SoS Week 2: Who do we serve?

Hey ladies!

Wow, Abbi's post last week on WHY we serve was amazing, if you haven't read it, scroll down and check it out before you read this one! She said it so well, we don't serve for recognition or to earn God's love but because we are so pumped about Jesus's love for us "we serve out of our own love for God"! Goodness gracious, I loved that! 

So WHO do we serve? 

Well, I think you girls know the Sunday School answer, we serve God! We serve out of our love for God and we serve God. But because God loves us all so much (ALL, like everyone in the world), serving HIM means serving OTHERS. 

Two questions to ponder:

1) Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn't just come to Earth as a 33 year old and die on the cross? {He sure wouldn't have had to have spent so much time away from Heaven and away from God that way.}

2) Have you ever wondered why we don't just go straight to Heaven when we accept Christ as our Savior? {Think of how much sadness we could escape from!}

If you read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) you will see a repeating pattern of Jesus loving, healing, feeding, and ministering to others. The compassion he shows as he walked on this Earth is a HUGE indicator of how important service is to him and to God as well. We know Jesus' actions reflect what God thinks about serving because Jesus says in John 6:38 "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me." Jesus wasn't serving because he wanted people to like him or because he wanted to earn God's love, Jesus was serving others because GOD wanted him to and THAT is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus was serving GOD because Jesus loves God and it says in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commands."

So to answer the two crazy questions--one reason Jesus didn't just die on the cross for our sins was so he could serve God by loving people here on Earth. And one reason we didn't just get taken to Heaven upon giving our life to Christ is so we can SERVE God by loving others on earth. And don't forget, it really wouldn't be serving others at all if we do it without showing and/or telling them about the love of Christ!:) 

When you think about service and what God thinks of it, remember that when someone asked Jesus what the most important commandment was, Jesus responded "love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 12:30). 

We hope you girls are all serving God by loving other's today. I am certainly motivated to be intentional about this after sitting down to type this blog. Thanks for being our sisters on this journey with Christ! We love y'all!

Amy

SoS Week 1: Why Do We Serve?

SUMMER of SERVICE

Helloooooo there lovely ladies! Amy and I are PUMPED for us all to get started on our next blog series, Summer of Service!! We're excited because we have both experienced personal and spiritual growth through service over the years, and we want you to experience that too. We're excited because we hope that you'll get some good ideas about how to serve your friends, family, church, and community by sharing ideas right here on our blog. And finally, we're excited at the thought of you all learning more about our good, good Father and how great His love is for us--and how that inspires us to love and serve each other all the more. 

serv·ice (noun) : the action of helping or doing work for someone

What comes to mind when you think of service? Maybe you think of earning "service hours" for a club at school by volunteering out in the community. Maybe your youth group does "service projects" like raking leaves for the elderly in your church or helping organize VBS. Or maybe you think of how you help your mom and dad at home by cleaning, doing your chores, or babysitting your brothers and sisters. All of these are great examples of service because they require a sacrifice on our behalf for the benefit of someone else. 

That sacrifice may mean giving up our time, using up a lot of our energy, or missing out on something that would be more fun to do. On the other hand, sometimes service can be so much fun that it doesn't feel like a sacrifice at all! There are SO many ways to serve, and it can be SO rewarding to give to others... but more on that in the upcoming weeks. :) For starters, we have one BIG question to ask.

WHY do we serve??

Sometimes it's hard for me to remember the reason why we should serve in the first place. Sometimes I feel like I'm not getting the credit I deserve, or that nothing is changing despite how hard I'm working to help someone else. Sometimes I get so caught up in WHAT I'm doing that I forget WHO I'm doing it for. 

Let me tell you a story. You may have actually heard it before: it's known as the "Prodigal Son" and it's found in Luke 15:11-32 (you should go read it!!). I'll paraphrase it here:

The Prodigal Son

A man had two sons. The older son was very responsible, very hardworking, and gave his father the respect he deserved. He worked hard for his father every day. The younger son was the complete opposite. One day he asked his dad to give him all of his inheritance (aka a lot of money), and he ran away and spent it ALL on "wild living." He knew he had messed up and was embarrassed to go back to his father, so he ended up working on a farm feeding pigs. He was so poor that even the PIGS were eating better than him. Finally, he decided that he would try going back home and begging for his father to hire him as his servant. He knew he didn't deserve his forgiveness--but hopefully he could at least make enough money working for his father to afford food to eat.

So the younger brother gets up the courage to go home after YEARS of being away and wasting his father's money. But to his surprise, his father isn't angry with him at all! His father actually RUNS to him, kisses him, and decides to immediately throw a huge welcome home PARTY! He immediately forgave his son and celebrated that he had returned.

