My Blog

Staff Testimonies

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 14:03:11 -0700

It's now been five weeks since camp ended. Most of our staff have begun school. I've put aside most things related to the summer and have begun on church conferences and homeschool convention. And overall I'm enjoying the fall on this first day of September.

As with most things, you don't see the full effect of your wake until you look backwards as you see the extent of your influence. As the staff were processing the summer the first week in August, they were also doing a fair bit of writing. I was encouraged to read many of their testimonies of how God worked not only through their lives but also through them in the lives of their students.

Below are two staff testimonies. I pray that you are as encouraged as I was, and the our response to these stories of God's grace would be to the praise of His glory.

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It was a Monday morning, and though the first full day of camp is usually difficult, this one proved to be one of the hardest Monday’s of my life, but also one of the most rewarding. During the morning session, I became aware of a rumor going around that a good family friend of one of my girls has passed away the day before. Not knowing if it was true or has she was going to react, I braced myself for the worst as she calmly asked if she could call home during lunch. I watched, as mid-way through her phone conversation, her shoulders fell and her whole body crumpled with sobs. We sat down on the cafeteria steps as she told me that not only had this dear friend passed away, her dad had also been in the hospital for the past two days with heart trouble. Asking her if we could pray, I prayed and then listened as she approached the Throne of Grace with more confidence and trust in God’s sovereignty than I had ever heard come from the mouth of someone her age. She asked if things could proceed as normal, so I watched throughout the day as she capably and cheerfully led leadership practicum, threw herself into Frisbee and continued to respond to my queries as to how she was doing with, “I know this is where God wants me.” Never in my wildest dreams did I expect her to respond to her grief with such grace, and in this God showed me- and her- one more His power is manifest and His grace is sufficient. That night Dell Cook was doing his lecture, “Problem of Pain ,” which asks the question, “Why is their pain and suffering in the world?” I cautioned her that maybe she would want to sit this one out, as the role-play and debate that went on would often touch nerves. As it turned out, she did sit out in the lobby along with another student and staffer. The girls swapped their stories of God’s faithfulness in trials, and the four of us sat there and cried: the students because of their own personal ache, us staffers from exhaustion and complete and utter awe of God’s hand on each of these girls’ lives and His grace in ours for allowing us to witness this testimony of the strength He gives the suffering. That night she told the rest of the girls in my small group what had gone on during the day, and each one of them cried as they realized how lovingly she had served each one of them throughout the day, regardless of her hurt. Throughout the whole day and on into the rest of the week, my student displayed abounding love and grace to others- love and grace that could have only come from God during this time in her life.

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This past summer I experienced many different types of students; I am convinced that I could sympathize with virtually any stage of parenthood. I experienced the student who worshiped me as a three year old would his father. I experienced the stage of parenthood when the child ceases to be a child and becomes a friend. And then I experienced the student who made me feel as though I was the father of a rebellious teenager, and pushed me to the brink of human grace and kindness. And then there was the one student, near the end of the camp season, who will forever be etched upon my memory.   During the final night of my most trying week of camp, one of my students approached me and asked if he could skip our final t-time (small group time). The question itself was odd enough - why would you want to skip our final t-time together? - but what was even more aggravating was that a history existed with this particular student. During the week he had, clearly and effectively, communicated to me and my co-leader that he did not want to be at camp. For him lectures where too long, sleep was too sparse, and small group discussions provided little stimulation. His request to skip out on our final time together as a small group his final insult appeared - his last act in stating that he had no interest whatsoever in being at camp. And yet there was a sincerity, an appeal in his voice which seemed to defy his past actions and a sentiment upon his face expressing a trueness of heart.   ‘Why?’ I asked him, “Why do you need this time alone?’ It wasn’t the words he spoke, but the tone of his voice which convinced me.   “I have some big decisions coming up and I need to think about them,” was his reply. Fair enough. I wouldn’t allow him the entire small group time, but some time nonetheless. I allowed him the time reserved for packing - an activity in which he had already indulged - to have some time alone. Twenty minutes later, my other students were packed and I went to seek out my student. When I found him he simply asked for more time alone. I didn’t know what to do; in fact, all I remember is saying a quick prayer asking God to grant me wisdom, and in retrospect I believe he did. I granted him his alone time. T-time came and went, and as the rest of my students went off to bed, I found my now contemplative student willing to share the cause for his recent level of thoughtfulness. “I’ve never been a Christian” were his words, “I’ve never been a Christian until now.” During our t-time, he had been, perhaps for the first time, communing with God.  "Throughout the week invisible hands were working upon my student’s heart, God spoke voiceless words to his soul. Whether through the lectures, interactions with other students, or free time, I don’t know. God used camp to minister to this boy, making him his own.

