They'll know we are Christians by our love...

My first memory of being in church as a child is not of a Christmas pageant or a Sunday school class. Instead, I remember a very simple moment in worship. Crowded into a pew and standing between my mom and dad, I was frustrated that I could not get a good look at the hymnal that my parents were holding above me. And all around me the unison voices were singing loudly the simple phrase, "and they'll know we are Christians by our love." Perhaps it is because this hymn was part of my first memory of church that it is still one of my favorites today. And yet I did not fully understand the implications of the hymn until this past summer.

I had the honor of serving as a Friendship Camp Counselor this past summer in Oklahoma. The camp serves a unique group of children that often does not have the opportunity to attend church camp. The children invited to this camp are between the ages of 8 to 12. All of them come from homes that are considered to be at risk. Whether they have been scarred by abuse, neglect, poverty or many other things, these children all come with their own story of heartache.

Going into the week I spent there I barely knew what to expect. However, as time passed it was clear that these kids were, first and foremost, kids after all, each with his or her own delightful personality. But their pain showed through in their often wild behavior or timid manner. So we kept the kids busy with games, crafts, and projects and showered them with positive attention.

Yet, in the back of my mind I thought something was missing in this "church camp" setting. I kept waiting for the worship services and the devotionals and the millions of other things that I had done to learn more about God at the camps I had attended. I waited and waited, but the time never came when we sat down and talked in depth about God. At first this frustrated me a great deal. How could we leave the camp without sharing the good news with them?

As the week progressed, it gradually occurred to me that forcing the hope of God in these children's faces would have the opposite effect on them. Everywhere they turned in their own lives, the presence of God was not nearly as obvious as it is in many of ours. Promising that God would always take care of them would only let them down when they returned to a life full of pain. Therefore, I began to search for ways to touch their lives with gospel and grace, without shoving a false sense of hope upon them.

The opportunity came on one of the final days when we took all of the campers to a water park. For many of these kids it was their first time to ever go to a water park; for some it was their first time to swim. However, a few older kids told everyone about all of the cool scary slides and attractions. So of course, regardless of swimming ability, each child set out to complete the ultimate kid test: crossing the lily pads floating on the deep water by holding only onto the rope overhead. As a concerned counselor, I began to panic, thinking that the kids would not be able to do it and feel humiliated. Nevertheless, I watched as the first child took a hold of the rope and carefully swung to the next lily pad. As her body began to shake and her hands began to slip, several campers swam up just a few feet away from her and began to cheer her on. With their support and advice she made it across, as did the next one and the next one after that, each with a growing number of fans cheering them on. As they completed the course their faces lit up and it was clear that for once they felt loved and accepted for who they were.

It was that day that I discovered what it meant to be recognized as a Christian by our love. I didn't have to tell them all the Bible stories I knew or quote inspirational scripture for them to feel God. God was present in the actions of love that each of the counselors and campers directed towards each other. It became so clear to me Friendship Camp was about providing the kids one week of non-stop Christian love. I think we accomplished this supreme goal. May everyone know we are Christians by our love.