weekend in Oahu with Jesus

Last weekend I had the privilege to go to Oahu with a team of 10 to help with a local ministry there. We were mentors/camp counselors for a camp called Camp Agape. This camp’s main goal is to show the love, joy, and hope of Jesus to kids who are in really hard situations.

The camp is aimed at kids who have parents who are incarcerated. Most of the kids are victims of abuse, have or currently are homeless, are in foster care, and so many other things. A few weeks ago, our leadership team told our school about this incredible opportunity. They asked us to pray and ask God if we should go or not. When I prayed, I got almost an immediate yes. I was super excited even though I didn’t know anything about the camp.

Our school leader asked me and Mike (one of the other Leadership Track students) to head up the team and help coordinate transportation, meetings, etc. This was such good preparation for what leading a real outreach team will look like.

As the day to leave started approaching, we began to pray and ask God to move into the camp, even though we had no clue what we would be doing. All we knew was that we would be working with kids and they had been through some hard things. Nothing could have prepared us for the way God was going to move in this camp.

This video is a vlog about our trip!

The first day was themed “trust”, the second “love”, then “forgiveness”, and lastly “hope and prayer”. The first day we got there was pretty intense, because of the things these kids experienced they were pretty rough in their language and actions to each other. BUT, GOD. From the first day to the last day, there were RADICAL changes in these kids. They went from cursing each other out, to preaching on the stage how good Jesus is and how he is the only way. I have NEVER seen anything like it. We were all in shock at the impact this camp was having on these kids.

The camp is run by almost all ex-convicts and the person who started the camp was sentenced to 80 years to life in prison. He met God in prison and was sovereignly taken out of prison by the grace of God.

We got to speak the truth over kids who have never been told they were loved, wanted, or special in their lives. I am so happy that I got to witness God move in power and jumpstart hope and freedom in the lives of these kids.

One of the craziest testimonies of this weekend was an interaction I had with one of the junior mentors who was helping with the kids. Her name is Brandee and she had been on a long journey of giving her full yes to the Lord. She’s 16 and only a few weeks ago she stopped smoking because she wanted to be set apart from the world. During one of the activities she was sitting with a few of the other girls and Mike and I went and sat down with them. She started asking questions about what were were doing there, and we were explaining what YWAM is. I told her she should look into Island Breeze which is a ministry islanders can do through YWAM. At some point, I started talking about hearing God’s voice and I was telling her a testimony from New Zealand where I prayed from a name and I got the name Samantha and got to meet her later that day and pray for her and minister to her. As soon as I said the name, Samantha, she burst into tears and I was super confused. She told me to continue the story and when I was done I asked what was going on. She said that a few weeks ago one of her friends was praying for her and said he got a vision for her. The vision was a concrete sidewalk with yellow flowers lining it, and someone on the other end of the sidewalk was calling her name and said “You’ll know what to do next when you hear the name, Samantha”. THIS WAS CRAZY! We got to witness a prophecy fulfilled right before our eyes. Because of this, she is going to do a DTS when she graduates! She was reignited for Jesus with this simple move of God and we got to witness it.

There are so many other moments that we got to witness God’s love pour out over these kids. I’m so happy that God interested me to go and see the impact this camp is having on the community across Ouah.

To find more info on the camp check out their website https://campagapehawaii.org/about/ and watch the video below!