For Such a Time as This

Camp Greystone is a gift. It is a blessing. It is a place unique and unlike any other.

It is where the values of confidence and self-worth are discovered and instilled within young girls. It is where you can fully be all who you were created to be. It is where a young girl can grow in her belief and faith in the knowledge that she is a daughter of a King.

She has value and her life has purpose. She has been created by a Father who loves her unconditionally and has laid down His life for her.

Greystone has equipped me and empowered me with a steady and solid foundation for my life.

This past summer I worked with Community House Damaris, a Christian ministry in Athens, Greece that rescues women from sex trafficking and provides them with a long-term recovery and rehabilitation program.

My first trip to Greece was during spring break of my freshman year of college and that summer I went on to to have one of the most unforgettable and influential summers of my life as a counselor at Greystone. I had been a camper at Greystone for as long as I could remember. Greystone was a part of my heritage and family legacy as my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, and sister were all campers over the course of their lives.

That summer as a counselor in 2014 changed me. It taught me more about the power of investing in others, serving others, and encouraging young girls…more than I even thought possible. That summer I committed to leaving everything I had out on the table. I committed to loving the girls without any hesitation. I fully embraced and welcomed all that the Lord would have to teach me through being a counselor at the place that had always been my second home.

The joy I experienced that summer as a result of stepping into the Lord’s promise and His will for my life was undeniably the most abundant joy I have ever experienced.

Fast forward 3 summers later and I found myself 5,500 miles across the world, but Greystone was still on my mind. The principals of character instilled within me through summers spent at camp were carried out through my work here with this ministry in Greece.

Independence, confidence, self-worth, beauty, value, and purpose are all things I discovered and learned through each summer spent at camp. I learned to sing and dance on stage in front of hundreds of girls; I learned to meet new people and become best friends with complete strangers I never knew before; I learned to share a room with 9 other girls and how to take the fastest shower on the planet; and most importantly, I learned where my true value, self worth, and identity as a young woman is found.

These exact lessons were used by God in my work with a ministry half way across the world that is seeking to rescue women who have been stripped of every form of identity, dignity, and worth.

The things I learned over countless summers spent at camp prepared me for such a time as this.

Greystone has given me the tools to come and encourage a devastated world and to walk alongside the broken, the damaged, and the unseen. Just like Greystone girls, these young girls are are beautiful masterpieces made in the image of Christ. Their lives have purpose and God has not and will not give up on them.

Thank you, Greystone, for teaching me and preparing me for something I never even saw coming. Every summer I pray not only for the girls here in Greece, but also for the girls attending camp sessions in Tuxedo, NC all summer long.

I pray that each and every one of these young girls would know their incredible value and believe that they are beautiful because the God of the universe has created them. I pray they would find confidence and strength in knowing that they have been granted gifts, talents, and strengths that the world is starving for.

It is our calling as girls and as women to answer to these God-given talents and to step out with courage and dignity to embrace all that God has in store for our lives. Abundant life in Him is waiting for all who cry out, step out, and grab hold of His grace!