What PHC's new RD learned from working with hurting teens

“May I never forget on my best days that I still need God as desperately as on my worst days.” Rachel McCracken (CLA, ‘23) wrote this quote in her Bible and looked at it regularly over the 8 months she worked at Christian Encounter Ranch (CER), a residential program in California for troubled teens. “I needed Christ when I was at the ranch in a way that I hadn’t realized I needed him before,” she said. She started this month as PHC’s female Resident Director, and these are some lessons she carries with her from her most recent job. 

At CER, she cared for teens who came from hurting homes or were stuck in unhealthy patterns. Each day, she and other interns (several pictured) worked alongside students ages 15-21 doing chores like felling trees, scrubbing floors, washing dishes, and making meals. “A lot of these students had lived with a lot of neglect or trauma in their lives to the point they were in survival mode and weren’t learning basic life skills,” she said. If they weren’t working or doing homework, McCracken enjoyed activities with the students like pressing flowers, flying kites, going fishing, or playing Monopoly.
McCracken initially came to PHC planning to pursue legal advocacy. But after being a camp counselor the summer before her junior year, she realized God had given her the heart and talents for the relational. She switched majors from GOV-APP to CLA and added a minor in Biblical Studies. “I loved the education that it provided and the way that it allowed me to really learn how to think deeply about so many different things,” she said.

McCracken first visited CER when PHC alumnus Jensen Near (‘10), CER’s Intern Director and Director of Student Life, invited students to serve over spring break in 2023. Her heart went out to the students at the ranch, and she was struck by what the interns exhibited. “I recognized that was the Lord working through them and teaching them to live in the way in which they were, and I wanted that,” she said. She started working as an intern in September 2023.
Sometimes she had great conversations while doing chores with the students, like with a boy who loved talking about philosophy, theology, and politics, asking questions like “How old is the earth? How do we know?” Often, it wasn’t a fun work environment, since her job was to keep the kids working. She faced pushback, especially from students with struggling work ethics. “As their primary disciplinarian, I was helping them to instill healthy habits that honor the Lord but would also break them out of the cycle they were in,” she said.  

She found it challenging to love those who abused or discarded her love for them, but she realized they didn't understand the Lord’s love. Living with hurting people and consistently practicing love and forgiveness helped her see the Lord’s heart for herself. “As I loved a student when they were not treating me the way that they should have, I saw the way that I treat God and the way he loves me through it—which was astounding.”

Sometimes she saw the gospel suddenly “click” for students. “When you’re having a conversation with a student that you’ve been mentoring and discipling and loving for like seven months—and praying for—and then all of a sudden you see them understand, it hits you in a way that I can’t even describe.”

Working at CER opened McCracken’s eyes to the fact that everyone's story has its own complexities and sorrow—even at PHC.  “It was so cool to live alongside God’s children and have my capacity for grace expand in the way that I view people,” she said. This came from a better understanding of the Lord’s grace for her.  “I feel like I’m walking away from Christian Encounter with a weight off my shoulders that I spent the first 22 years of my life carrying.”

McCracken realized that Christ is more concerned about his relationship with his children than with their perfection. “I can go bomb it, and yet God’s plans and purposes can still come to fruition,” she said. “My motivation for excellence should be because I love the Lord; not because it has to be perfect in order for God’s purposes to be accomplished.”

Now, when challenging or encouraging others, she focuses more on their relationship with Christ than on their actions, because that’s what Christ does for her. “When he looks at me, he already declares me righteous. He knows that the only way I’ll ever be what he has declared me to be is to fall more deeply in love with him, so he goes after my heart,” she said.

McCracken served as a Resident Assistant for two years at PHC, and she is excited to return. “I am SO excited to be living in this community again with all of the incredible people and my brothers and sisters in the Lord that make up PHC,” she said. “And I’m just incredibly excited to see the ways in which God is going to call me into people’s lives and where I’ll get to have a front-row seat to the work that he is doing!” 

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