beach camp!
July 12, 2008
Part of the Thailand prep is to go to our youth camp at the beach in Galveston, TX. The focus this year was on the Big Picture. All the worship times, small group Bible study times, and quiet time materials focused on seeing the Big Picture with God at work and taking a look at where you are in your relationship with Him and thinking about whether or not you are where you need to be, walking closely beside him. It’s a camp geared toward spiritual growth in our students. It’s the best time of the year! It’s always a lot of fun as well as eye opening. Some of the answered prayers with Beach Camp are:
we prayed there would be no big medical needs, no one get really sick, no major injuries: there was a 36 hour window where there were NO medical needs! Not one bandaid was asked for, not one tylenol tablet, nothing! Only the daily meds that some folks take on a regular basis. This is UNHEARD OF in a camp situation….especially where you are in the hot sun all day!
one girl, Gabby, was invited 2 or 3 days before camp to join us…she got saved!
one girl, Alex, was invited one Sunday a few weeks before camp; because of medical bills in the family, there was no way she could come up with even an extra couple of dollars for camp; because of someone’s generosity in our church, she was given a scholarship for camp…she got saved!
one of the young HS students going to Thailand made a commitment to read the Bible daily, starting at the beginning…as of Wed, he’s still following through!
2 students have felt God’s call to step up and become leaders among our youth group and have committed to do so
One family group leader asked for prayers for her JH age students early in the week, so we were praying faithfully for them…3 of them were saved!
one JH student felt God’s call to get more serious about his relationship with Christ and I’ve watched a change in him over the weeks
one student realized she had been gossiping about another and it was wrong, so she apologized to the other student as well as to the ones she had gossiped with
one night students went to each other during worship and prayed together, resolved differences; the youth group was definitely strengthened this night!
a woman who was staying at the hotel wrote a letter to our pastor the week we were at camp expressing how well behaved our students were and how wonderful it was to see them all lined up on the seawall (for quiet time each morning) with their bibles in hand
ummmm….i got to eat fresh seafood! yumm!!!!
God sure has been faithful! Once again, Beach Camp was an amazing experience for me to be a part of. I thank my God for allowing me to be a part of it. My role was a little different this year than last, but no less exciting. A wonderful growth opportunity for leaders and students alike. And the Lord allowed me to learn more about being a prayer warrior.
Teresa K and Amy E (leaders going to Thailand) said they noticed a huge difference in our girls choir after camp…more focus and more ready to prep for Thailand. I think that Beach Camp went a long way in preparing us all for our mission trip.
