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RENDEZVOUS

God's Ways Impact Ravalli

by Margy Wraith, Ravalli Community Church

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:8). One of God's "ways" began in 1999 when Jordan Rich (pictured at right) first came with his youth group to be a counselor at Light Keepers day camps sponsored by Ravalli Community Church. Late this September Jordan moved here as a volunteer to serve for "at least one year."

Jordan, born in California, raised in Olympia, Washington, was raised in a strong Christian home and says," I was always involved with church in some way." When his family moved to Sequim when he was 16 it was natural to join the youth group of their new church, Dungeness Community Church.

In 1998 through a "providential glitch," Dungeness' youth pastor Wayne Yamamoto found himself with a group of student leaders ready for a work-service project but without a place to go. Ravalli Community Church's day camps for Light Keepers children increased and younger staff counselors. God's ways included the two churches finding each other, and they have served together ever since.

Jordan came the second summer of this alliance. Of this experience Jordan says, "I really liked it. It was a week like no other." The pace of camp week calls for selflessness and committed service to others. It opened his eyes and heart to "see what life is like for others" whose background is quite different from his and to experience God working through him and his classmates.

Jordan liked camp well enough to return after high school graduation the next summer for both camps and took time off from work to return again this past summer. He had been asking God for clear direction for his life. He had come to camp so often various people were asking him, "When are you moving to Ravalli?" By the end of his ten days at camp his answer was clear: "This fall."

Jordan concentrates on helping the Ravalli family outreach program called Light Keepers. Every other week he is part of the teaching team that travels to three communities with a 90-minute program for the children. Throughout the year he will have opportunity to teach the Bible story, memory verses, crafts, and lessons from creation as well as lead music and just "hang out" with the kids. To enhance his preparation for serving the Lord, he is attending the Mission's Bible Training Center each Sunday and is also participating in a Precept Upon Precept Bible study on Wednesday evenings. To support himself he works at Costco in Missoula.

Jordan would like to return to school "sometime," but for right now he is pleased to "be doing what God wants and where He wants. I like to be able to see the kids for longer than a camp week," and they in turn are very pleased to see him too. Ravalli Community Church is glad to have him as one of God's "ways" of touching lives.