Last Friday I went to a camp called Camp Christian. Those of you that are from my home church, or just those that I know from camp, it's not Round Lake, but it is a great camp, and the director of the camp is a great guy. This was a great first work-filled week for me to start off the summer with.
I always get asked "What'd you do at camp?" and I can never give an answer that's short, or remember, but I think I can somewhat shortly tell of what went on.
Friday through Sunday morning we had a college retreat, where we had about 12 students from different universities. During that time we had worship, some messages, and a lot of fellowship time. I got to meet some of the students that went through CSF in the Pittsburgh area, and I saw how campus ministry really effected their lives, which was awesome.
Both Friday and Saturday night I spoke at camp fire, both of which surrounded the theme of "Uncommon Life." The first night I talked about how living the Christian lifestyle is hard in the world, and talked a lot about Paul and his life's journey. The the second night I talked about how rewarding it is to persevere through the hardships. I shared my testimony for that one, and talked about how even though things got rough for me through family issues and problems I put myself in, and even though things still are hard for me, there is nothing else that brings me peace like being in Christ.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and Sr. High week begins with a rush of high school students flooding the camp ground like a wave of unbalanced hormones, body spray, and need for attention. (And I will even acknowledge that yes, I know I was like that too.)
The first night was slow going, with me still not coming out of my shell or knowing anyone around me. But for those of you who have been faculty with me at camp before, you know how camp brings something different out of me.
In case you didn't know, I'm an introvert, so I like my quiet alone time. But camp always gets me out of my shell for the campers.
For the week I was a family leader, more or less. We met only a few times a day, mainly to do devos, pray, and help them with memory verses. I didn't really do the last part, but instead furthered their devos for the day by helping them understand the memory verse in the context it's in and help them apply it to their lives. Another family leader in our group and I did this a lot, and we also tried to help them understand how to do devos, such as actually reading the text and pulling meaning out of it, not just looking at it. Some of the things that we talked about with the students afterwards were great, and quite a few of our family actually got some good stuff out of their devos.
Throughout the week we had times of worship and a message, and class times, none of which I spoke for but observed, and most of the students seemed to receive the messages well. Some weren't really listening because their focus was on things other than Jesus, so there were some problems with them throughout the week, but you'll have that. I do want to applaud the main speaker Billy (Scott), the boys teacher Greg though, , and also the girls teachers, all of the women faculty, for doing a great job teaching throughout the week.
Of course every evening we had to have camp fire, and congratulations to the campers, they made me lose my voice the first night, which has never happened before. To my credit though, I haven't had to get loud for about 6 months with no real preaching obligations. I spoke on Tuesday night about finding out what you struggle with and a basic overview of sin. Afterwards I was talking with the guy who spoke Monday night and he said that there was a kid who was struggling with how God can allow bad things to happen in our lives. The first night the camp fire speaker spoke about the love God has for us. The second night the guy I was talking to was talking about the importance of God in our lives/ why God matters. Then the third night I talked about the problem of sin and why bad things happen. God really worked through us this past week.
Finally there were meals (weird people eating at camp for a week right?). But I have a thing at camp, where every meal I'll sit at a different table until I sit with everyone. I'll get to know the kids, where they're from, what's going on in their lives, maybe teach them a lil something. The very first night there was a group of people I was sitting with who were going through a list of "ugly people" that they know. That's not going to fly with me. I pull out my Bible, flip to Ephesians 2.10, have someone read it, then flip to Genesis 1.26-27 and have someone else read that. Then I talked to them about those verses, tying them together, and got them to understand that what they were doing was wrong.
Throughout the week I was asking all the people I sat with two questions: Why are you at camp this week? What do you expect to get out of it? Most of the answers to the first question were the same, "I've been going here for ____ years." But the second question rose interesting conversations and some good time to educate. One of the notable answers was:
"I want to find God."
So I ask, "Do you believe God exists?"
"Yes."
"So how can you find him if you already found him?"
"...I guess I want to know him better?"
"Alright. Now how?"
"Nature and stuff?"
I again opened up my Bible and talked about how God has a lot of different aspects, and there are a lot of different ways to know God. We looked at Romans 1.20, Hebrews 1.1 and Titus 2.11 both of which speak about how God has shown himself in different ways to all people. We also got into who God is and some of my theology on God, which began to blow some people's minds, so I had to back off a bit. But it was still great conversation. But just table hopping throughout the week was fun, getting to know the campers, letting them get to know me, and just talking and sharing with them.
Over all it was a good week, with a lot of moments to teach students in non-traditional ways, which I think really prepared me for what's to come in the next year.
As always, please keep me in your prayers, and if you could donate moneys so I can live, that'd be awesome. And we can show people who doubt that God can do amazing things.
Until next time friends.
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