Yesterday Rick Carter our Senior Vice President and I had a great opportunity to visit Island Lake (one of CRISTA's two camps) and observe Operation Purple. It is run by the National Military Family Association (NMFA) who recognized the need for more resources to support military children. In 2004, the Operation Purple® Summer Camp Program was created as a way to help military children struggling with having a parent deployed. This week, 106 kids ages 11 through 18 enjoyed the food, games and outdoor facilities of Island Lake. On the wall in the dining room each camper had a poster with a picture of their deployed parent and some memo like "my dad is great and is a Ranger in IRAQ. I miss him so much" I stood in front of the collage and read every one. CRISTA provided the camp and some staff, the Sierra Club provided the money so that each of these kids came free, and the Military and NMFA ran the program. What a picture of community team work, ministering to these great young people. They skated in the skate park, road the motor bikes, rafted down a river and experienced life and loving staff.
The week before we hosted a YoungLives week long camp. 75 teenage moms, 75 babies or infants, and 75 caregivers. Young Life sponsors this program that treats each mom and her child or children with unconditional love and respect, YoungLives offers teen moms relief from the isolation and struggle of their daily lives and hope for the future. YoungLives mentors provide friendship, parenting advice and help meeting the practical demands of raising a child. At YoungLives club and camp, moms get to socialize and have fun while their babies get the best possible care. And CRISTA proved the camp and program to share the unconditional love of Jesus Christ with these dear and needy young moms.
So there is another example of the great work that is part of the family of ministries that is CRISTA. I keep saying I have the best job in the world. I get to work with the greatest people; part of a spiritually vital community that demonstrates the love God by serving people and drawing them into a transforming relationship with Christ.
 
Young Lives Camp Operation Purple Camp with Senator Murray |
We just held the annual "Old Timers Picnic" at CRISTA. This is an annual event which started way before I came to CRISTA. These are all people who came at the call of Mike Martin to help start Kings Garden beginning in 1949. The name was changed to CRISTA later. They did every job imaginable; mowed lawns, painted, taught school, build the radio stations. They were nurses, engineers, carpenters, missionaries. The oldest person was 98 years old. They drove from Longview, Tacoma and Spokane. I took the opportunity to go around and thank them for all they did to lay the groundwork for what CRISTA is today.
They were given a place to stay on the grounds or (as one person described) a "dusty old motel" that we rented rooms in. They also ate together three meals a day. They were paid $40 per month "when Kings had the money". "Often we were asked to donate the money back, which we did willingly". So here is what it looked like... live in a place that had been abandoned for three years often sharing toilets, eat three square meals, get paid sometimes way below minimum wage and then donate that back. To the person they would then say "And those were the best years of my life." My natural follow up was...WHY?
The answer was the same for every person. One, "we were called by God". Two, "we did it in community" (my staff put on a program for them but it was obvious most of them just wanted to talk to each other). And three, "we were following a great big vision and a visionary leader". What a lesson!
I wonder what we all will say were the best years of our life when we get toward the end of the journey?
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