Bernie is thrilled to bi-weekly share about her experience serving on the 2016-2017 Servant Leadership Team!

Editors Note: Over the next few months, Bernadette – one of our amazing Servant Leadership Missionaries – will be blogging about her experience so far serving at Camp Gray. We hope you enjoy! 

By: Bernadette “B” Diodati

God works in mysterious and wonderful ways. You think you have a plan for your life, and then in prayer you suddenly get this crazy desire to be a missionary, and well, everything changes in an instant. Or, if you are like me, deep down, the desire to be a missionary has been lingering there for a while – you just kept trying to put it off. When I think back to August and the decision I made to leave Texas to come to Wisconsin, I had no idea what was in store for me. All I knew was that I was ready to take the next step, and as much as it pained me to leave my friends and all I knew behind, I fully trusted that this was the right choice – this is where the Lord was leading me. And it makes me smile, because if life with Christ really is a wonderful adventure (our theme for this year), then why not give Him complete control?

At Mass recently I heard the priest read from the Gospel of Matthew the words, “You are the salt of the earth… you are the light of the world,” and it reminded me just how beautiful my role here at Camp Gray is. SaLT stands for Servant Leadership Team. Being a SaLT Missionary allows me to serve God each and every day – to be a light to others. At the end of the day, if we are able to show our campers and retreatants just how much Jesus loves them, then we’ve lived out well the mission of Camp Gray. And if being here at Camp Gray has taught me one thing, it is how to be a servant in every aspect of my life. We not only lead retreats, but we also help out in the kitchen, with cleaning afterwards, and in any other way that we are able. If you see a need, you fill it! Before I came here, I would have dreaded cleaning bathrooms regularly, yet now it makes me happy realizing that something as simple as doing that makes the experience of our campers and retreat groups that much better.

Camp Gray may have just been a bookmarked page on my laptop a few months ago, but now it is my home. If you are reading this and you are curious about being a part of Camp’s Servant Leadership Team, it can be your home, too! In the weeks and months to come, I’m thrilled to share much with you about our team, about Camp Gray, about our mission, and about how very grateful I am that the Lord led me to Camp Gray.

Come on back in two weeks for more! In the meantime, check out this wonderful SaLT “day-in-the-life” video!