Michael Montes said he felt called to serve as a Royal Ambassadors State Staffer this year because “I wanted to grow my faith with Christ a lot more and I wanted to share the Word of God to people who don’t have the chance to hear it.”
He got that opportunity.
Montes, 14, is a member of First Baptist Church of Springtown. As a first-year State Staffer, he said he found himself in a position while serving at Camp Chapparal to carry out his calling from God.
“There was a bunch of the kids in my group,” he recalled. “They acted like they didn't know Christ. Some were very shy at first and some of them,” he added with a smile, “had way too much energy.
“But then a lot of them just wanted a conversation,” Montes said. “Then they got to trust me more and started talking to me more.”
Montes began to see a change in the group’s behavior when he and fellow staffer Adam Pence, a friend from his home church, “started talking to them, and because Adam said they ‘had a big change coming in their lives.’”
Despite several unwilling, uncooperative listeners, said Montes, he shared the “big change” Pence had announced: Faith in Christ.
“I tried to calm them down and then once they were calmed down, I tried to talk to them about their faith. It ended up, I believe, that three of them were saved and three of them decided to grow their faith with Christ.”
With two camps and his staffer training at RA Leadership Training Camp earlier last summer behind him, he said his own“faith in Christ has grown a lot. LTC was a good start for me, and then the camps have just been really good.
“I think Chaparral was one of the best camps I've ever been to,” he explained, “because there's so many kids there that were a mix: Some of them knew about Christ and some of them didn't. And we got to share the gospel with a lot of them.”
Working alongside Michael Montes as a staffer was his older brother, Jonathan, 16. Jonathan Montes said his experience “was … and was not…” what he expected.
“I thought we were just going to be leading kids around, getting them to activities,” he said. “It sort of was like that, but then it's not at the same time. It’s kind of hectic, busy, a lot of work and a lot heavy lifting.”
But it was also an opportunity to lead, he countered, pointing to his opportunity to lead campers in devotional times.
For Pence, serving as a Summer Staffer also provided surprising and welcome experiences.
“I was expecting to be able to talk with kids and be able to do worship, which I've been able to do. Tonight, we're going to be doing the campfire (worship) service.”
Savion Lee, the Royal Ambassadors coordinator for sponsoring ministry Texans on Mission, noted this year’s new staffers “stepped up” as they led in RA camps across the state.
“A lot of these young men, this is their first or second year joining and serving at camps,” he explained. “It's been amazing to see them step up and see that there's a bigger role that they can play than just coming to camp to have fun, but that there's a purpose behind it.
He said staffers “get to be on the front lines or the front row to see what the Lord is doing in the boys' and girls' lives.”