Why SKY - Heather Lee

I have always loved the quote, “Your life as a Christian should make a nonbeliever question their disbelief in God.” As an adoptive Mom, I felt that my husband and I went above and beyond to build our little family upon this principle. We threw our values, our thoughts, words, deeds and actions into loving Jesus and teaching our children to do the same.

God had built our family in a very special way and we are proud of how he handknit us all together. After 5 years of infertility, God blessed us with 4 children via adoption; each with their own unique testimony. We tried to be very involved in our church as Bible Study Leaders, VBS, Youth Group and various other ministries. I was fortunate enough to be a Stay at Home Mom and devotionals and prayer were essential to rearing our children.

As our children grew older, we started taking them to Mother/Daughter and Father/Son weekends at Sky Ranch in Van, Tx. It was at one of those weekends that I saw a video on the adventures of Sky Ranch Ute Trail. I knew instantly that that would be our next family vacation!  Who doesn’t love Colorado, after all? Our love for Sky Ranch plus Colorado is a Win-Win!! Our first family vacation to Ute Trail was in 2015. To say it was magical is an understatement! You literally feel like you are visiting Heaven on Earth. Our week was so amazing and we couldn’t wait to sign up for the next year and the next!

On paper, I thought we were doing “everything right” as parents. We were teaching our children Jesus at home, modeling it as God-fearing parents and I just knew that “A + B = C”.  If we raised our children in a Christian home, then they will absolutely grow up and believe everything that we had lovingly taught them.

I was wrong. God instills this little thing called Free Will into all of us here on earth. My oldest child, Hudson was 14 years old when he came and told me that “he was not a Christian”.  SAY WHAT?!  How could this be? I had to do a double take.  I had to hold back the tears when he told me. First of all, my heart was broken knowing he was lost and confused. Secondly, how could we have raised a nonbeliever? His Dad was a Bible Study Teacher, our son could probably quote the bible more than most kids his age. I thought we had instilled Christlike love and principals into his little mind. 

The enemy had a field day with me over this and shamefully I started listening to the enemy.  “I must have done something wrong”, “I didn’t pray hard enough” and “I should have been a better Mom”. Fear can paralyze us and keep us from stepping out in faith. The devil loves a fearful Christian.

My fear began to grow each year that my son still denied Christ. My fear turned into anxiety just before we left for our yearly vacation to Ute Trail in June of 2019. I somehow felt like a failure as Mom, going to a Christian family camp, knowing that our son did not believe in Christ. I didn’t want anyone to judge him. I didn’t want anyone to judge us as parents. I even questioned my husband about cancelling our trip. Oh, that darn enemy; he almost convinced me and won but HE DIDN’T SUCCEED! 

I had to learn to not listen to these lies and just pray harder and hold on to Gods truth: “In God I shall trust, I shall not be afraid” Psalm 56:4. I had to realize that I didn’t want Hudson to simply believe in Christ just because I told him to. I needed to let him go and discover his own relationship with Jesus….just like I did. I breathed a little bit and realized that God told me not to be afraid but to TRUST IN HIM. 

My husband spoke truth into me and convinced me that we absolutely needed to keep going to Sky Ranch Ute Trail, despite the trials we were facing with Hudson. We knew we would be surrounded by loving, nonjudgmental camp counselors and staff who would model Christ-like love to Hudson. I knew that they would pray and be a mentor to him. What better place to take our family!

An amazing thing happened and God showed up in a mighty, unexpected way at Ute Trail this year.  On Thursday evening, my husband and I went to night time worship in their precious little Chapel in the mountains.  Families were singing a cappella worship music, with the lights turned off and nothing but the moon light peeking over the mountains and starry sky through the stained glass windows.  There was something magical in the air and His name was The Holy Spirit. 

Little did we know that our son, Hudson, had gone down to the chapel that evening to play the piano by himself. He didn’t realize that Chapel was going on at that time.  He heard the music billowing out from the Chapel door and he said he felt a gravitational pull to come inside. He couldn’t explain it; he just knew that he was supposed to go inside. It was in that sweet little Chapel that each word of each song washed over his heart and he felt immense unconditional love. He stayed for every single song. We didn’t even realize that he had slipped into the back row of the Chapel.The counselors saw Hudson sitting on that back row and prayed for him one by one. They led Hudson back to Christ that night. Hudson tearfully came to us and said, “I now know I was wrong about Jesus. I just want to follow Him and do His will for my life”. 

Tears and tears of joy flowed that night. The enemy did not win; Jesus did. Jesus worked through the mighty little Chapel on Ute Trail Mountain. He worked through the camp counselors and staff who poured countless seeds of truth and love into my son, one by one.  As we gathered around the closing campfire on Friday night, Hudson was the last person to speak. He said, “I have battled with my Conscious and the Spirit but thanks to all of the love shown here by everyone, I am a new person!” Thank you, Jesus for meeting my son through the wonders at Sky Ranch Ute Trail. This Momma is forever grateful.

- Heather Lee