This letter is FULL of incredible insights, memories, and connection points from a Campers perspective. Please enjoy seeing God's providential hand standing by this young man through time.
Email received from former camper. August
2017
My name is Anthony
M*******. I am writing this letter to express my gratitude for this ministry.
I grew up
in an abusive home and ended up in foster care on a few separate occasions.
When I was about 10 years old I was sent to camp from my foster home (probably
to give them a break; I was a difficult kid to deal with).
I had never
heard about, nor seen in action, the love of Jesus. RFKC was an experience like
never before. The foster homes I was in varied in religious beliefs from Catholicism
to agnosticism, but when I went to RFKC I experienced, for the first time in my
life, the consuming love of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I had the Gospel explained to me in a way that
I could actually understand. My birth mom was a Jehovah's witness and I assumed
that made me one until I met a group of apologetically strong man of God that
explained sound doctrine to me.
I ended up
attending camp for a few more years until I reached the cut off age. My final
year of camp some of the camp staff committed to discipling me outside of the
camp through the proper channels of the Connecticut foster care system (DCF at
the time). Over that next year I began regularly attending a Bible teaching
church.
Eventually
I moved back home with my birth mom, who was a non practicing Jehovah's
witness. We moved around the country on section 8 housing and I was exposed to
a lot of other opposing worldviews. I eventually determined I would become an
atheist as it was the easiest worldview to adapt to in any environment without
any training necessary. I also liked the idea of no eternal consequences for my
actions.
Fast
forward a couple year I became the statistical foster youth ending up in jail
on multiple occasions and homeless on other occasions. I made a family out of
the other people who were doing and selling drugs with me and the only time I
went to church was to use and manipulate the "dumb religious folks"
around me.
After years
of living far outside of the will of God I had an extremely eye opening
experience when God allowed me to see in the Spirit, the very real darkness
that surrounded my life. In a rock bottom moment I decided to turn to God and I
remembered the only God I knew of that I had actually experienced. All of a
sudden atheism seemed so foolish to me and I began a journey of rediscovering
Jesus. If it wasn't for RFKC, I wouldn't have known where to turn.
Now I am a father
in a fatherless nation, and husband in a time broken families, and a man of God
leading my family, church and community into deeper obedience to the great
command and great commission and a relationship with a great God. I truly wish
to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
