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Purity
In Paradise
By Tessa King
It
is truly amazing how God can take three weeks and change lives.
When He spoke, last fall, to each of the six Samford students who
traveled to Reunion Island from June 12 to July 1, none of us had any idea what
He was going to do! During the two
and a half weeks we spent on Reunion, God worked far beyond what we could 
have
expected. The joy of working with
Ron and Lisa Jones, the IMB missionaries on Reunion, and of meeting and
fellowshipping with Christians from the other side of the world, was incredible.
Melissa Jones, daughter of Ron and Lisa, planned and organized the trip,
and Jennie Boone, Sallie Kruse, Merry Beth Morris, Chris Thomas, and I worked
with her to encourage her parents and the churches of the island.
The main thrust of our work on Reunion was a True Love Waits camp we did for about nine youth. These youth came from several protestant churches on the island, mostly from the church where Ron and Lisa spend most of their time. The dynamics of the group were interesting, because there were six of us from Samford, as well as two young men who joined us, Andy Hall, from Great Britain, and Fred David. Ron and Lisa Jones also chaperoned, so our camp had ten chaperones and nine campers! This was obviously orchestrated by God, though, because it allowed the students to get much more individual attention. During the camp, we had Bible study times, serious morning worship times, fun evening worship times, recreation times, and night moves (games of the night, as the kids called them); these were games like Mafia and scavenger hunts, which we played before lights-out.
Because the material for the camp was True Love Waits, the focus of our Bible study was sexual purity. We also heavily emphasized principle of only dating and marrying other believers. Because there are so few Christian youth on the island, this idea is fairly unfamiliar to the students. However, though challenged by the difficulty of remaining pure in the midst of their culture, the students seemed to really learn and enjoy the material; the girls even came to two impromptu Bible study sessions after dinner to hear all that we wanted to say to them.
At the end of the week, we had an open commitment time. We had already talked to the youth in Bible study about the importance of making a written or verbal commitment to purity, emphasizing that this type of commitment would help the youth stay pure in the midst of peer pressure and their own fleshly desires. The commitment time in the last worship session was for the youth to respond to anything they had learned and wanted to change in their lives, whether it dealt with sexual purity or something else. They wrote their commitments down and signed them, so that we were able to see what they had committed and pray for them. Their commitments were very sweet and sincere, and specific! It was amazing, because I know what we did could not have produced those kinds of results!
Another of God’s blessings on the trip was the way He overcame the language barrier. Half of our team spoke no French when we came to Reunion, but we were still able to get close to the youth. The churches, too, loved and embraced us, despite our broken French and uncertainty with the French customs! Those of our team who did speak French God used in a special way as translators, and also simply as encouragements to the youth, who were more comfortable speaking their own language, though they seemed to have fun learning and practicing their English.
Another of our goals on the trip was to be an encouragement to the churches of the island. While we were there, we had a chance to lead in worship services, prayer meetings, and a prayer walk. One of the greatest joys of Christianity is the fellowship of believers, and we had the privilege of enjoying sweet fellowship with Christians of a different language and culture.
When I heard about this trip, I was interested, but in a very detached, unrealistic way. I didn’t really think I would actually go halfway around the world to a place I had never heard of. God did, however, and He orchestrated every detail for each of us. God is not realistic, He is God, and on this trip He proved that over and over. God told us to go, met our physical, mental, material, and spiritual needs, and then used us far above what we could possibly have done. We each learned, in our own ways, that when we are weak, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). I am so glad to have been a part of the Reunion Island team, and I am praying for the day when I will be able to return. God is so good, and He was absolutely incredible on this trip!