“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young . . .” 1 Timothy 4:12.

Kayla, 14, had a clear choice of two paths:

• Path #1: Well traveled by her peers, this path led to drugs, alcohol, partying, and all in all, required very little of her – simply hang on for the good times. 
• Path #2:  This path, much less traveled, began at the Union Gospel Mission’s Tshimakain Creek Camp, and while Kayla acknowledged her first week at camp was a lot of fun, a commitment to this path involved numerous roadblocks. 

            “The first year I thought it was just a fun place to go because my brothers were going, so I just went . . . I didn’t really know God.”  And fun it was.  Kayla’s favorite game was the garbage can game where all the girls hold hands and try to drag one another into a pool of cold oatmeal, chocolate syrup and other discarded food.

            After camp that year, however, going into 7^th grade, Kayla experimented with drugs and alcohol. “Trusting is a big issue for me because I’ve had a lot of letdowns in my life . . .”  (Kayla’s mother struggles with a drug addiction. She doesn’t know her biological father. She’s had two stepdads, and she and her siblings have not always been able to live at home.) “. . . so that was one of the roadblocks to getting to know God.  I was kind of turning toward other things instead of turning toward something I couldn’t see or feel.  I got a quarter of the way down that path, backed up, and came back.”

            Once again at the fork in the road, Kayla was ready to commit to path #2 and face the roadblocks head on.  Since going to camp, she had been attending weekly meetings at Youth for Christ in the West Central neighborhood of Spokane.  The leaders had been the counselors at camp, and she began to believe they were worthy of her trust.

            “I see camp as a place where I can find comfort. You spend a week there with these people – people who care about you – and you get to know them with no distractions, no electronics, nothing like that.” 

             Learning to trust people helped her learn to trust God, and now, Tshimakain Creek Camp holds a special place in Kayla’s life:  “That’s where I found God finally, and I got baptized there, too.”

            This path, the one that began at Tshimakain, requires quite a bit of her – commitment, openness, trust, a desire to do what’s right, and a willingness to give back.  Kayla attends weekly meetings at Youth for Christ, studies her Bible, and accepts that she will sometimes be seen as “the good little Christian girl.” Last fall, she applied for and was accepted as a student leader.  Part of the requirement of being a student leader is that she meet with and mentor a small group of junior high girls.  Kayla sees it like this: Numerous people have helped her as she has traveled this path, and now, she wants to reach back and walk alongside someone else.

            Youth Outreach Director Denny Roach, who recently invited Kayla to return to Tshimakain as an intern this summer, reflected on how she has grown:  “I see in Kayla a serious young woman with a real desire to grow in her spiritual life and follow Christ – even when her own life is hard.  She wants to be open and vulnerable with her life and to build trust with kids.  This is a real potential leader.”