That's such a great story, right? But wait...what about that older brother? Turns out, he was not so excited. He refused to go to the party. "Father, why would you throw a party for him, after he treated you so poorly?" He asked. "I've been over here serving you faithfully for years!! And you didn't throw a party for me!" But the father simply says, "You have been with me for years, but your brother was lost and now he is found, so we should celebrate!"

Love-Inspired Service

Wouldn't you be upset if you were the older brother? I know I would be! He was the good one. He did all the hard work and never disobeyed his father. Didn't he deserve to be celebrated?

The truth is, the older brother had it all wrong. He wanted to earn his father's love by doing good things. He wanted to be rewarded for what he did, just like an employee wants to be paid for doing their job. And the sad truth is, sometimes we think about God the same way the older brother thought about his father.

We know it is good to do works that benefit others. But we have to be careful that we aren't doing good works for the wrong reasons. Sometimes we do good things because we want to feel good about ourselves--we want to feel like we've done something to deserve God's love and His gifts. 

But ladies, the truth is, we CANNOT earn God's love! The story of the Prodigal Son shows us just that--God doesn't love us because of what we've done or haven't done. He JUST LOVES US. He loves us with a big, mighty, unconditional love that we can't undo no matter what. Even if we mess up big time like the younger brother in the story, he will welcome us back with a celebration! 

You see, it's that crazy amazing amount of GRACE and LOVE that God shows us that should inspire us to serve. Not because we feel like we have to serve. Not because serving impresses other people. Not because God will love us more if we serve. 

We serve because God loves us unconditionally, and that inspires us to give our time and energy and love to others.

We serve others because God first served us when we least deserved it.

We serve out of our own love for God. 

Love you and happy serving!
--Abbi

VALUABLE Week 4: Boyz

"Do I matter?"

That's the question I've asked myself a whole lot. 
"Do I really matter?" or maybe the question is "WHO do I matter TO?" 

Every girl has the God given desire to be CHOSEN. And if it's a God given desire then you are not wrong for wanting a guy to choose to talk to you, to add you on snapchat, or to sit by you at lunch. Let me repeat: there is nothing wrong with this. But let them do the pursuing, the adding, the chasing, the asking. K? I've messed up in this area but I'll share more on that later, but just trust me on this for now, don't text them first, don't call them first. I'll tell you lovelies more about how I messed up there later so y'all won't make the same mistakes I have...

Anyway, back on topic...

The Bible says in Genesis chapter 2 that God gave Eve to Adam because it isn't good for man to be alone. God designed the whole attraction, male + female = marriage = family scenario. He stinking designed it! That's so cool to me.

BUT guess what...

You know that hole in your heart? 

That emptiness? 

That longing have to be made whole? 

To be told that you matter? 

That desire you have to be valuable to someone? 

That guy you've got your eye on CANNOT fill it. He CANNOT make you whole. He CANNOT fix it by telling you you matter to him. And he certainly CANNOT give you ANY more value than you already have to your Savior. 

So, let's get down to it: if you have more guys who comment on your Instagram pictures than your other friends, does that make you more important? NO, it does not. If more guys text you than do your other friends, does that make you more valuable than your girl friends? NOT AT ALL. I know it might feel like there is something wrong with you because they get the attention from the boys and you don't, but like my mom tells me, that's a lie straight from Satan!! 

You see, here's the deal. God has a plan. A really good, awesome, beautiful, specific one, made just for you, actually. He actually made you who you are and gave you your gifts for very specific reasons, check it out:

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

And he made that hole in your heart for a reason too...for Him! You see, Jesus is the ONLY one who satisfies. So let's make a deal. Let's not pursue guys, but let's pursue Jesus with everything in us. Intimacy with guys is fake, satisfaction that never truly fulfills because we were made to be satisfied by Jesus alone. And guys are human, just like us, so they are going to let us down, even when we are married to a great Christian man. But Jesus will NEVER let us down, girls!! Never. 

Y'all, we know God has a plan (Jeremiah 29:11). We know he loves us (Colossians 3:16 and countless other scriptures). So let's pursue him, we will be "satisfied as with the richest of foods" (Psalm 63:5). And when God sees that the timing is right, he will bring a man for us to serve him alongside. I believe that because of Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." I believe that if your desire is for marriage like mine is, then we gotta wait on Jesus and His best. He will deliver. He isn't out to trick us. After all, we are his daughters!! He will either answer that prayer of ours or he will totally change our heart's desire. 

To answer the question at the beginning...do you matter?

Mmm, YES! Girls, HE says YOU matter and He is God, so guess what? No one can argue with him :)

HE is the one who gets to say YOU are VALUABLE. 

Not random boys at your school or on snapchat or even your boyfriend or the boyfriend you want to have one day. 

