Kawayan Camp 2008 is over. How do I put a month’s worth of memories into words? 

Let me count instead the ways I encountered God in the ricefields of Negros.

• Each time I gazed at the starry sky or at a blazing sunset and marvel at their beauty.

• The only time I did a serious Spritual Retreat and finally was able to discern what I should do next.

• Each time the rain stopped long enough for us to do our special events outdoors without getting soaked.

• Each memory verse that reminded me of who God is and who I am in Him.

• The deep and not so deep conversations I had with the campers, my fellow counselors and the staffworkers about life, calling, love, and leading.

• Each step of the 1.5 km hike along the muddy ant-infested pilapil in pitch darkness. 

• That last night during the Community immersion, when I prayed for the lola in our host family and I understood her straight Hiligaynon without knowing how.

• Each station we designed for the Missions Night Amazing Race and how the questions challenged my readiness and willingness to do ministry.

• The many times I inadvertently hurt someone with my words and then realized how amazing grace is.

• Each hug and warm embrace I gave and received, and the trust willingly given and carefully kept in our cabin and small group discussions.

• The tears I shed as I watched The Kite-Runner.

• Each of the 60 testimonies from the campers of their own encounters with God during KC.

• The night after the campers left and I said to myself: It’s less than 24 hours and there are cobwebs in our cabin already…. I miss the kids.

• Each time we sang this song:

Knowing You Jesus

C G/B Am   F    C              F    G C
All I once held dear, built my life upon,
    G/B  Am    F C         Am      G
All this world reveres and wars to own;
C     F    G       C   C/E     F   G   Am/C
All I once thought gain I have counted loss,
      G/B Am   F    C      Am       Gsus4
Spent and worthless now compared to this.

G       F6   C    F/G  G    C
Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
      Am    Em/G    F
There is no greater thing.
          C/E             F/A
You’re my all, You’re the best,
          C/G              F/A
You’re my joy, my righteousness,
      C/E      F/A    C/G   G
And I love You Lord.

Now my heart’s desire is to know You more,
To be found in You and know as Yours,
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousness

Oh to know the power of Your risen life,
And to know You in Your sufferings;
To become like You in Your death, my Lord,
So with You to live and never die.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. — Philippians 3:7-11

For You, Lord, a thousand times over.