Worship pt 3

I want to tell you about a few times of when I have seen beautiful worship.

The first story is about a camper named Cathy. Every year she sings an old hymn, all four verses. She sings it with tears in her eyes, looking up to heaven. She sings this song wholeheartedly to her Savior. This will always be a beautiful picture in my mind.

Now I want to tell you about how I experienced worship this summer. For the third week of camp the worship pastor from Living Hope Church gave the message and lead worship in the evening. There was something really special about that week. Worship was really powerful during the evening service. There was this flow to the service and the presence of the Lord was in that place. There were several times every night that I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit so powerfully that it took my breath away, and I had to stop singing. During worship there was a camper named Larry right behind me. He is a really intense person. He shouts the songs like he is at a football game. He is like this all the time. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry because I was feeling so many emotions. He wasn’t goofing around. He was singing with his whole heart. You can only experience worship like this at Camp Daniel.

The last story is about an autistic camper. I was running the power point for worship and this camper was in one of the back pews with his counselor. He was standing up and facing me while he was rocking back and forth. Every once in a while he would turn around to the front and look at the words. Then he would turn back around, and he would say them as he continued to rock back and forth. It was over stimulating for him to face the front because there was too much going on, yet he worshiped in his own way. This is a camper who has been coming for a few years and he is in his own world most of the time. He doesn’t communicate very much with people. Every year the campers get a little more comfortable being there and express more of their feelings. Sometimes you question whether this is making a difference in their lives. He was comfortable enough to worship and that was the first time I have seen him worship. This summer a camper who doesn’t communicate very much with people was worshiping Jesus. I would say there is a lot going on in his heart. God is working, and it takes my breath away.