“This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other..“ 1 Corinthians 12:25 (New Living Translation)

This year’s camp has had several challenges – of which I have shared a few.  If you have been following along you know that I have suffered from a kidney stone, and Sarah is having continued health issues (this time stemming from some sort of stomach bug).  One challenge I did not expect was my class being disbanded and distributed among the other classes at camp.  I will not go into the specifics of why because I want to honor the students.  It suffices to say that many in the class were not interested in being there, and despite our best efforts, the class had become an unproductive learning environment. No amount of tweaking was likely to fix the issue.

This hit me very hard.  I had prepared for teaching this class for months.  I had prayed over the students and the environment.  I was looking forward to a positive experience for both the students and those on the Czech team that I had the opportunity to work with.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.  I was forced to acknowledge the class I looked forward to so much to was a failure.  This was discouraging to the entire teaching team for the class – both Czech and American.

On a spiritual level, this was also difficult.  What was God trying to show me through this experience?  Was I supposed to stop trying to teach English to beginner students (I don’t know)?  Was I supposed to stop teaching Czech students at all (I don’t think so)?  Was I acting out of pride or self interest (I don’t think so)?  Had I somehow been mishearing Jesus (I don’t think so)?

I would like to say that I brushed things off quickly and moved on.  I would like to say that I was a super leader with a capital “S”.  But as the situation developed over two days and I faced my emotional and spiritual soul searching, the team saw that I was suffering and did what any good team should do:  they prayed, bore some of my responsibilities, and showed compassion to me while I wrestled through the issue.  For that I am both humbled and thankful.

The truth of the body of Christ is that there is only one perfect head: Jesus.  All of the rest of us have hard days and need care.

Today was a fresh start in a new class (for me).  I joined Sophie and Rachael in the advanced English class and had a blast.  It was icing on the cake to have such an affirming day with students, however, the real comfort and perspective that I found in this situation was from the team members who showed me love and spoke truth when their leader was feeling low.  Thank you Jesus for such an amazing team.

Prayer Requests:

• That Christ would be glorified in and through the partnership between Family Bible Church and Církve bratrské v Českém Těšíně (the Czech church) this summer.