The following note was found by Pastor Derli among a stack of papers left over from summer camp.  I was blown away when I read this, as 17-year-old Bruna* comes from a family characterized by sexual and physical abuse, and she has been with us for only a short time.  We are not sure who it was intended for, but it showed an amazing grasp of Christianity for a teenager who had never even been exposed to the Gospel before coming to Hope a month earlier. 

Bruna’s camp letter

 At camp the Lord spoke to me tremendously about the theme “A man and woman after the heart of God.” I put myself in the Lord’s presence and had a conversation with God, asking “how can I be a girl after your heart”

When we went to the auditorium later, I was chosen to be a team leader, for the blue team.  

The Lord also spoke to me greatly during the devotionals, where the theme was “A great Servant,” where I learned about being a servant to become great. That  helped me understand what I always wanted to know about what God was thinking about me. 

The Lord also used aunt Bel to speak to us with a passage very well known that can be found in Samuel 8: 4 – 22 and Samuel 16: 1 to 12 where it says the great Lord ordered Samuel to anoint David as King. Here  I could see that the Lord does not look at the exterior, but at the interior.

For me it was a great experience to see that God has great things to do in the midst of His people.  But for this to happen, we have to leave space for Him to move in our lives.

The Lord also used other people to speak to me, helping me understand that to achieve the Lord’s blessings I have to seek His face. We can show our faithfulness by praying, doing the Lord’s work, and forgiving our enemies. 

To me this was an incredible testimony to the successful nature of this ministry, to witness so rapidly the first signs of true transformation. And her final comment about “forgiving our enemies” is significant, as this is an enormous hurdle to overcome for a girl like Bruna. 

* The name used is a fictional name.