After working in the emergency room of a hospital, I thought serving as a nurse at summer camp would be a breeze, Alli said. But she hadn’t taken the emotional pain into account. Alli and I were having coffee after her term at UGM Camp ended. The physical injuries over the course of the nine weeks were minor, she said, scrapes, sprains, sunburns and insect bites mostly. The hard work hadn’t come from a test of her nursing skills but rather from the demand to live out her faith in complex relationships
– to listen, to care, to seek to understand how these children’s heart wounds impacted their behavior, and to bring the gospel into everyday situations.
As an example, she told me the story of a full-scale verbal assault that took place in one of the girls’ cabins at 3 a.m. Feeling completely out of her league, she entered the fray. After lots of “she said…” and “she started it,” Alli simply asked the girls: “Is this what you want your relationships to look like for your whole life?” That question de-escalated the fighting and created space for conversation, conversation that eventually came around to our relationship with God, the problem of sin, and the beauty of forgiveness.
Alli was a great camp nurse – competently handling all the minor illnesses and injuries that arose that summer – but more than that, she was a vessel through which God could begin healing the bumps and bruises none of us could see.
~ Dennis Roach, Youth Outreach Director
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The 2025 Life Recovery commencees have journeyed through deep valleys of struggle and hardship. Yet, with resilience and grace, they have emerged...
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Chrystin struggled with alcoholism for sixteen years before entering UGM’s recovery program. “I felt so defeated and was lying in bed, drinking, just...
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At Union Gospel Mission, we understand that meeting urgent needs—food, shelter, medical care, and job training—is just the beginning. These are the...
Union Gospel Mission : December 1, 2012
Every year, the South Hill Bible Church youth group puts a creative twist on UGM’s food drive – to great effect! On October 31st, rather than donning...
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Union Gospel Mission : October 1, 2013
Danny Beard has been running UGM’s volunteer ministry at Juvenile Detention since 1985. Every once in a while, he runs into someone around town...
Union Gospel Mission : February 1, 2013
We’re hoping you’ll help to make someone’s day. Pull out the construction paper, scissors and glitter and create a Valentine for a man, woman or...
Barbara Comito, former marketing director
