Stop Izzy! Let me sleep in.  It is the morning of our long awaited trip to young life camp.  For the past eight years I have been going to Young Lives camp.  My family and I volunteer with the teen moms.  The goal of this camp is to help the teen moms come to God.  This camp impacted my life because I get to help, connect, and learn from these teen moms.

When we get there we usually have a day to help set up before the moms get here.  We help set up the nursery, whiles others clean up other areas around the camp.  They day they arrive we welcome them and show them to their cabins.  They drop off their luggage and go enjoy the camp.  

As the days passed they are occupied with games, activities, and chapel.  Chapel is a time the campers can be themselves.  Whenever I am at chapel I can just feel the Holy Spirit in the room.  It is so great to be able to connect with God and with the campers about what they are going through. 

I also connect with them outside of chapel.  Once, a teen mom went down the zip-line and her bandana fell off.  God told me to go get it for her.  I got it and returned it to her.  If only you could see the look on her face when I brought back her bandana.  It was God in the eyes of a teen mom.

The week flies by so fast.  The teen moms pack up and then they are ready to leave.  We have one more chapel with one more lesson.  At the end they ask this question, “Does anyone want to come to Christ?”  Almost immediately, thirty to forty hands rise into the air.  I watch this every year and I am still amazed with God and how he works.

When we leave the camp and I usually cry.  I love it so much it is like a home to me, but I know I will be back. This camp has inspired me to become a young life leader when I get older.  I feel that God has given me this camp to open my eyes to the world and to Jesus.  I have also learned that every life matters, even teen moms.