CYIA 2018 OREGON (June 16th-27th)

CYIA is always a challenging and rewarding week. CYIA 2018 was no exception, in fact it outdid all the other years. This year, I had three main roles: Councilor, Team Trainer, and Worship Leader. These three roles each presented a unique trial and prize. 

As a Team Trainer, I had the privilege of having five students of varying levels: Blue, one, two, three, and five. Blue is a special level that was created a few years ago for students who are either 12 years old or have a special need that makes them unable to do the usual CYIA tasks. Levels 1-5 are assigned by how many years of CYIA they have attended. My team was perfectly balanced. They worked very well together and were each mature individuals on their own. 

My level Blue was a particular treat. She was a 16 year old with a slight learning disability that meant that I needed to put extra time into her in order for her to feel comfortable teaching. The other delight was that she is my sister! I was so excited when I learned that she would be on my team. She is a very mature woman who just needs someone to encourage her and the leadership at CYIA thought it would be a good idea for me to work with her since I know her very well. She does very well with her teaching; she actually did better than a lot of first year or second year students. For those of you worrying that she might have been a bit embarrassed to have me as her team trainer, I did ask her before CYIA how she would feel about it and after how she felt it went; she told me that she had a good time and might even consider letting me be her team trainer again next year.

Councilors are in charge of a group of teens that sleep in their room. I had six girls in my room. They were quite the wild group. We did not quiet down very well at night and kept getting reprimanded by the deans. At first I thought that, because we were so crazy, we would never be able to have any meaningful conversations. However, these girls opened up in amazing ways and I learned so much from them.

A special challenge this year was working with a few girls who were having a really hard time at camp. One told me about her home situation and the other did not, but I suspect something was up. I cannot say anything more about it, but if you feel led please pray for these two. They are really hurting and I know that only God can heal their hurts.
In short, CYIA was great! There were 142 students and about 70 staff, many children were told the gospel and so many chose to believe on Jesus for Salvation. Please pray for these children, that their love for God would grow and that they would continue in their walk with God.