Outside Experience-Melissa Faller

When speaking of religious experiences, one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had was working at Rockbridge Young Life camp for a month. Rockbridge is a camp located in Goshen, Virginia. It is a beautiful camp located in the valley of the mountains with a lake located right in the middle of it. The camp is secluded with little access to the outside world. There is no internet access and no cell phone service. The camp is dedicated to bringing high school and middle school students to learn more about Jesus Christ. I was there working the month of May. I worked for four weeks as a life guard at the camp. Those four weeks were some of the best weeks of my life, but also the most difficult. I worked a lifeguard at the camp which seems easy, but I was one of three lifeguards working the camp. The camp consists of a pool, a hot tub, waterslide into the lake, and a blog. The waterfront was open from 7am to 5pm most days and on occasional nights was reopened for obstacle courses and pool parties. We rotated every 30 minutes all day for 30 days, with breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Along with the long work hours it was difficult because I was working with people I did not know with no way to contact my family and friends from home. At the time I didn’t appreciate the situation, but it allowed me to remove myself from the materialistic world and focus on fully depend on God. It would be hard for me to explain to you the experience I felt, but it was definitely a spiritual by the end of it I was a different person. I felt the love of God and his grace and mercy he has given us.