Today marks the beginning of a new ministry here at Victory. It has been many years in the works, but today our first group arrives. The story of this ministry started over 10 years ago. I had just graduated from high school and I took my first trip to Alaska. We went with a ministry called Eaglecrest Ministries based out of Hudsonville, MI. Our youth group, lead by our youth pastor Joel Ruisch, came to Alaska on a week long mission trip. We served for the week at Victory Bible Camp helping around the camp. This trip changed my life, and redirected my desires to that of full time ministry.
Since then there have been a number of circumstances that caused Victory and Eaglecrest to discontinue their partnership. This was very difficult for me to see because of the great impact that both places had on my life. Since the separation Victory has had a number of high school work teams come and help us out. They were a great help to Victory, but I felt we were not doing a great job at helping to facilitate their time here to encourage growth among their students. Joel, my previous youth pastor as well as Victory's current camp director, shared many of those same thoughts. We have talked for years about bringing back a similar style ministry to Victory.
At 1:30 pm today I will be picking up our first team. It is a team of 18 from Michigan. We will be working on building a deck for our staff lounge here at camp as well as hauling firewood for Miracle Lodge's wood boiler, helping to finish installing our waterfront, as well as many other projects around camp. We will also be taking the team through a servant based leadership curriculum based off Matthew 20:20-28.
20 Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. 21 “What is your request?” he asked. She
replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of
honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 22 But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”
23 Jesus told them, “You
will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who
will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for
the ones he has chosen.” 24 When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 25 But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We are calling this new ministry the Doulos Program. The name came from the Greek word Doulos which is translated as slave in vs. 27. This word is often translated as servant throughout the NT. This passage has been a strong theme for us at Victory for the past year, and we are excited to work through this curriculum with this group from Michigan. I pray that it is an encouraging time for us as well as them.
My role here at Victory has been changing over the last 8 months. Our new program director Justin arrived in October, and is transitioning in well. I have worked my way back into more of a support role within our program staff. My role will continue to change as I am needed less to help with the overall running of summer camp. We are only having one group that will be a part of our Doulos program this year, but we are hoping to open it to full capacity next summer with 3 to 4 teams. Please continue to pray with us as we move forward with this ministry.
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