Sarah Chambers Uncategorized

A Season for Everything: A Letter from the Chambers Family

Delanco Camp has always held a special place in our lives, but never did we expect that our family would be fortunate enough to call the grounds our home. On June 12, 2013, we officially moved to Tabernacle, NJ and started our next chapter together.

It has now been over four years since we first moved to Delanco Camp. We’ve conquered five full seasons of camp, getting the chance to personally see how the Lord moves in the lives of all who step foot on the grounds. We’ve raked what feels like a million leaves. We’ve have had our fair share of chipwiches and pretzels rolls. We’ve played countless night games. We’ve spent many nights star gazing on the soccer field or movie nights in the Tabernacle. We’ve had the incredible privilege to serve together as a family year after year. We’ve been lucky enough to create friendships with campers and watch them grow into men and women of God right before our eyes. There’s been a lot of laughter, a lot of tears, memories filled with immeasurable joy and times of pain. We are so incredibly grateful for this chapter in our lives.

Ecclesiastes 3 states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Every story is filled with many chapters, a beginning and an end. After much prayer and consideration, this chapter of our lives is coming to a close. At the end of November, we are stepping down from our position as the Caretaker family at Delanco Camp.

The Lord has truly blessed us these last four years with so many beautiful moments that we will treasure forever. We have felt so fortunate to be able to serve the Lord, campers, and staff year after year. We are grateful the Lord called us to Delanco Camp, and while it is very bittersweet to be leaving this home, we are all looking forward to where God will bring us next, including spending quality time with Tom’s father, who recently celebrated his 91st birthday earlier this year.

We will always love this place and it will continue to hold a special place in all of our hearts. We will continue to pray for the future of the camp. It is our hope that the Lord will continue to work through the sandy, holy grounds of Delanco Camp to change the lives of generations to come, just like He has used it to change ours.

Thank you for letting Delanco Camp be a beautiful chapter in the Chambers family story.

-Tom, Kellie, Sarah & Emma

Sarah Chambers 2016, Junior High 2

Own It!

This week, over 11,000 athletes are competing in all kinds of events in Rio, Brazil for the Olympics. It seems, that just for a moment, the world is uniting together for one common goal: to go for gold.

Here at Jr. High II this week, we’re celebrating the Olympics! Dorms are split into countries to compete for medals, and the Tabernacle is lined with flags representing 16 different countries.

One things that Olympians all have in common is that they own their skills and talents. They own it.

This week, we’re looking at how “owning it” translate into the Christian walk. You see, when it comes to faith, it has to be your own. It can’t be your parent’s, your siblings, your friends, your pastors faith. It has to be your own. You’ve got to own your walk with Jesus because that is what He’s calling us to.

As Christians, we’ve got to embrace that God is calling us to give Him everything, not just a little drawer or box in our lives. He wants everything we are and have to offer. 

Just like an Olympian competing in the Games who is filled with pride and joy to be bearing their countries flag at the Olympic Stadium, we should be torches for Christ: shinning His light proudly and boldly to a dark and weary world.

Sarah Chambers 2016, Teen Camp

Free to Be Beloved

DSC_9369

It’s been a really amazing week here at Teen Camp! We have over 8o senior high campers out at Lake Agape, and so far, it’s been such a blast!
The theme this year is “Free to Be”. We’ve been looking at how we can find our freedom in Christ in so many different ways. We are free to be unplugged. We are free to be loved. We are free to no longer be slaves to our sins. We are free to be offerings. We are free to be children of God.
One of my favorite things about Teen Camp is always the Wednesday morning activity. On sleep in day, the staff always prepares an amazing surprise, which tends to become a spiritual highlight of the week. Last year, we looked at how people in some third-world countries live their lives by physically walking around camp “in their shoes”. However, this year, things got a little more introspective.
This year, students and staff walked barefoot around camp in a set of pre-ordered stations. Each station had a task that was going to make you think. The first station my group went to asked, “What is it that separates me from God?” After some time to think it over, we were asked to write down a word a phrase that symbolized the thing that separates us from God on the top of our feet with a washable marker.
The next station my group went to was a station that was asking us: “How do I see myself?” There, students were asked to grab a mask, and on the inside, they were to write three things they thought about themselves. It could have been positive, negative, or even neutral, but it had to be honest. On the outside of the mask, was the following Hebrew phrase: ahuvah. In the third station, we were asked to look at ourselves in mirrors for 10 minutes, thinking about how we, others, and Gods sees us.
After each group was finished with their third station, we all moved towards the beach. Set up at the beach were 9 chairs and 9 buckets of water. From there, counselors each took a spot at a chair, and had their students line up and began washing their feet.
This week, I have the privilege of serving as a Teen Camp counselor to some pretty wonderful senior high girls. I’ve seen foot washing so many times, and read about in the Bible. I’ve seen it at weddings, and even at camp before. Yet, for the first time, I was taking part in it.
Getting the chance to wash my camper’s feet was emotional. As I watched the words they had written on their feet earlier dissipate into the water, I felt closer to God and was able to see even a small, microscopic percent of how much He loved us. He humbled himself to come down into the earth, to bring us redemption. Because he loves us.
After the student’s feet were washed, we gathered around the flag pole in front of a giant cross. One of the teachers this week began to share a story about a 14th century painting that was done by a Russian artist. It’s called “The Trinity”, and it depicts three angels in a triangle to represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What some of the researchers who discovered the painting were trying to figure out was why the artist left glue residue right in the center of the painting. Their best guess? The artist had intended the painting to have a mirror affixed to it, right in the center of the Trinity. We asked the student’s to bring us their mirrors, and as they did, we began fixing them upon the cross.
You see, it doesn’t matter how we see ourselves, our how our friends, families, schools, or even sports teams view us. It doesn’t matter if we think we aren’t good enough. It doesn’t matter if we believe that God can’t really love us. You past doesn’t matter. Your failures don’t matter.
We are free to be because God calls us ahuvah. And you want to know what that means? Beloved. In Christ, our identity is a beloved, child of God. And that’s really all that matters, isn’t it?