Veritas Music Camp 2014

Written by Rachel Herman, Veritas Music and Worship Intern.

“Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.” Psalm 33:3-4

As I have been interning here at Veritas over the summer, the Lord has brought me back to this verse over and over again. It’s joyful call to worship rings out different ways God can be glorified: through excellence and creativity, petitioning us to rejoice in His truthfulness and faithfulness. For Veritas Music Camp 2014, this verse describes so well what the Lord did a few short weeks ago!

A new song. The Lord is paving new avenues to do exactly what He already has been doing through Veritas: transforming our neighborhoods, our city through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through His creative nature, He is using the innovation He has bestowed on us humans to reach out to our neighbors and share His love in new ways. In this case, using music as a doorway to reach young people with the gospel!

He is faithful. Looking back on the past 4 months of planning, preparing, and holding our first Music Camp, there are countless ways God showed up and directed me, Emily Starr, Amy Byler, and all the wonderful leaders who volunteered to help us pull off a successful week. The Lord faithfully provided instruments, volunteers, teachers, ideas, time, a heart for the kids, snacks, a space, the list goes on.

We learned each night about how we can best glorify God through believing in His Son.

He provided so many opportunities to share His love with the kids that came to the camp: through conversations, laughter, making music, worshipping, and sometimes just holding a child on our laps. We got to shout out praises to Jesus. We taught small group lessons on a instrument of the child’s choosing. We let each camper have the opportunity to try out any instrument we had available (and we had everything from ukelele to violin to trombone). We learned each night about how we can best glorify God through believing in His Son. Working with kids who struggle with authority and obedience proved to be challenging at times, but the Lord grew our hearts as leaders to truly understand that these kids are just crying out for love. Just like the rest of humanity, and just like we do ourselves.

During the week of camp, the Lord reminded me of a simple, yet extremely profound, truth. As I struggled with my tendencies toward being a perfectionist in teaching and being a control freak, the Lord helped me rely on His version of success in ministry instead of my own. Even if everything in MY plan goes without a hitch, if the LORD’s presence and direction isn’t there: it is all for naught. This camp, this life, doing ministry: none of it is about me. None of it is about the kids that come. All of it is about Christ. He is the center of true ministry and out of Him flows all that we need for life. All we need to do ministry. All we need to love our city. The last day of camp we focused on Psalm 118:14. It reads: “The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” In order to love people well, we must let the Lord be our complete strength and director. If we can believe this verse with our whole hearts, the song of Christ will flood out of us! What an incredible word picture of how God provides for us in strength, salvation, and all that we need.

This camp, this life, doing ministry: none of it is about me.

I want to publicly thank each and every one of you who helped in anyway to make this camp possible: whether you donated an instrument, volunteered as a leader, recruited young people to be campers, or prayed for the week. I especially want to thank two people, without whom this camp would not have been possible: Emily Starr, for her incredible leadership and experience in ministry she brought to this camp, and Amy Byler, for her excellent ability to focus and direct the planning and pulling off of this camp.

This was the Lord’s camp, and He was faithful to direct us and grant us success every step of the way.

It was such a joy and a blessing to be a part of what the Lord has already been doing in each camper’s life. Across the board, both leaders and campers have expressed their great desire to have more time together making music and learning about Jesus. This was the Lord’s camp, and He was faithful to direct us and grant us success every step of the way.