Faith Has No Boundaries

I've just spent the last week as the director of a Christian Sports Camp for Youth. Nestled along the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, West River Camp (United Methodist) played host to several camps all summer long, including our youth sports camp which also hosted over 30 Korean students and counselors. The intercultural exchanges were rich in learning from the volleyball court to the dinner table. As both American and Korean students shared languages, cultures and sports, a great commraderie grew and friendships blossomed. Despite differences in language the youth all found ways to communicate, play together, worship together and become a unique community.
During one of the hottest most uncomfortable weeks of the summer, there were many times when students could have complained or stopped patcipating. Fatigue, the oppressive heat, the language barriers, the cultural differences, the demanding schedule, the change in food; any one of those could have made most of us complain. But even with all those things to deal with, the students chose not to complain, but to perservere.
I believe that we can all choose to see things from a selfish position where we perceive we are being treated unfairly or poorly. Or we can see things as challenging opportunities to grow in our understandings of ourselves and God.
Over and over I was privelaged to witness students seeing one another through God's eyes and seeing that they had far more in common than they had different. They chose to behave out of faith, staying positive and supportive in some of the most difficult situations.
No matter the language, no matter the culture, no matter the gender, we can all see one another as sacred beings uniquely created by God. In so many ways we all learned that we have more in common than we have different. Our faith especially transcends all differences, helping us break down barriers or stereotypes.
Thank God for our Korean friends and thank God for the experiences and memories of an amazing week!