Christian Living

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The Ice Girl
by Dan Blankenship


Creation Festival East is an amazing gathering of Christians on the beautiful Agape Farm in Mt. Union, Pennsylvania. Some 60,000 Christians of all ages and denominations attend the event every year, enjoying some of Christian music’s most gifted artist and listening to awesome testimonies from incredible men and women of God. A majority of the attendees make camp onsite during the five-day celebration. The festival is so popular that organizers had to add a West Coast event, and there has been talk of possibly adding a Midwest gathering.

During Creation Festival 2000, I was returning to my campsite after a trip to the main stage when I noticed a teenage girl carrying a heavy load of ice back to her camp. Ice is sold at the event, large bags containing five smaller bags filled with ice. The five-pack weighs over forty pounds and has a tendency to rip from its packaging. The young, rather petite lady was struggling to find a comfortable position to carry the slippery load. As she threw the bag over her shoulder, I noticed the outer container was beginning to rip open. About the same time that I offered to help her carry the load, another man approached and also offered to help.

To our surprise, the girl refused our offer of assistance, even after we informed her the bag was beginning to tear. The two of us stared in disbelief as the young lady continued on, struggling to balance the load on her shoulder. The girl had to know we were only trying to do what was right. I was sure offering help was exactly what Jesus would expect two young gentlemen who happened upon this situation to do. But the young lady did not want our help.

I shrugged my shoulders toward the brother in Christ and turned to walk away. He did the same. But then we both heard the five ice bags crashing to the ground. And as we turned to look, we watched the young lady drop to her knees, bury her head in her hands, and begin to sob. We quickly rushed to her side, helping her up and grabbing the ice bags for delivery. We quietly asked her to lead us to her campsite where we could deliver the ice to her group. The whole walk to her youth group’s campsite, she kept her head down and continually apologized for not accepting our offer of help earlier. We repeatedly told her she need not apologize and that everything was okay.

After we delivered the ice, we wished the young lady well. The Ice Girl quietly thanked us for helping. The other man and I shook hands and sent God’s blessings to each other. We then made our way back to our separate camps.

To this day, I still wonder exactly why that young lady refused our offer to help. But the event got me thinking. How many times in my own life have people offered help when I needed it? And how many times had I refused that aid because I didn’t want to admit that I needed it. The answer is much too often. Sometimes our brothers and sisters in Christ see roadblocks we don’t see or don’t want to admit we have become entrapped behind. Just like the Ice Girl, we need to be more receptive to those with a different perspective on where we are headed, especially when they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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