our youth group had presented, but didn’t fully understand salvation. It seemed too wonderful to be true. But I went ahead and submitted my essay.
Guess who won the trip to church camp?
Yep, you guessed it … me! And because of that my life was changed forever.
On the evening before my twelfth birthday, the pieces came together and I understood and accepted the Lord’s wonderful gift of salvation that changed my life. Since then, as we can, my sons, grandkids, and I make it a priority and find joy in sending other kids to camps and supporting orphans overseas.
This January in Israel, I visited Nazareth Baptist School, the oldest Christian school in Israel since 1935. They are hoping to provide 400 scholarships at $150 each to send young people to summer camp. That’s a small price to change lives.
My grandson, Rocco, graduates from high school in June and turns 18 in August. Besides another gift, he’ll receive a camp scholarship in his name to send a young person in Israel to camp. Rocco will know the name of that person to pray for.
If you’d like to do the same, or consider sharing a donation between two or more friends, learn more at Donate — Friends of Nazareth.
I’m forever grateful for what that gift and reality mean in my life. And I hope you’ll consider giving another student that same opportunity for life-change too.
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