Junior Week 3

What a difference a week makes!

For Junior 2 we had some of the hottest weather of the summer and no lifeguards.

For Junior 3 it turned rainy and unseasonably cold.  We had 5 lifeguards, but the weather was too bad to swim on Thursday and Friday.

The group of campers was different too.  Overall, the group was much more laid back.  They took the weather in stride for the most part.  I took them on the Three Hills hike on Friday and we all came back with wet feet, but I think it was still lots of fun.  Some of the messiest times make for some of the best memories.

One of my favorite parts of each week has been to ask the campers to come to me and tell me about someone who is their hero.  I've heard some great stories this way, and also had a chance to connect with the kids through their story.  This week a camper who had attended Junior Week 1 and made a decision to receive Christ as her Savior was back again.  She came to me to tell me that Jesus was her hero because of what He had done for her on the cross and her receiving His salvation just two weeks earlier.  It was a privilege to listen because this was her "first step" as a baby Christian.  It was her first time to share her new found faith with someone.  It was beautiful!

The counsellors went above and beyond this week too.  They had to deal with lots of physical needs.  Some campers came with hardly any clothes or shoes, and we were able to find some items they needed.  (God had already sent them before we knew we needed them!)  They had to deal with poop and pee and vomit and all kinds of icky things, but they did it with grace and abounding love.  I was so proud of them!  They are a phenomenal group of young people.

It was sad to see the campers go on Friday night.  The camping season has ended, and soon we will all depart to our "real" lives.  And yet I can't get this verse out of my mind... Psalm 118:23 "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

Junior Week 2

This past week, I’ve been tired… and cranky.

The weather had some affect on this.  The beginning of the week was just plain hot.  It was even very humid at night, which makes for some bad sleeping.  You feel like your swimming in the sheets.  On top of that, this is the first week we haven’t had lifeguards, so there was no swimming.  Not only could the kids not swim, but now we had to plan things for them to do during the time they usually swim.  All this made it a hard week.

Another thing that made this week challenging was some of the campers.  A few of them were just determined to have their way, and if they didn’t get it they threw quite a big fit about it.  And so I had to move into what someone else here called “teacher mode.”  I had to sit a couple of them down and be extremely firm (I told Adam I felt almost mean).  It was the most irritated I have been with children in quite a long time.

But I was determined to not let the rocky start keep me from having a good time with these particular campers.  The rest of the week I interacted with them in as many positive ways as I could.  And by the end of the week I had won them over.  They told their mom that I was their favorite and that they wanted to come for two weeks next year.  Quite a turn around, and such a blessing!

I have been influenced greatly by Steven Covey who wrote “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”  In it he explains that we all have a “personal bank account” in regards to all the people we interact with.  It is our job to make lots of positive “deposits” into this account by being encouraging, kind, compassionate, etc.  That way when we have to make a “withdrawal” (have some kind of negative interaction, such as correcting a behavior) we have enough in our “account” to make that withdrawal.  Thinking of it that way has helped me keep things in balance in lots of the relationships in my life.  And it worked with the campers this week too.

I mentioned that we had extra help this past week from a great group of people from Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC.  They came and did so many helpful things from working in the kitchen to playing with the kids to filling in the many potholes on the camp road.  We had a terrific storm on Thursday night with lots of trees down but they made quick work of all that.  They were a great blessing and we were sad to see them go.

And so tomorrow begins Junior Week 3.  God will give us strength for the task, and we will wait with wonder to see what He will accomplish.  “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Psalm 118:23

Go Fish!

Sunday is a day of wonderful rest after a long week with Junior campers.  We had a full house this week, and provided a great week of fun for all the kids.  But it has been a week in which we have all become tired.  We are thankful that reinforcements from North Carolina arrived yesterday and will be helping us run the program this week.  I am thankful for great helpers who come in to give us a brief reprieve from our labor.  And in the morning, Junior Week 2 will begin.

