Welcome to the first “Wednesday Words” post of 2015. today we are featuring Carmen Rogers from Bristol England who led our New Brunswick Day Camp Team this past Summer. Carmen has a really interesting story to tell. I hope you find it as inspiring as I did!
Thank you, Carmen for sharing it with us.
“So Valerie asked me about 4 months ago if I would write something on here for all you lovely people to read. Over the last 4 months I have been thinking of what I could possibly write that would be remotely interesting to read, and couldn’t come up with anything! Turns out my life isn’t that interesting! Anyway, when I got the ‘reminder’ email from Valerie saying there was only one week to go, I suddenly thought ‘I need to come up with something quick! ‘Seeing as I was out of ideas I thought it was about time I asked God! As a consequence of that I am now just simply going to tell you my story, the story that led me to day camps and is still playing out now, after day camps.
So in August 2011 I lived in a lovely part of England called Salisbury in Wiltshire with my parents and two brothers. As is the tradition, we went to the annual Christian conference where I have helped on kids’ teams for as long as I can remember. At the conference, I had a strong urge that God was telling me I was going to be a children’s pastor. I spent the rest of the week talking with various leaders to try and see if I could find an internship that I could do to get a bit of experience in children’s ministry. In the end I felt God saying it was the one in Weston-super-Mare – the place where the kids leaders were from. I discussed it with them, visited their church around the end of August and by the beginning of September I had moved out of home and into Weston-super-Mare.
In Weston I spent a year on internship shadowing the kids’ pastors of the church, after that I got a job in a local primary school while still doing as much as I could with the kids at the church – developing a strong relationship between the local school and the church. During this year God really gave me a clear picture of what my ministry was going to look like, but it was nothing like anything I have ever heard of in England. It was so big that when I told people about it they often laughed!
Towards the end of 2012 I felt God saying to go and do some training. After lots of searching I found myself in Trinity Theological College in Bristol doing a theological degree. While I was at college I met Rev. Brett Cane who on finding out my passion told me about Crosstalk Ministries. This really excited me! I jumped at the opportunity to go and see how children’s ministry was done in a different country.
On arrival in Canada, I was instantly met with the awesome chaos that is Day Camps, and loved it! By the end of my time in Canada I had seen it in action! I had seen the picture of what God wanted me to do in England in action all around Canada! Day Camps was the living breathing thing of what I felt God telling me to do in England.
So as you would imagine, I got back to England very excited. This vision was possible after all! I started meeting with various people about setting the ministry up here. Even got so far as to getting people who were willing to sponsor the set up!
Then God threw a spanner in the works. The student loans company that was funding my degree suddenly decided that they were not going to give me enough money to finish my degree and what’s worse is I was getting married in the next 8 months! I needed money! So after pressing the pause button on my day campsdream and university I am now working full time in an office trying to save and
pay to live. Now you may be thinking, why is she telling this story if it doesn’t have a happy ending? The reason is simple; this is the most amazing story of God’s timing in my life. At first, yes I felt like the floor had been taken from under me, but now I am realising God knew I needed space and time to focus on getting married and settling down before I went into this new adventure. You see God hasn’t given me a toy and then taken it away! I haven’t given up on the dream he has given me but I realise, to get there I am just taking a different route than I thought I would before. I am really looking forward to what is coming next along the journey!”
pay to live. Now you may be thinking, why is she telling this story if it doesn’t have a happy ending? The reason is simple; this is the most amazing story of God’s timing in my life. At first, yes I felt like the floor had been taken from under me, but now I am realising God knew I needed space and time to focus on getting married and settling down before I went into this new adventure. You see God hasn’t given me a toy and then taken it away! I haven’t given up on the dream he has given me but I realise, to get there I am just taking a different route than I thought I would before. I am really looking forward to what is coming next along the journey!”
