Hello!
My name is Anna Hogsett and I am an intern here at Camp Hebron!
To introduce myself, I’d like to share my testimony with you. My testimony is one of God’s patience and faithfulness. I was raised in a Christian home by two loving and supportive parents. They went above and beyond in so many ways to make sure that I knew how much God loved me and to teach me how to walk out that love well. I am forever grateful for the foundation of faith that they gave me.
Anna Hogsett and Katia Jablonski participating in worship services at Camp Hebron.
As I grew up, I grew further into my faith. I was blessed to be surrounded by peers and adults who were invested in me and in knowing Christ. Through church I learned so much about the Bible and about how to walk out my faith with integrity. At home and through friendships I learned what it looks like to have a faithful day to day relationship with God. Through attending summer camp I learned about who God is. I remember distinctly the very first time that I began to grasp how ever present and unchanging God’s love for me is. It was during a devotional time in Discipleship Camp. I think I was 11 or 12 years old. Our speaker for the week, Ben, said a short phrase that has stuck with me ever since. “Live from love, not for it.” I have mulled over that phrase for years now, but as a little girl I began to understand for the first time that I did not need to earn God’s love, that his love for me was not based on anything I could do.
Fast forward to 2017 and I graduated high school and took a gap year to complete a Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Las Vegas with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The six months I lived in YWAM were packed with personal development and spiritual growth. During my junior and senior years of high school my faith had taken a back seat to the rest of my life and entering my DTS I was starving for more of God. As God always does, he gently revealed himself to me and changed my heart to be fully surrendered to him. It was a process of 5 months of him patiently and faithfully inviting me into deeper intimacy and trust in him.
Since then I have had the privilege of earning my Associates degree in Psychology, serving two summers at Camp Hebron, and serving with YWAM Las Vegas for an internship. Through each of these big experiences one thing has remained constant: God’s faithful and loving call for deeper intimacy and relationship with him. And I am happy to listen to his call. In the words of Paul, “not that I have already obtained all of this... but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me,” (Phil. 3:12). It is my deepest joy and motivation to know Jesus and to pursue knowing him better.
For this next year Jesus has chosen to channel that joy and motivation into serving as an intern here at Camp Hebron, and I could not be more grateful to be here. I like to joke that I’ve been at camp since before I was born because my mom was pregnant with me the summer of 1999 while my dad served as the summer staff pastor. For all of my childhood my family and I spent lots of time at camp. I attended summer camp, youth retreats, Moms and Tots, and Homeschool Gym Class just to name a few. In 2018 I staffed my first summer as a Worship Leader and Counselor, and I continued on into the 2018-2019 school year as a weekend host. I then returned this past summer (2020) as a Summer Program Director (SPD). I am happy to continue my journey at camp through interning this fall, but more importantly, I am excited to see what God will do in my own life and at Camp Hebron over the next year!