In the same way, no one gets to tell you you aren't valuable. God determines your value and like we talked about last week, you are so valuable that He's the only one who could afford to pay the price for you, valuable little lady. And remember what that price was?  Yep, it was His only Son. 

Love y'all more than reese's and summer,

Amy Lynn

P.S. If you believe you are valuable to Jesus comment "I am valuable!" on  the latest @komokonnection photo on Instagram

VALUABLE Week 3: Friendships

Hey ladies! 

Okay so....

What is it about having friends that makes us feel more valuable? More loved? 

When you see a girl surrounded by a bunch of friends who are laughing and having a big ole time, what do you think? I tend to see them as very valued, cherished, and loved. I see them as blessed, even. 

But when I see someone by themselves, unfortunately, I tend to see them as less valuable, less cherished, and less loved than the girl we mentioned above. I see this girl as being lonely and unloved.

HOWEVER, Jesus disagrees. He doesn't find you valuable because of the number of your friends, the quality of your friends, or your popularity status.

You are valuable because Jesus says you are. Y'all, he left HEAVEN and came to live on EARTH for 33 years (what a horrible trade--heaven for earth!) and then he D I E D. Why did he do this? To prove it. To prove He loves you. To prove you are worth his life. To prove you are worth leaving heaven for. To prove you are worth suffering undeserved pain for. Girls, He loves you more than you will ever know. Ever. No matter how many friends you have or if you have any friends at all. 

He. Loves. You.

So many times in my life I have felt like I have no friends. So many times. Let me ask you this....Did Jesus love me less when I had no friends? Did he love me more when I had no friends because he felt sorry for me? No and No! His love is SO big for us, komos. And guess what? It N E V E R changes. His love seriously never changes. And nothing can separate us from it. It says so at the end of Romans 8, go check it out at the bottom of this post. 

So what do we do now with our friendships?

Love em, ladies. Love em no matter what. But realize this: YOUR FRIENDS (or lack thereof) DO NOT AFFECT YOUR VALUE ONE BIT. Not one bit. 

Check this out: If you were being sold in a store you would be worth so much that no one, NO ONE, could pay for you except God, who owns the whole world.  And the only way even God could afford to buy you to be his Child would be for him to send his Son to take your place. But guess what...the price wouldn't change regardless of how many friends you had. It wouldn't change depending on your looks or achievements either. And it wouldn't change based on how many boys have texted you today (next week's topic). 

 Girls, the number of friends we have, the quality of our friendships, and our popularity status do not affect the immeasurable value we have in Christ.

So love those friends. Love em big. But remember, they don't give you value at all. Jesus does. So tell them why they are valued as well, not because you love them. But because Jesus does. 

Love y'all much,

Amy Lynn

Romans 8:38-39

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

VALUABLE Week 2: Appearance

I think one of the biggest challenges young women in America face is learning to accept and love ourselves for who we are, and for how we were created. Part of that is accepting and loving the way we look on the outside--and that can be very hard to do.

The world tells us a lot of things about our appearance that just isn't true. We're told we need to slim down, tone up, get tan, wear more makeup, wear less makeup, straighten our hair, curl our hair, have expensive clothes, have flawless skin--and the list goes on and on! What we end up with is a massive heap of confusing and conflicting expectations for the way we are supposed to look on the outside.

Sometimes, we can get so overwhelmed with all the ways we aren't meeting the world's expectations, that we can forget Who we are living for. 

The truth is, God created us intentionally and for a purpose. Listen to the words of David in Psalm 139:13-14...

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

Ladies, the Bible tells us that God created us, and He created us wonderfully. If God Himself declares that you are wonderfully made, let me tell you--IT IS TRUE! 

The most powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, mighty being in the universe has declared that you are beautiful--that you are VALUABLE--just as you are. The world may tell us we have to fix our faces and bodies and hair and nails and clothes before we can be declared beautiful. But our God, the knower of all things, says otherwise. He says you are valuable and beautiful because He knit you together exactly the way you are. He gave you your freckles, your hair, your height, your eyes, your skin. And He absolutely adores you.

So friends, the next time you begin to doubt your outer beauty, remind yourself of the truth: you are beautiful and valuable the way God has created you. WONDERFUL are His works. He doesn't make mistakes. :)

Abbi

VALUABLE Week One: Achievements

Hey there beautiful ladies! I am so glad you made it to our blog! Amy and I are beyond excited to start our Valuable study with you over the next four weeks. The truth is, each one of you is so incredibly valuable! And though you may already know this in your head, we want to help you truly believe it in your heart by reading and reflecting on how God, our Creator, values us. Who's ready?!

Week One: {A C H I E V E M E N T S}

achieve (uh-cheev) -- to bring to a successful end; carry through; accomplish.