Taking Each Other Seriously

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:09:13 -0700

My update this week isn't so much about what God is doing in my life but in my heart.

Worldview’s slogan is “Think Hard, Think Well.” I haven’t thought much about it until recently. Our culture over-emphasizes sharing experiences and under-values sharing ideas. Why do we value experiences more than good discussion? Maybe because like everything else, we don’t know what true pleasure is or that it can be found in talking about philosophy and theology over tea. We lack the knowledge—that we can think harder and push ourselves further—to have the desire to pursue such discussion. This is perhaps why Worldview students return to camp year after year: the lectures and small group time awaken in them a realization that they can think critically and grasp so much more about the nature or God and man than they ever thought possible.

As an athlete learns their point of failure—and consequently how far they can push themselves physically—so a Christian learns the extent of his faculties and thus learns that he has only been operating at maybe 50% of his mental capacity. “The glory of God is man fully alive” (St. Irenaeus). Maybe being fully alive is having all your faculties operating at 100%, as God intended. Fully seeing the hand of Providence. Fully enjoying life. Fully loving. Fully feeling sorrow and joy with the Body of Christ. And—when our faculties can hold no more—fully overflowing in praise for God Almighty. Fully contemplating the glories of God. And fully discussing revelations by fully embracing the purpose of the Body and friendship among its members.

Each summer, Worldview college staff seem to automatically grasp the desire for good discussion and the importance of each other. The staff “from the outset, [have] taken each other seriously” (“The Weight of Glory”, C.S. Lewis). They acknowledge from the beginning that the primary purpose of friendship isn’t entertainment. The primary purpose is to support, encourage, and spur one another on in the trenches of the Christian life. They realize that the trials they face together are real, the people that they interact with aren’t “mere mortal,” and their reward is the very glory of God. Their purpose is to push one another—against human nature and against the wisdom of the world—to pursue God’s pleasure and to root their pleasure in His. Staff see each other—not in a mercenary way—as stepping stones to further understanding God and receiving His graces.

I wonder why these relationships are so rarely found in life apart from the summer. Conversation is nonessential when our greatest need for friends is entertainment. I see three steps necessary to remedy this error.

1. We—I—must see that we are dependent on one another not for a good time but for the graces of God. God uses people to reveal Himself. God works through people to work in us. “For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Corinthians 12:14).

2. We—I—must realize that we are at war, wrestling against “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). In the rigors of life, God has provided comrades whose value far exceeds how funny they are or what a good time they have on the weekends.

3. The means to grow and to push each onward is done primarily through talking. By the grace of God, the staff get this. Such “seriousness” makes lasting friendships. They are friendships not built on doing stuff together but by talking. Long distance relationships don’t make accommodations for friends who want to hang out. But Skype, email, snail mail, and phone aid those friends who share their love, joy, worship, and thoughts through discussion.

“It is immortals with whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn”—there are good times to had among the Body of Christ. “We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the onset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love…” (“Weight of Glory”, C.S Lewis).

I read and reread this, wondering if I’m being too critical. If I am, all harshness is directed at myself. I write to remind myself of the purpose of people as I’m seeking to build roots and relationships in Midland. I pray that you are challenged and encouraged through reading as much I am through writing. Know that I love you dearly, and I seek to not only have fun with you but to talk with you, to truly know you for in you Christ “the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”

Thank you for your prayers and support. I struggle writing these updates, feeling as if it's arrogant to think that people really care what's going on in my life on a weekly basis. But it's something that I'm compelled to do, and I pray that God works through my words. By no merit of my own am I a tool to be placed in His hand. He has fashioned us for His own purpose; writing these updates seems to be a part of my purpose for this season of life. I thank you for your prayers and support that keep me serving with Worldview Academy.

Sarah Hartung

The Mirror, The Echo

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:48:23 -0700

Since the summer, I’ve been to Atlanta and Chicago for homeschool conventions and then back to Midland. On the way to Atlanta I reread “God Glorified in Man’s Dependence”—a sermon that changed my life almost three years ago and continues to be a vehicle of God’s work in my life today. Jonathan Edwards writes, “The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things [in eternity]; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them.” The same is true for this side of eternity. My favorite memories of the summer and that which I love most about the staff and fellow directors is what I see of Christ in them: the unity, joy, grace.

