The backstory.

I remember the first summer my dad went to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp as a coach.  He didn't take us with him, but he came home with a tape (ha!) of the chapel singer (Rusty-Something) and promises that we would all go the next year. 

We did.

That was the summer that they let me play on one of the teams (it was a JH/HS boys' basketball camp) through the tournament.  That team- no joke- went from dead last, winless, to camp champions.  :)  For real.  The little metal we were given was one of my favorite possessions for a long long time. 

I'm the dorky girl in the middle:

So we kept going to camp- the same one at the National Conference Center in Indiana- and FCA came to our school.  Eventually I went to different girls' FCA camps too. 

This is the only girls' camp I attended at the NCC:

(Was is foreshadowing that a girl from JD's high school was in my huddle that year??)

After my freshman year of college I returned to Indiana to work as an intern through the summer.  That camp that already had a special spot in my heart got rooted deeper as I lived and worked and spent time alone all over the grounds with my nose in my Bible.  I'm not lying- I think in some ways  my faith was saved that summer.  Jesus drew me to himself in the midst of the trees and the sports fields and the busy schedule.

(Intern Photo:)

And then I was asked to be a Huddle Leader for a leadership camp that was one counselor short.  Saying yes changed my life.

There happened to be another Huddle Leader at that same camp who was from Arkansas and knew movie lines from Hoosiers.    :)

This is the first picture I have with JD and I both in it- he's on the left, I have the mic:

(Thanks, Leigh Anne!!)

After that summer JD and I spent our summers working for FCA in Arkansas.  We led huddles at mini-camps, national camps and power camps. 

(Power Camp Huddle Leaders:)



Two years later JD asked me to marry him in the chapel where we first met:

The summer we got married JD and I lived and worked in the Delta.  We helped run camps and a community center as a partnership between FCA and Partners in Hope.

That fall FCA published a flattering article about us in their "Sharing the Victory" magazine:

 

 

The other half of the story:

46 years ago JD's grandfather (a minister) gave JD's dad a magazine subscription to "The Christian Athlete."  FCA's first publication.  He knew that David would be interested because of his love for sports.  That was the FCA starting point for JD- 14 years before he was even born!

His dad volunteered with FCA for many years, he started (and continues) an annual mini-camp, and for the past 12 years he has been on staff with Arkansas FCA.

JD grew up attending huddle meetings and summer camps (his first was in Colorado when he was Ty's age!)



I'll wrap up this long flashback post with a text that JD sent after we got back from North Carolina:

"I remember crying in my bed the night after getting home from FCA camps because I never wanted them to end.  FCA is when I observed with my eyes and heard with my ears grown men that loved God and loved to compete.  God used so many men and women through the ministry of FCA to reveal Himself to me year after year.  Now my own 7 year old daughter has experienced the same feeling as I did all those years.  When we got home tonight she rushed to her bed and cried big tears and said it made her so sad to think about FCA camp because she missed it so much and she wished she never had to leave.  She shared how she never missed watching TV at all.  She is getting it... not just how cool FCA is but why FCA exists.

Many years ago my grandfather gave my father an FCA magazine... isn't it neat to see what God has done since that day?  I know that it's not about an organization.  It's about Christ.  How majestic are his ways!"



FCA does not own the NCC any more.

But one day we will go back. 

I need to see it again. 

To smell it.    :)