Tattoo's

I have been wanting to write a post about my experience a few weeks ago at Teen Reach Adventure Camp (TRAC) http://hopeunlimitedinc.org/. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to put my experience into words. Truth is, there are no words good enough to describe what that week was like for me...heartbreaking, life changing, heart warming, unreal...none of it describes what it feels like to minister to child that has gone through things that I can't even imagine. A child of 12 that has lived things that no person, young or old, should ever have to go through.
How do you describe something like that?
Many of these children come to camp broken, bruised, terrified, heartbroken. They have labels permanently, what one girl described as tattooed, on to their hearts that people in their lives have given them. People that should have been trustworthy, people that should have protected and loved them. Instead these people gave these children labels such as; abused, neglected, forgotten, broken, worthless, unlovable, abandoned, ugly, stupid, unworthy... and that's just a few of the labels that I heard these children say they felt about themselves or were told to them.
During camp my job was simply to love on these girls. To share with them the love of God. To show them they have a hope and a future (http://azhope.com/). To give them new labels to tattoo on their hearts. Easier said than done with some of the girls. And that can't be accomplished by just me, a counselor...It's a team effort.
A bible teacher who teaches them about David and how he conquered Goliath. How they can conquer their own Goliath's in their lives. How God makes them conquerors over their sins, their trials, the labels they have been given in life. How God chose David and made him a King, just as He can choose them to be His daughters...princesses.  A bible teacher who has been through hell and back in her own life and can share her very own story of triumph. Something that made an ever lasting impression on these girls. Some who thought they may never triumph now have hope that they too will be conquerors someday.
A group of hair dressers and make up artists who come to camp for a day to help make these girls feel beautiful. They participate in a day of pampering, picking out beautiful dresses, shoes and accessories. And the girls just glow. Girls that came in with walls up, with slumped shoulders and broken spirits are now beaming, excited, trying on dresses and twirling around. They felt so beautiful and special.
A group of men that came to camp to be examples of how real men should treat them. Many of these men are husbands and fathers. They escorted them to a princess dance, served the girls a fancy dinner and most importantly, poured life and truth into these girls. Truth about how no matter their history, no matter what's been done to them or what they have done, they deserve to be treated like princesses. They are worthy of love and kindness and respect. Words, I know many of these girls will always hold close to their hearts.
And the ultimate leader of our team, My Lord and Savior. A God who can take a broken heart and make it whole again. A God who can turn a child with a dark and terrible past into a little princess, glowing and smiling. A God who can soften the hardest heart.
These girls came in with some pretty harsh labels tattooed on to their hearts, but many of them left with new tattoos....Loved, Redeemed, Cherished, Conqueror, Beautiful and Princess. The scars from the old tattoos may never completely go away. But these new labels are stronger, bolder...and that will make all the difference!

"'For I know the plans I have for you', says the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11