For WyldLife leader Andy Moore, it was hard to tell if his friend Collin was ever listening. During the past two years, Collin, an eighth-grader, had rarely missed a WyldLife club. But nothing seemed to sink in.
"He’d sit up front right next to the speaker giving the talk and would interrupt with his smart remarks," Moore said.
And if he wasn’t acting obnoxious, Collin withdrew, but he made sure everyone noticed.
"He’d sit on the side with a sweatshirt hood pulled over his head and around his face, and he’d put his head down," Moore said. "He never seemed like he was listening or he really got anything."
Not only had Collin been a regular at club, but he also attended summer camp and a winter camp last year. Collin said he wanted to return to Snow Wolf Lodge this summer for camp. Even though kids in his area are allowed to attend summer camp only once, Moore made an exception for Collin.
"I just knew his home life was pretty bad," Moore said.
During the week at Snow Wolf, Moore said, he noticed a difference in his friend’s receptiveness to the club talks, but he did not participate during cabin time discussions. Still, Collin was trying to get attention however he could. He asked Moore to help him shave a bald strip down the back of his head.
At the end of the week, after campers had 15 minutes of quiet time following a club talk, Collin and the five other campers gathered with Moore for a final cabin time. All five expressed they had made commitments to Christ. But Collin told Moore that even though he understood what they had shared about God, he wasn’t ready to have a friendship with Jesus Christ.
"He told me he was not ready to stop having fun and being with his friends," Moore said.
During the final club, instead of a talk from the camp speaker, kids heard personal testimonies from the program team. One talked about his experience in high school running with the party crowd. He told campers that being a follower of Christ has given him a new sense of freedom he never experienced with his friends.
Following their testimonies, as Say-So began, Moore looked around and saw the five campers he hoped would participate rise to their feet. He continued to survey the room and noticed that behind him, Collin was standing up.
"What are you doing?" Moore asked Collin.
But without making a sound, Collin simply mouthed the words, "I changed my mind."
On the bus ride home Moore talked with Collin about his decision. Moore asked Collin what made him want to be Jesus’ friend.
"Collin told me that when he heard the words ‘complete freedom,’ he wanted that because he had never experienced that in his life before," Moore said.
As their journey home continued, the two spent time together going through Collin’s new Bible. "Collin said he wanted to read it every day, but he wasn’t sure if he could. But he would try."
A powerful personal testimony from a stranger resonates in the heart of a young man starved for attention. Those words and the consistent love from a leader start Collin on a life-long journey with the best Friend he’ll ever have.