As I type this, the time is approximately 1am in Live Oak. It has been a
long day that started early, but praise the Lord, we made it here to camp and
have had a great opening night of mFuge activities.
We left around 9am
this morning from the church and made it to Crestview, FL, before we stopped for
lunch. After about an hour to eat, we piled back in the bus and continued our
trek down I-10. We crossed the bridge into Mobile a little after 2pm (central
time), exactly according to plan. As we arrived at the college campus, some
construction at the front gate made it necessary to drive on past the entrance
and turn around. As we made the U-turn in a circular driveway, the bus bottomed
out on the incline of the pavement. After a couple of solutions proved futile,
the Lord provided us with a tow truck driver to help pull the bus from the
driveway.
Throughout the night, my mind has been circulating with
different thoughts and questions, all centering around that one instance we
found ourselves in this afternoon. I do believe that the holdup was an attempt
from the devil to distract us from what the Lord is going to do this week. The
question that I kept asking was, what was Satan’s purpose in using this
particular attack?
Obviously, it was not his attempt to keep us from
getting to camp. Let me assure you that we were never in any danger whatsoever;
our drivers continuously exhibited the best judgment throughout our trip. And we
were just a few blocks from the campus, so we could have walked to camp if it
had been necessary to do so while the bus was being worked on.
I believe
the attack came to hit us in some place we weren’t expecting: our excitement and
morale. Having just past the entrance to the camp and sensing the electricity of
the students as they anticipated what this week would be like, Satan’s plan was
to wipe away that feeling of excitement. He couldn’t keep us from getting to
camp, but he wanted to steal our zeal. He wanted to take from our students the
excitement that I had sensed in every “Are we there yet?” Was he successful?
Absolutely not! Our group is even more on fire for what God will do this week,
and the passion to see Him work within us is evident.
Tonight was the
opening celebration and ministry assignments for the week. Our group was split
several ways as they filled teams going out into the community of Mobile to
serve with kids, or do construction, or conduct sports camps. Later on, we came
back together as a church group to talk about the day and what was in store for
us this week.
Continue to be in prayer for us, that God would not allow
anything Satan throws our way to detract from the desire our group has to see
Him move in a mighty and powerful way. I can sense even through our short day
and night here so far that there are some tremendous things in store for each
student and for our group as a whole. Pray for strength for us on our first day
of site projects. Many of us are having to step outside of our comfort zones to
serve Him this week. And also pray that God would be exalted in the life of
every student and adult on this campus this week, whether they hail from Live
Oak or not.
