Make Me New

This week we are excited to hear from Kirsten who has been serving on our summer staff as a Senior Counselor based out of our Okoboji location. Like most of our counselors this summer, Kirsten hasn't just been at Okoboji but has also been part of our traveling day camp teams and, this week, is helping with our LiveWire Music Camp at Ingham Lake.

Hello, my name is Kirsten Reineke, and I am a senior counselor at Okoboji. Before this summer, I was a counselor in 2017 and 2018, and deciding to come back to camp this year was an opportunity for me to be intentional about growing in my faith. During the past year, I have had the desire to grow closer to God, and coming to camp was a chance for me to put that into practice. So when I first heard about the summer theme of Brand New, a question began to form in my mind. My question was, “God, will you make me new? Will you make me new while I’m at camp? Will you make me new when I return home?” I knew that I wanted to capture these emotions in the form of a song, but it took me many weeks of camp before I was ready to fully express these feelings.

As I sat down early one morning with my guitar and notebook, I started with the question that I had been wrestling with all summer: Will you make me new? And as I continued writing, I knew that this question is a question that God answers with a promise: He will make me new. And not only does He promise that he will make me new, He IS making me new, even right now! And even more than making me new, He makes EVERYTHING new! He pours out his love and his grace, and he gives us new life everyday. He comes to us in our brokenness, trials, and pain, and He makes us new.

The theme verse for this summer, Romans 6:4, captures how we are made new: Just as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life! He makes everything new! I would like to share with you my song lyrics, and you can see the journey that I have been on: a journey of wondering, “Will you make me new”, to seeing how God is working in my everyday life to make me new and make everything new.

Will you make me new? Will you make me new?

When I see all my faults, I run from you in shame

I wonder if your love can free me from my pain

And when I hide my face, and when I run away

You pour out your love. You call my name

And you say

You will make me new

Yet I wonder if it’s true when you say

You will make me new

You call out to me. You ask me to believe

That you have rescued me and set me free

And given me life

You reach down and touch the wounds inside my heart

And give me a new start

And I won’t hide my face and I won’t run away

You fill me with your love, you pour out your grace

And you say

You are making me new

And I trust when you say that you are

You are making me new

Just as Christ was raised from the dead

Through the glory of the Father

We too may live a new life

You make everything new

And we trust you when you say that you make

You make everything new

You are making me new

And I trust you when you say that you are

You are making me new, you are making me new

Follow Up

- Kirsten talks about how God makes EVERYTHING new. What in your life is the hardest to believe God is working in to make BRAND NEW?

- For Kirsten, her guitar and her notebook is one way she has a conversation with God. How you connect with God to be able to hear what He is wanting to speak into your life?

- Want to dive into out summer theme for 2021? You can check out our blog series focusing on each of our 5 daily theme verses or our Bible study available online or through our BEYOND App (available in both the App Store and on Google Play by searching “IOLBC”).