Recreation Rocks the Nation

As a kid, I did not like being outside. The idea of going outside and running around was not a good idea to me.  I would have much rather just stayed inside and drew something or made a movie with my video camera.  That kind of carried on throughout my life, until this past summer.
As a team leader at CentriKid, the main duties are to lead a Bible Study, a track time, and..you guessed it..recreation. When I first got my rec manual, I was terrified.  How in the world is a guy who never enjoyed recreation going to be excited about it and lead kids in it? Spending about an hour and a half a day having high energy and leading games in the 100 degree Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, and Maryland heat sounded about as much fun as a..well..something not that fun. I really went into last summer dreading the idea of recreation.
That quickly changed....Week 1 of camp. I had an amazing group of kids, and since it was a small camp, each team leader had a partner. My partner was the amazing Brittany Denson who was an all-star at camp. Our first day of rec, we took turns leading the games. As we ran onto the rec field with our kids, I took a deep breath and prayed to God that he would get me through it.
Brittany led the first game and I immediately noticed something: the same kids that were not paying attention during Bible study that morning were all of a sudden alert and listening to every word Brittany said about the game.  They were the most responsive and willing to play.  At CentriKid, everything has a connection to Christ, so every game is "debriefed" which means that we tie it in to a scriptural emphasis. Those same kids who were staring into space during Bible study were answering questions and really "getting it" during recreation.
That's when I knew why recreation was so important. Even though it wasn't exactly my forte, I saw how God used it to reach kids (and even adult leaders) who loved it and understood things through the games. Whether it was learning how God took care of them by playing a game involving birds (Matt. 6:26) or seeing how Jesus is the only way to be with God through a soccer-like game (John 14:6), God is all up in recreation at camp.
Going into camp last year, I was dreading leading recreation.  Going into camp this year, I cannot wait to get on that rec field and see God work. It's not just games, it's ministry.

Special thanks to Gustavo Pacheco for all the awesome rec pics from this summer (I actually stole all of these from his Facebook).  This brother has awesome camp pictures.