Ramona Mann, the Bible study leader, sat 20 feet off the ground with the pre-teen girls in her group. The girls were just a few years younger than Ramona had been at her first summer camp with CC Freiburg. Back then, she was still drawn to worldly distractions, but by the end of that momentous week, Ramona had changed. Her spiritual restlessness dissipated as she learned about God’s grace. She invited Jesus into her heart. For the last several years she has served at the church.

Today, the 19-year-old and the group she led were seated on a platform of freshly hewn trees, as they read through Acts 16. The passage described how Paul and Silas had gone to jail in Philippi for exorcising a demonic spirit from a slave girl. Ramona explained that the slave girl’s masters had made a lot of money off her fortune-telling abilities.

Startled back to the present by a young man running through the camp shouting joyfully, Ramona and the girls scrambled down the ladder to see what the commotion was about. The young man, Hauke Bestmann, a school teacher by trade and camp volunteer, was wearing garb from the first century. He yelled for everyone to come to the meeting place. “I’ve got great news!” he exclaimed. Ramona and her girls and the other groups followed. Staying in character, Hauke jumped atop the speaking platform and explained that he was the jailer where Paul and Silas had been imprisoned. “Did you feel the earthquake?” he asked excitedly. He shared his horror when he thought the prisoners had escaped. The jailer continued, “I had been listening through the night as these prisoners sang songs about this Man named Jesus. When I understood that none of the prisoners attempted to escape, I desired this same joy. Paul told me to ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ My entire family was baptized.” Ramona and her group clapped appreciatively as some of the boys’ group crowded around the jailer asking questions.

You can find the complete article in the Summer 2010 issue of Calvary Chapel Magazine. To subscribe click here.