Can you think of something you have achieved recently? How about your greatest accomplishment ever? Maybe you broke a track record at your school, got the lead part in a play, made it onto the volleyball team, made great grades in school, or got a special award for being a great classmate or student. Knowing you girls, with all your amazing gifts and talents, you are probably achieving some pretty awesome things!

When I was in 10th grade, one of my greatest achievements was making the top choir at my school. I was so happy when I saw my name on that list! When we work hard for something and are rewarded for that, it feels so good. It is in our nature to crave that recognition! We want to be proud of ourselves and we want to make others proud. When you accomplish something great, who do you tell first? I know that for me, it's always my mom. She is usually even more excited than I am to hear good news! I think we can all agree that achievements are great--they give us confidence in our talents and abilities, and they give us a chance to celebrate and make memories with our families and friends.

The tricky part is what comes after these achievements. It feels great to have everyone happy for us, but unfortunately the things we accomplish on earth don't last forever. Eventually, someone will beat us at our best sport. There will be days when our test grades are less than perfect. There will be teams we don't make, choirs we won't sing in, and special awards that go to someone else. But when this happens, it doesn't mean that we lose our value! And that's because our value is NOT placed in what we achieve, but in something greater! SomeONE greater. So. Much. Greater.

.....do YOU know who it is?

I'll give you three hints:

1. He's 100% perfect
2. He loves us unconditionally
3. He sacrificed his life so that we could be forgiven

Any guesses? {J E S U S} is where we should find our true value! Why? Because it's His love for us that is eternal. The love of the Lord does not depend on what we accomplish. Unlike many people in the world around us, He won't treat us any differently if we fail or come in second place. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). We didn't have to do anything to earn the love of Jesus, yet he found us valuable enough and worthy enough to sacrifice his own life on the cross.

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:18-19

Ladies, I am SO proud of the women you are becoming. Keep setting goals for yourself, and keep working hard to achieve them! Just remind yourself, whether you win or lose, that you are not made valuable by your talents, brains, determination, awards, or accomplishments. 

• You are valuable because you were made by God and forgiven through Christ. 
• You are valuable because God loves you and delights in you! 
• You are valuable because there is only ONE you that has ever existed and that ever will exist. 
• You are valuable because God placed you here on earth and has a plan for your life. 
• You are valuable because God values you!

Lots of love to each and every one of you! 

Abbi

We're back, folks!

HEYYY!!!

We are so glad you've stopped by our blog!! My name is Amy Campbell and my sweet co is the one and only Abbi Berry!!

Here's a quick summary of our Kanakuk background: 

• We got the privilege of being (k)ounselors together for two summers--5 weeks in Komo 6 and 5 weeks in Komo 7 (junior deal, you know!) 
• Abbi got to spend a week in Komo 3 and I got to experience a week in Komo 11
• Abbi went and did cool things in Kenya on a medial mission trip one summer and I got to work in Komo 1 for a summer
• Now we are both pursuing careers in dentistry (me) and medicine (Abbs)

Since we met in that sweet summer of 2011 to this cold May day in 2015, Abbi and I have had  two things in common: 

1. We love Jesus and we strive to live for Him alone 
2. We love our sweet kampers and try our best to keep up with each of you. 

So here's a (k)ounselor secret--we (kounselors as a whole) love spending time with y'all but we are always trying to figure out how in the world we can keep up with all of you after our crazy post-summer lives resume! Abbi and I tried to come up with a plan of how to do this a few years back. We created this blog (you'll see some old posts on here) and we decided we would use this to stay in touch. It turned out to not be such a great idea though and we were not as faithful to it as we wish we had been. We are really sorry for that, please forgive us! 

Now y'all have all grown up so much and have turned into such beautiful young ladies and we are so bummed we have missed out on some of that time to get to encourage you lovelies!! So the beautiful and intelligent Abbi Berry had a {b r i l l i a n t} idea...

We have created an Instagram account (@komokonnection) to tell you when we blog (komokonnection.blogspot.com) and to encourage you through!! We hope this is a more accessible way you can be encouraged to walk with Jesus more each day. 

So now we need YOU to follow us on Instagram (@komokonnection) and spread the word to your other kanakomos, especially if they were our kampers! We hope to have other kounselors post as guest bloggers though so other kampers might see their kounselors on here sometimes, too! 

Can't wait to love on you girls via social media! 

Love y'all!!
Amy Lynn

P.S. Here are our emails if you need us for anything!!

Abbi: abigaleberry@gmail.com

Amy: campbellobu@icloud.com

Disclaimer: this is not officially associated with kanakuk so PLEASE make sure you check with your parents and see if they are okay with you following us on Instagram or on the blog!!