The past three weeks have been challenging but not lacking joy. It’s always amazing to me to see the friendships of summer transcend camp. And I wonder why this always surprises me. If it truly were the Holy Spirit that united our team and upheld us throughout the summer, it shouldn’t be a wonder that He continues to sustain us after the summer. True, our unity may have only been intended for a season, and now that the season of summer is past it is realistic to expect the bond to dissolve. But why should it? What is more glorifying than to have the unity maintained? And for this team of believers to function—more than we did even during the summer—as the Body of Christ. Distance is no obstacle for the power of God. The staff are in continually contact—thanks to Skype and unlimited texting—and continue to be the vehicles of God’s grace, joy, and strength as they push each other onward and remind each other of God’s work in the memories of the summer.

The past memories—radiating the present truth of God—are as C.S Lewis describes in The Last Battle: “And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time there were somehow different -- deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know.” As far as I can tell, the memories are just a mirror of eternity. Or, better yet, an echo—the echo of eternity—as it’s referred to in other places.

By no means do I want you to think that another email about the joys of camp means that I haven’t gotten over camp. To a certain extent, I don’t believe “getting over” camp should be our aim in transitioning back to normal life. I’m doing very well. Happy. Content. Excited about the fall. Yet for everything that is going on and how I see God working today, the people of this summer are still very much on my mind. There is something in an echo—how faint it is and delicate and almost unearthly—that makes you strain to hear it. If anything, I’m only straining to hear it and realizing that what I’m really hearing isn’t coming from my past by from our future. And I close now, ever more looking ahead to the eternal day when the longing shall be realized, the echo discovered, and the place—the person—where all the beauty came form is finally revealed.

Sarah Hartung

Overwhelmed with Praise

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:00:01 -0700

I process through writing and yet writing has been the hardest thing for me to do since saying goodbye to the staff on Saturday. Words are so terribly inadequate.

After doing Worldview for four summers, I believed—and was quite relieved to learn— last year that saying goodbye becomes easier with practice. Saying goodbye in 2007 was the hardest. In 2008, the end of the summer was a welcome change. Last year, I was excited to be leaving camp because I was moving to Midland. But this year I learned that saying goodbye doesn’t become easier with time and that which is unnatural should never become comfortable.

The greater the love, the greater the heartache. I found leaving the people of camp to be much harder that I anticipated. “Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all” and far better to realize that in leaving camp nothing has been lost. The fruit and the memories of God’s work remains, and with memory comes the ability to praise God for His work.

My passion and my joy remains founded in working with the staff women.
For 8 weeks, my primary goal was to help the 11 college women not only grasp the rhythm of camp but to further serve and love God as they served and loved their students. I didn’t understand at the beginning of the summer how closely knit we would become. My delight in them has never been greater than in Florida and never have I so deeply partook in their sorrows than in North Carolina. These girls grew tremendously, and perhaps no one saw that as much as Kristen and I. They became more aware of their dependence on God when halfway through the summer their exhaustion was undeniable. They became more aware of God’s grace when they realized that God continues working past exhaustion. They each struggled with students who didn’t want to be at camp and worked division among their small group; they learned to love unconditionally. They learned about grace, mercy, and love—not through disconnected theological discussions—through every day life and interactions. Camp is so great for discipleship because it is a stage not only for God’s glory but for His work in personal growth. The lack of sleep, challenging students, and personal struggles make camp ideal for growth as God is increasingly present and personably.

Many times this summer, I lay in bed and remembered the overwhelming amount of staff applications in the office back March. I didn’t know how we were possible going to chose the staff, knowing no more about them than what they shared with us on their application and in their interview. God’s provision became so very evident as the summer progressed and I saw our team bonding and working together. The college students were each at camp because God called them there, not as parts of a mass but as individuals, members of the body of Christ.

As our team united, I grew especially close to the leadership staff: Josh, Kristen, and Justin. Thank you for praying for the four of us. It was a joy serving alongside them, and encouraging to see God fit us together for His greater glory. Our strengths and weaknesses complemented each other as only God can design. Perhaps one of the things that I miss the most is praying together as a leadership staff. We prayed at least every Tuesday night together, and toward the end of the summer we prayed every night after supper. The routine of going together before the throne of God on behalf of the staff and the students and each other was sweet fellowship with God our Creator as only members of the body can partake in. For these relationships especially, I praise God.

