Youth Camp

As I sit here contemplating what ‘Joy over Chaos’ actually looks like in practical terms, as i start a new business while also returning to work in the NHS, alongside the  increase in my hours as a parish nurse, adding in a house move, and my daily attempts to be a mum to many teenagers and a few in their twenties, all while trying desperately to manage my chronic fatigue and other health conditions ….. I feel like I’m failing at every level and some days it’s hard to see the Joy in the chaos.  

But today as I sit recovering from a chest infection, which has inevitably come from burnout, I’m drawn back to this last week. Alongside a fantastic group of leaders, I headed off to a youth camp, helping lead a group of 25 youth at this church camp with almost 11000 other youth, with morning and evening meetings, seminars, lots of different activities: dancing, Laser tag, fairground rides and the cow shed!

Water fights were had, volleyball was played, card games got competitive, people got creative, singers sung, dancers danced and the rest of us pretended we could do both!!!

But this week was the ultimate definition of finding Joy in the Chaos!!

Finding Joy in the exhaustion

Finding Joy in the weight of carrying so many teenagers’ trials and tribulations

Finding Joy when your completely overwhelmed both physically and mentally

Finding Joy in the noise

Finding Joy when you’re trying to get them all to the same place all at the same time with varying different needs that needed meeting…… it was for the most part like herding cats!!!!

But the Joy was in the laughter, the fun, the dancing. The Joy was seeing each one of the young people worshiping Jesus, all on their own beautifully unique journey. The Joy was in watching the youth care so deeply for each other and praying for each other.

The joy was in the food cooked by an absolute legend of a lady in the church. The Joy was in the bedtime stories that gathered multiple youth groups every night. The Joy was my head hitting the pillow knowing they were all in bed (for how long was always anyone’s guess!!) The Joy was going to sleep every night knowing despite the exhaustion, the Chaos, the hard work all the kids had encountered their father in heaven and were changed people, more equipped than they were at the start of the day, to go and be disciples of the Lord.

So as life goes back to normal and I go back to work and finish unpacking the house while juggling the Chaos of being a mum I need to remind myself that despite the Chaos God is in the each moment and will give me the strength and Joy needed each day to get me through I just need to look for it. If I can survive a week as a youth leader in the Chaos of a youth camp, I can also survive the Chaos of my day-to-day life as long as I remember Gods in control.

NB, I wrote this a few weeks ago but life was really chaotic and I never got round to posting it!!!

Blessed are those who seek His face, Who bend their knee and fix their gaze on Jesus, They won't be shaken. - Bless God by Brooke Ligertwood