Bob was 18 when he...
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Bob was 18 when he was asked to be a counselor at a church camp for junior highs, and it was a tough week. He wasn't used to the woods, and the night sounds of mice and owls startled him and kept him awake. Like most teens, he liked to sleep late and getting up early (especially with his sleep interrupted!) wasn't easy, either. The camp director and other counselors made fun of his morning crabbiness, forcing him to hide his feelings behind pleasantness. And, the boys in his cabin were busy testing his limits each day. Yet, each day he loved it more and more. The hardships were overshadowed by the sheer joy of finding himself atop a bluff, reading aloud from the Psalms, "I will lift my eyes unto the hills ..." and the eager report of a camper that 15 minutes stretched out on the grass taught him that "ants build highways, and isn't it neat that God made them so small and so smart?" By the end of the week, he had come to really love the kids and was thrilled to see several campers give their lives to God around the campfire. He returned home radiant, eager to tell family and church friends about his experience. But family and friends weren't all that interested. Some even made fun of him, and welcomed him "back to the real world." "It's so hard to communicate the beauty of what happened out there," he complained to his pastor. "And it's true, I wish I could feel that way all the time! How do you cope, coming home from such a great experience?" With his pastor's help, Bob did manage to translate that mountaintop experience into daily prayer, Bible reading and meditation. He did learn how to keep in contact with God. And eventually, he learned how to communicate that experience to others -- in fact, he became a parish pastor, teaching and guiding people every day into a vital relationship with God. -- Herrmann
