I've been going to GM Camps since I was 12 years old and out of those 6 years GM camp 2016 stands out the most. To be honest GM camp 2016 wasn't the camp I fell in love with God, it wasn't the year I found inner healing, it wasn't even the the camp I had the most breakthrough at. What makes it stand out from the rest is the heart change and life transformation that I experienced after I got home. I grew up as Christian but I had never fully surrendered my life to Christ. After the prompting of the Holy Spirit,  the prayers of my peers, and the leaders at camp, I began to give into the the tenderness of God's control over my life. As I began to die to myself, God started a work in my life to touch others hearts with my prayers and passion. Gods love began to express itself so vividly that I literally become a different person than I was before camp. Even now, 9 months after the most amazing week of the year at camp, I find myself with open doors to evangelize, disciple, and share the love of God, and I'll be darned if I don't step through that door and let God use me and my new found passion. 

Since camp I've been more open to what God has in store for me and  I've been more trusting and more hopeful. Camp has changed my perspective on God and people. It has challenged me to trust God in tough seasons and to trust God when I can't see where I am going. GM Camp has opened my heart to brand new things and has challenged my faith to obey God & trust in Him even when I don't want to. 

At camp this year, I heard over and over the testimonies of students who were full of doubt and contemplating whether God was real or not. During worship, the presence of God moved through young leaders ministering through prayer. Over and over the words they spoke revealed to the students that God was alive,  that He loved them, and that He had always been near to their hearts. 

I started going to GM camps when I was 16. I had the most eye opening experience of my life then.  I was so lonely and insecure until I met Jesus and amazing other people my age encountering God. I left camp that summer water baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit and full of vision for my life.  I went to every summer camp after that, eventually becoming a cabin leader and started working on work crew, now my husband and I run the camp with the rest of the creative team.  GM Camp is a retreat from the norm and  a time when people truly get a glimpse of Gods goodness & come alive in Jesus! 

The past few years I've worked on the work crew building anything and everything. It always is amazing to see what a team of people create when we all work together, but the real satisfaction comes when  watching the faces of the youth light up as they see what we've worked so hard to build....pure joy and excitement; and that makes it worth every bit of effort!