The Next 28

28 days. 28 days solely dedicated to making the Lord’s name known. 28 days to serve WyldLife and YoungLives campers and leaders. 28 days to run an office and a store. 28 days to be a part of the Michindoh Camp Staff team. And 28 days to return back to the core of the gospel.

That’s the focus of my next 28 days.

Michindoh is an affiliate camp for Young Life in southern Michigan and I have the awesome opportunity to serve there for the month of June. I’m working alongside a team of five other people who will be making up the camp staff for our time there. I’ll be taking on all of the admin department and the retail department. Admin has been my life at Timber Wolf, but retail is about to be a whole new adventure. 

We are going to be working with an assignment team and a small group of Work Crew and Summer Staff. It will be a different atmosphere than typical Young Life camping, but it is one that I am incredibly excited about as we’ll all bond together to really serve guests and one another well. 

Today began my official time with Michindoh as the camp staff all met at Timber Wolf to really begin working on some last minute projects to get together before heading down to camp. Through working together we also got to start to get to know one another better. I cannot wait for all that the month will have in store for our team. 

We leave for Michindoh on Tuesday. I am so ready to get down to camp and to begin setting things up. It is crazy because we’ll be transforming an already existing camp facility into a Young Life camp facility… so the large meeting space becomes a Club Room and a conference room becomes the camp store and so many other things come alive as we get geared up for three weeks of WyldLife and one week of YoungLives. 

The most exciting thing about this entire assignment is that all of our focus is on setting the stage for each Michindoh guest to encounter the love of Christ and to encounter the gospel. Like that is my job for an entire month, yeaaaa that’s pretty awesome. The gospel changes everything. I have seen how it has changed my life, my friends’ lives, and the lives of so many people whom I love. My heart aches for the middle school students and teen moms who are going to be arriving at camp each “Day 1.” It aches for them to know the saving love of Christ and the Father who calls each of them His Beloved Child. 

As I approach these next 28 days my prayer is that my heart will be solely focused on the gospel. As a person who has been a Christian for a while, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the gospel and to lose sight of what it means that God came down on earth as a man to live a sinless life and to die the death we all deserved on the cross to pay the price for our sins. And then three days later He rose again victoriously, defeating the grave and bringing life, life to the full. It’s easy to become distracted by the spiritual disciplines and the “Christian lifestyle” and to forget what the gospel really means… because it means everything and it changes everything. 

I do not ever want to lose sight of that. 

For the next 28 days I am going to go through the gospel of Matthew, focusing on one chapter each day. My hope is to focus on Jesus and His story and to be reminded of the power of the gospel. My prayer is that at the end of these 28 days that I will know Jesus more. 

In reading Matthew 1 today I was struck once again. Jesus is Immanuel, or “God with us.” God. With. Us. That is Jesus. When that sinks in, it truly is revolutionary. 

And the God that is with us, He is calling our name. He wants a relationship with us. 

Each middle schooler coming to Michindoh is not alone. Jesus is with them. God is with them. He is calling their name.

Each teen mom coming to Michindoh is not alone. Jesus is with her. God is with her. He is calling her name. 

We are not alone. Jesus is with us. God is with us. He is calling our name. 

You are not along. Jesus is with you. God is with you. He is calling your name.

I am not alone. Jesus is with me. God is with me. He is calling my name. 

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” –Ephesians 3:14-21

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And for all my friends who have been asking for my address-- here it is :)

Jordan Abourjilie

YL Camp Staff

c/o MICHINDOH

4545 E. Bacon Road

Hillsdale, MI 49242