The summer was wonderful. Not to mean that the 8 weeks traveling was all ease and pleasure. I realize that the most recent memories seem the best, but this summer truly was remarkable. I have never seen God so unite a staff team, and I can only hope that our supernatural unity drew forth praise from the students and their families. Personally, I have never known such joy in people. I have never allowed myself to love so deeply, and all ability and capacity to love is surely the work of the Spirit.

Thank you for your prayers this summer. Something that I personally learned was how dependent I am on God through the body of Christ. Not only is it not wise for me to be a hermit in the mountains, but I physically can’t isolate myself from believers. When God gives grace, mercy, joy, and strength, He usually works through people to give physical blessings. Not only did I see God working through the staff and through me, but His work through you back home was most evident. I pray that you have been encouraged by my emails, realizing that they are only a fraction of what actually happened at camp. The extent of God’s work was either to beautiful to put into words or too abundant to share all of the stories. May the praise ensure regardless.

As for now, I am sitting in an airport in Dallas, TX on my way to Atlanta for a homeschool convention with Bill Jack. The process of camp begins again. I am recruiting students for next summer, and telling anyone who will stop by our booth the story of God’s work in my life through Worldview Academy. For all of the stories and praises, don’t forget—as I’ve done before—that Worldview is only a tool. This ministry can fade away tomorrow and God’s work would remain. For the growth and sanctification that you have seen and heard about through the staff, students, and myself…don’t praise Worldview. Praise God for He ALONE is worthy of ALL our praise.

To the praise of His glory,
Sarah

Overwhelmed by Joy

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:22:28 -0700

Camp days get longer and longer as the summer progresses. Days that flew by in Oklahoma and Texas now seem hours longer as I am waking up earlier and staying up later. The days are filled with intentional time with the staff, extreme highs, and extreme lows as God continues to further reveal himself hour by hour.

Just got back from checking on the students at lights out and spending some time with the staff. The girls had a mini ice cream party with fresh fruit to celebrate and praise God for their unity this summer. Then the male staff came down to the student dorm lobby and serenaded the girls and reenacted a World War II battle. Not until this summer have I found such pure joy in people. As I was sitting on the floor watching the staff, I was again filled with overwhelming contentment and delight.

Summertime with Worldview is still the best moments of my life and the worst, and both the goods and the not so goods are rooted in love. This summer has redefined love for me as well as the joy the ensues. But when such love for the body of Christ reaches a certain threshold, pain accompanies that joy. The pain is heartache over an inadequacy in quantifying such love. And the pain is sorrow as love develops into not only delighting in delight but partaking in their sorrow.

Please pray for the staff. They have spent the past 8 weeks together praying with each other, praying for their students, sharing their desires and fears, growing together, serving God, and praising him as the body of Christ as—I believe—is meant to function together. The group that God chose to unite for His glory, He now chooses to sever. They are trying not to think about the end, but some of them are struggling. And from past experience, I know that there will be many tears on Saturday morning as we drop the staff off at the Atlanta airport to fly home. Great is my sorrow found in theirs.

But Saturday isn’t the end of this group. True, they will never again all be together. I will never again stand in the back of the meeting room during worship and be able to pick their voices and face out of the crowd. But they are united, not so much because of their shared experiences or proximity but because they Holy Spirit has bound them to each other. Their purpose doesn’t change when they go home. They don’t change; they are the same person on Friday night as they will be on Saturday morning. God doesn’t change. Their relationships don’t change. They Spirit doesn’t change. The only thing that is changing is they won’t be doing camp anymore. And for all of us, that is a good thing.

We are exhausted and weary. And as much as we would like to stay together, this kind of intensity was not meant to be sustained. It is for a season. And I believe we’ve served well and hard.

Pray that the staff would enjoy these last few days that they have together and with the Georgia students here at Berry College. Pray that as we celebrate Friday night our celebration our be praises to God for how He has worked in the lives of the students and in us this summer. Pray for safe travels as we travel home on Saturday. Pray that they would have a sweet time of rest and reflection before school starts up again. And please please pray that they wouldn’t dwell too much on the memories this summer and that they would jump right back into to serving God at home and at school.

Thank you for your prayers this summer. I’ve never felt the power of God so tremendously in my life or seen His hand so evidently. I pray that as I do some reflecting of my own over the next few weeks that you would be encouraged by God’s work. I hope to share some of those stories with you.

To God be the glory great things He hath done…and is still doing.

Oh to grace how great a debtor,
Sarah