In 2004, we took 14 kids from our area (Hertford, England, 20 miles north of London) to Saranac for summer camp. We do this trip once every four years. The other summers we have camp somewhere else in Europe. Katie, one of the girls who came with us, signed up to go after we had done an assembly at her school where we talked about camp and showed the camp video. Katie signed up, wanting to go to America, but she had no idea what was in store for her.

 

At camp, Katie began her relationship with Christ. After camp, she got involved in Young Life on a weekly basis, coming to club and Campaigners regularly. But during her sophomore year she began to fall away. None of her friends were Christians. Her family wasn’t either, and they began to make fun of her and gave her a hard time about it. She stopped coming to Campaigners, and pretty soon she stopped attending club.

 

When we began to gear up for camp the next summer, Katie was the first one to sign up. We took kids to Raasay, Scotland. It is an island where we stayed in a 250-year-old Georgian Mansion and did incredible outdoor adventure activities like rock climbing, rappelling, sailing and hiking to the top of a mountain. While there, Katie’s faith was restored, and she was more excited than ever to continue the journey she started with Christ the year before. She also went on a mission trip with our church after camp that summer, and that really helped her see she is not alone in her faith.

 

Recently, Katie came to talk to me because she wanted to do an assembly at her school. This is highly unusual. Only teachers talk at the assemblies. But the deputy head at the school, who is also a Christian, said yes to her. She had 15 minutes to do or say whatever she wanted. In England, it is possible to talk about God at school. As a matter of fact, schools are required to teach religious education. Every school is also required to have assemblies weekly for students to hear about different moral issues.

 

So it is in this context that Katie wanted to share her faith to her peers — 1,000 girls to be exact, and only a handful of them are Christians. She asked Carrie Brown, the other staff person in our area, and me to help her. We attended the assembly to support Katie, and we listened as she stood up before the whole school and shared how she met Christ at a Young Life camp. She talked about how He has changed her life forever and that He can do the same for anyone there who wants Him to. Carrie then showed a slideshow of pictures of Katie and other Young Life kids at camp, while the song “Walk by Faith” by Jeremy Camp played.

 

This school has opened its doors to Young Life in a big way. We had already done one major assembly where we shared the Gospel with the whole school, and we did another one in December in which we had 45 minutes to talk about the true meaning of Christmas. It was amazing.

 

We have some incredible kids here in Hertford who are really growing in their faith and reaching out to their friends. Katie is one of them. In a place that is hard to be a Christian, she is doing it and doing it well.