Cairn Brae 2024... Hey, I'm the intern!
Now, for those of you who have heard me talk about Scotland repeatedly for the last two years, let me tell you why it is such a special place to me! When I had just finished my freshman year of high school, I had a Club Beyond leader (Club Beyond is a branch of Young Life which is just for military kids) who told me that I needed to go to camp!! Now, first of all, I'm living in Germany, so I had no idea that going to a church camp was even an option, and I had never heard of Young Life (even though I was attending club/youth group with Club Beyond every other week)! But, after she convinced me, I headed out to Cairn Brae a few weeks later. (Down below is a picture of my Club Beyond leader Momo!! Literally so beyond thankful for her :)
It was a 20+ hour bus ride through Germany, France, England, and finally we arrived in the most beautiful place I've ever been! Those six days that I was at camp truly changed my life, allowed me to become a leader who shared her faith more boldly, and I got to see friends of mine come to know Christ for the very first time. As someone who had been going to "church camps" for my whole life, I wasn't expecting the camp to be as evangelistic as it was, but it was so refreshing to go back to the beginning of my faith and be encouraged by the foundational truth that God loves ME! He loves me, and he seeks to have a personal relationship with me!
Now, let me just say! Before I left camp that summer, I did think that I would go back one day! I at least hoped that I would! Then, fast forward to the fall of my freshman year of college - I'm living in Tampa, and one day I saw on Instagram that the camp was looking for "Summer Staff." The summer staff team is the group of volunteer leaders who help to run the camp for the campers who attend, and before I knew it, I was applying, getting accepted + buying tickets, and getting on a flight to Edinburgh! Little did I know that the people who I met in the Edinburgh airport Starbucks would become lifelong friends, that arriving at camp each summer would become an annual thing, and that serving kids in the UK would become my heart!
Fast forward to today, I've served at Cairn Brae for two summers, growing all the while and building life-long relationships, and now I'm headed back for the whole summer. Three months of hard work, loving on students, building relationships, and spending time with friends who are like family. I truly am in AWE of God's faithfulness and the way that he writes our stories so personally.
As I've been reflecting on God's faithfulness, I never would have thought as a 14-year-old, that as a 21-year-old, I would be going back to the same camp, serving the same group of military kids that I came with, all the while being surrounded by a team that loves and supports me! We have a God who is an incredible author, and I am so beyond humbled that he loves me enough to write my story!
So! That's what's coming up! As for right at this moment, I am saving up money for flights + a visa (woohoo!), savoring a few more months in the States before I head to the UK again, and thanking the Lord that while I don't even deserve to speak his name, "I am dirty rags" as Paul says, that he still chooses me. And he CHOOSES YOU! Where is it that God is calling you to go right now? How is he challenging you to step outside of yourself and become the servant that he has called you to be?
I love you all dearly, and I can't wait to tell you all about what the Lord does over the course of this summer!!!
Chat with you soon!
- Sav
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