“He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’
(Matthew 13:31-32)”

I often forget that God can take the little things, and make them into something greater. This summer was kind of like that for me. Camp in a Box grew something greater than it had any right to be.

Camp in a Box is Amberlea’s children’s program that was offered this summer where the messaging, the crafts, games and activities were packed in a box and families came and picked them up weekly. The Summer Team then met with the children virtually for just 30 minutes every day. This simple idea was a far cry from the busyness and craziness of the in-person VBC and Breakfast Clubs of previous summers.

The concern or even expectation of a virtual camp, rather than in person gathering is that the personal element might be lost and kids wouldn’t feel engaged at all. After all, personal interaction with leaders and other campers is the selling point of camps before this new Covid era. Even though it wasn’t in person we had a hope that if we created something for children at home to engage with, they would see a glimpse of God’s story. It didn't look and feel as grand as our usual VBC, but we saw over 25 kids engage with our program and saw little seeds planted.

Throughout the summer we weren’t always sure how highly the kids thought of the program. Some kids wouldn’t show their face on camera, use their microphone, or verbally respond to the activities on our daily Zoom calls. This was discouraging at the time. But then near the end of the summer we began to hear some feedback offered by parents that said their kids loved the program and it was the most exciting part of their summer! We would have never known that from the kids shy attitude. In many cases we had no idea that the boxes, our video stories and our daily zoom discussions and activities were having such an impact. When we were discouraged, it would have been easy to put a little less time into our games, or not make effort to have a conversation with the kids when they came to pick up their box, or just put less effort into what we did. But, we knew that we were part of something bigger than we could imagine. God had bigger plans. He wanted us to plant the seeds. We didn’t let the discouraging feelings take over. We kept on talking to God, working and putting the time in to make the camp fun. It turns out that it paid off.

This fall I’m going into my first year of college. It’s going to be a new environment and a new experience, and I expect there will be some discouraging feelings along the way. I’m going to remind myself that God is in control. I can rely on Him to take me in the right direction even though I may not be able to see what’s behind the dark Zoom screen or what’s growing in the dirt. If you’re going into something new this year, like me, let’s try to keep doing the little things, and let God take control. Just like the mustard seed transforming into a great tree, when God is the grower, the little things we do can grow into something great that we can’t even see yet.