“Absolutely not,” Dad said when I told him our idea about donating the charity money to the save the craft cabin fund.

“But why?”

He could not ruin our plan. He loved the old buildings of camp as much as we did, probably even more. He had written something special on the chimney in the craft cabin a long time ago. He had written Bob and Carolyn TLA and then the date of their wedding. TLA means True Love Always.

“The point of the charity offering is that the campers learn about sacrificing for other people. We can't turn around and give the money to ourselves. That's not a sacrifice.”

“But, Dad—”

“But nothing, Abby,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m sad the craft cabin is getting torn down, but we can't spend the charity money on it. If there's anything else I can do to help, let me know. But not this.”

I gave him a disgusted look, spun around, and left the cabin, heading for swim time.

At the beach, I had to tell everybody what he had said about the charity money. I walked out to the far buoys were my friends had gathered already. They were talking about the craft cabin as I worked my way into the circle between T-Camp and Lindsay.

“What did he say?” T asked.

I managed to get out the information that Dad had told me.

“That's not fair,” Rachel said.

“I can't believe that Pastor Bob won't help us,” Carin muttered.

I didn't like them talking about my dad that way, but I understood why they were mad. I was disappointed in his answer, too.

“I see his point though,” Lindsay said.

“You would,” Carin said, making a face at her. Lindsay looked at the water and didn't say anything else.

“I do, too,” Sam said. “Dean Bob can't let us spend money on ourselves, even though he probably wants to.”

“But it's not on ourselves,” Rachel said. “It's being spent on camp.”

“It's something that we want though,” I said. I felt like I had to defend my dad's refusal of our charity idea, even though I was a little ticked off at him still.

“Well, last year I wanted the missionaries in Africa to get the bicycle we bought for them with the charity money,” Carin said.

“It's not the same thing,” I said.

“So, it’s over,” Sam said softly. He cupped his hands on the surface of the water and squeezed them together, sending a spray toward Rachel. She shrieked and turned away. The stream hit her in the back.

“No,” T-Camp said, shaking his head.

“What you mean, no?” I asked. “There's no way we can come up with six thousand dollars by the end of the week.”

“Especially since we’re here and can’t really fund raise,” Lindsay added.

“For us fourteen-year-old teenagers, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” T-Camp said firmly. “Rick said that in Bible study just today. Did you guys forget that already?”

How many more times that week would T-Camp surprise me? Before that minute, I would have guessed that he never listened during Rick's Bible study. It seemed more likely that he would be planning a way to blow up the chapel rather than listening to the minister’s sermon.

“You're right,” Lindsay said. “We need to pray about it.”

“No offense,” Sam said. “But I don't think God is going to give us a bunch of money out of thin air.”

“Does He care about things like old buildings at church camps?” Carin asked.

We fell silent. One by one, my friends all looked at me. I was used to that. People think that because my dad is a minister that I have all the answers about God. What people don't know is that my dad doesn't even have all the answers. He looks stuff up in his Bible and concordance all the time and sometimes calls other ministers with questions.

It was our best shot though. And if the minister's daughter didn't even believe God could save our craft cabin, nobody else was going to have hope either.

“God cares about us,” I reasoned. My voice sounded a lot more confident than I felt. “And we care about the craft cabin, so it can't hurt to pray.”

“Should we pray right now?” Carin asked.

Lindsay raised her eyebrows. “In the middle of swim time?”

T-Camp reached down and took my hand. “Why not?” The shock that he had locked our hands together had just registered when I looked over and saw that he had also taken Carin’s hand. Lindsay held my other hand, and we formed a prayer circle.

“Who's going to pray?” Sam asked.

Everybody looked at me again. I felt my face starting to turn red. I pray by myself all the time, but that's just me and God. I'm not as shy as I used to be, especially around my camp friends, but praying aloud is one of those situations in which the shyness comes out.

“I’ll do it,” Rachel offered.

My friends looked away from me, and I gave Rach a grateful smile. I think she knew I felt uncomfortable.

“Dear God,” she said.

Usually I closed my eyes when I pray, but this time I focused on the ripples in the water. I tried not to think about how silly we must look to everybody else. Sometimes you have to look silly when you are doing things with God.

“Some people want to build a new craft cabin,” Rachel prayed. “It's gonna be real nice, and we're grateful. I especially like the thought of the foosball table. But we love our old craft cabin, too. It's the oldest building on camp besides the chapel, and it has a lot of memories for us. Our parents signed their names on the wall there hundreds of years ago. It reminds us of Scott, who I didn't know very well but who my brothers talk about all the time. One of my favorite memories of the craft cabin is when Dane scared Noelle with that spider he made out of gimp and pipe cleaners.”

A giggle escaped my lips, but I don't think anybody else noticed because they were trying not to laugh themselves. The time that Dane had dangled that spider over the edge of the second story and made it land on Noelle, this really annoying counselor, was one of the funniest thing I've ever seen at camp.

“You saw how hard we tried to save the craft cabin,” Rachel continued after a small break to allow for our laughter. “We love that place, and we tried our hardest. Lots of people agree with us because they gave us tons of money for our save the craft cabin fund. We can't do it by ourselves though. It seems hopeless right now, but our brother T-Camp has reminded us that nothing is impossible with You.”

I almost laughed again at her reference to “brother T-Camp.”

“Please help us save the craft cabin. I don't know how, but I bet You can come up with a good idea. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.”

We dropped hands and opened our eyes. I felt a hundred percent better after Rachel's prayer. God can do amazing things.

“Brother T-Camp?” Carin burst out, laughing. “Where did that come from?”

Rachel put her hands on her hips. “People at church say ‘brothers and sisters’ all the time. I was trying to sound like the lay leader who says the prayer at my church.”

“Let’s have some fun,” Sam said.

“Some fun in this three-foot deep lake,” Lindsay joked.

“I can think of some fun,” Brother T-Camp said, grabbing me around the waist and dunking us both under.

Everybody shrieked and splashed and dunked each other under until the Amazon lifeguard lady blew her whistle and made us come out of the water. Ben, Jason, Cord, Tony, or Julie would not have yelled at us for that. I wished for about the thousandth time, as I put on my flip-flops, that they hadn’t gotten new staff members at camp.