Jym Shorts

Jym Shorts - August 27, 2015

by Jym Gregory on August 27, 2015


Hello! My name is Stephen Morris, and I’m a senior at Anderson University studying Psychology. I’ve been part of LifePoint my whole life, and this summer I was away as an intern at a beautiful place called SonRise. SonRise is a Christian camp in Anderson, Indiana, for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each week, adult campers come in and are paired one-on-one with a volunteer of any age. The camper-volunteer pair do everything together all week, whether it be sitting together at meals, singing and worship, doing crafts, participating in events, playing cards, hanging out at the pool, or getting ready for bed.

I had many different jobs these eight weeks of camp. I led large Bible lessons and small group meetings, cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms, hung out on the porch with people, helped out in the bathroom or shower, played UNO, basketball, and field day games, had deep conversations, and much, much more.

This community of friends quickly became my favorite place on Earth. I will attempt to explain some of the reasons for this as quickly as I can.

1. Authenticity. The campers would lead the rest of us in genuinely expressing their joys, humor, frustrations, gratitude, requests, and encouragements. Most encouraging of all was seeing the campers genuinely expressing their faith. They would pray, worship, or preach freely. I know that I often hide my thoughts and emotions, even from my close friends sometimes. It’s refreshing to see the faith, thoughts, and emotions of others freely come to light. I always want to express myself respectfully, but I don’t want to withdraw into myself out of fear. The Bible has a lot to say on living unashamed and free from fear.

2. Outreach. One week, instead of doing my normal jobs, I was paired one-on-one with Caleb. Caleb (pictured with me and a dog) is a fun, twenty-year-old dude who knew a lot about outreach. He was constantly asking me questions about my life and going over to others to strike up a conversation. People often had troubles hearing what he was saying initially, but that didn’t unnerve him; he would still show people that he truly cared about hearing from them. I was deeply blessed to have the opportunity to see his outreach and to reach out to him.

3. Identity in Christ. Most importantly, I learned from all of the SonRise community that my identity is in Jesus Christ. My identity is not in my ability to live life perfectly, because I still make mistakes, disappoint others, and hurt God. My value is not in my mood, because I still feel sad, scared, angry, or alone sometimes. My worth is not even in my attributes or gifts. God made me amazingly, and he also sacrificed his Son in order to destroy death in me. Every single aspect of me is drenched in Jesus now. Anytime God looks at me, he sees Jesus! This glorious truth is what makes me want to love and pursue him more.

There was no huge, miraculous “God moment” for me this summer. But as Pastor Jym said recently during his message over Ruth 2, God doesn’t always show up in some massive, miraculous event; God is with us in the everyday life stuff. I was changed this summer because I was constantly reminded of God’s marvelous presence. If you ever want to experience or support SonRise, I encourage you to look into it or ask me about it ( )! But remember, you can have a beautiful relationship with our Lord Jesus no matter where you are!!

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