The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
How would you like to participate in an eight-year camp? Can you imagine the challenge?
You would be required to hunt for your own food, find water, and pitch and take down tents often as you hike hundreds of miles while following a compass. Over those long years you would probably need to stop for mothers to give birth and, sadly, stop to bury a loved one along the way. It would be a camp experience for the records.
Lehi and Sariah in the Book of Mormon did that very thing with their family. They even lived to tell about it. Did their journey always go precisely as planned or was their trip always smooth sailing? Absolutely not.
Our summer camps don’t last eight years, but even trips that last two, three or five days require prayer, planning and preparation.
What do leaders do if changes occur or problems arise? In such instances, we can learn from Nephi. After breaking his bow, an essential hunting tool, he and his brothers were unable to provide food for their families. So what did he do? While family members murmured, Nephi went to work. Armed with faith, he fashioned a bow and arrow from the available resources and then went to his priesthood leader for counsel. After sincere repentance, Lehi received divine direction for Nephi. Nephi followed through, hiked to the top of the mountain and was able to find food (1 Nephi 16:18-32).
COVID-19 has been our “broken bow” challenge for planning camp in 2020. But, like Nephi, we can choose how to handle our summer event experiences. We can complain and give up, or we can prayerfully create a contingency plan based on current circumstances and available resources. The Lord knows that powerful things can happen when the youth gather as covenant disciples of Jesus Christ.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
