Working for God

Colossions 3:23 –“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men”

I don’t know what summer it was, but that was our verse one year.  It was on our staff shirts.  It was a big deal.  We weren’t doing our jobs only because our boss might look after our shoulders, we were doing them for God.  That was a pretty big deal.

It’s something that I still think about.  When cleaning the toilet or mucking out stalls, I’m not doing it for men, I’m doing the job that God has called me to do now.  Right now, I don’t know where I’m heading.  I had applied to go back to university this fall but my application was not accepted.  I was sure that this was the year for me.  To get the rejection letter stung.  “Now what?”  Never before had the daily chores that come with being a wife and mother felt so oppressive.  “Why am I doing this?”  “Why is everyone else moving on with their lives while I stay put?”  And then this verse, which I first heard as a staff member at camp, comes to mind.  I might feel like I am staying put while life moves on for others.  I might feel like my jobs are unimportant.  But it’s not true.  I’m working for God.

I spent 2 years as a camper and 5 years as a staff member at Birch Bay Ranch.  I love that place.  The friendships that I have made there have continued since I left 13 years ago. My maid of honour and bridesmaids were all friends I made at camp.  I still make an effort to keep in touch with them.  Thanks to Facebook, I am able to keep in touch with many more people that I spent my summers with.

 I sent my son to camp the second he was 8 years old.  I actually called the camp on the first Monday of 2010 to make sure that he would get in!  I loved that I was sending him to the same place I had gone.  Dropping him off into the care of a boy that I had taught riding to 13 years previously made a very hard task so much easier.

I believe that I am the person I am today thanks to Birch Bay Ranch.  As a camper at Birch Bay Ranch, I enjoyed the time spent in the cabin and at campfire, talking about God.  I grew up in a Christian home, but by the time I was a teenager, my family was no longer attending Church.  We prayed before meals, but that was it.  I was a good kid, I wasn’t getting into any trouble, but I wasn’t thinking about what God wanted me to do with my life. Going to camp changed that.  At Birch Bay, God was there.  I know He’s everywhere, but He was there.  We talked about Him all the time.  Everything from the horses to the ropes course was developed to point to Him.  I had no idea that I was so thirsty for His Word and His Presence.  I couldn’t get enough.  Spending the summers so immersed in a God culture has been something I have been so thankful for ever since.  With my family, we do more than just pray at meals, and even more than just go to Church on Sunday.  I want my children to grow up in a God culture that is something like I first experienced at Birch Bay Ranch.

There’s more too.  Not only did I learn how to clean a toilet properly thanks to BBR, but I also learned a lot about horse care.  I had grown up with horses, but I had never really looked after them.  But it was at Birch Bay that I learned how to give a horse a needle and deworm a horse.  Having three horses of my own now, my experiences from camp made me a lot more confident to look after my own three equines.

I live a long way away from Birch Bay Ranch.  I don’t get there very often.  I haven’t been able to send my sons to camp for the last couple years, partially due to distance.  We just live too far away.  My husband likes to remind me that there are other camps (he doesn’t really know what’s he’s talking about) that are closer.  But to me, there is just one camp, Birch Bay Ranch.

Jaylene Reitsema aka Giggles

Lethbridge, AB