One of the things that has had such an impact on all of us here has been listening to Andy Stanley's series called "Go Fish" for our Sunday morning services.  Every Sunday I have been challenged with the great teaching I have heard, and today was especially good.  Here are a few excerpts that I thought were great:

"I learned that it was possible to create environments where unchurched, unbelieving [people] could come; and even though they didn’t believe what we believed they would come back the next week to hear more.

"I learned that if you can get unchurched, unbelieving [people] in a community of believers that are loving each other, and caring for each other, and being real Christians; that being in that community breaks down the barriers to unbelief. It strips away big objections [like good God vs. bad things happening to good people], all those legitimate questions.  You get somebody in a community where the church is being the church and somehow the edges get softer, and people’s hearts open up, and life change happens.

"I’m going to spend the rest of my life finding people who understand that you can create environments in the local church that allow us to partner with people who are 'fishing.'  And I want to create environments for people who come, and as they get involved in the community of believers their belief system begins to change, not because we’ve confronted, not because we’ve given them specific answers to specific questions… but because they’re in the presence… of the living Savior.

"The closest you’ll ever get to being in the presence of the living Savior is when you’re with the body of Christ functioning as the body of Christ.  That’s as good as it gets until Jesus comes back."

This is why coming to Camp of the Woods makes my heart sing like it does.  It's because I feel more like we function as the body of Christ than any other place I've ever been.  And because of that, I "feel the presence of the living Savior" in a powerful way.  That's why it's so easy to be bold in speaking to kids about the love of Christ; they can feel it all around them.  That's why I am constantly saying to all of you, "Come and see what this place is all about." 

And Andy's right.  This is as good as it gets until Jesus comes back.

Teen Week 2

Week 2 of camp is complete.  The teens we had for both weeks were such good kids and enjoyable to be around.  Several teens chose to come for two weeks and by Friday I was amazed at some of the changes I saw in them.  I saw a couple of the boys especially, who were some of the worst cut ups in chapel the first week, change their attitudes and have a great time.  It was such a great time that they were asking how they might be able to volunteer later in the summer or next summer.  What a great thing it would be to have these guys here so we can continue to shine the love of Christ into their hearts!

The worst part of the week has been the heat and the bugs.  The temperature was up to 90 for a few days, and we were all hot and sticky.  The bugs are voracious.  I can look out at the lake at sundown and just see swarms of mosquitoes, like they are boiling up out of the lake.  Johnnie (who lives here year round) says it’s the worst he can remember them being.  Bug spray helps some, but they are quite an aggravation to all of us.  My parents would be amazed at how well I can take the bugs, considering how much I hated them as a child.

My favorite part of the week has been connecting with the campers.  This year I am working hard on learning all their names.  As the game leader I award points for performance in games, but I can also award points for different kinds of things.  I decided to give points to campers who would come and tell me about their hero.  I have heard some wonderful stories, and it opened the door for me to have some meaningful conversations with them.  On Friday, one of the girls came to me and said that I was her hero for teaching her about God.  My heart melted.

Some campers are just beginning to awaken to God.  One boy was very distraught about chapel on Monday evening.  He said he didn’t believe in God and didn’t want any part of it.  (Somehow he had missed that Camp of the Woods is a Bible camp.)  But through the week he participated more and more.  On Friday evening he came to me and said that his hero was God, because he was starting to understand that God was real.  He said that he had found friends here, and he could feel the love.  I told him that God had called us to love each other, and that our love would be how people would know about Him.  He said it was all very mysterious, and I told him that he was right.  God works in mysterious ways.  God uses us with all our hang-ups and problems to be the tools He uses to reveal Himself in the world.

On Friday I spoke in chapel, and I was able to give a Gospel message and call to salvation.  The response was very good, with several campers praying to receive Christ as their Savior.  What a privilege it has been to share with these kids!

Preacher Elliott

Last Sunday we started watching an Andy Stanley series called “Go Fish.”  In this first lesson of the series Andy challenged us to write a letter to the person who led us to Christ.  He told us to do this even though the person who did this might have passed away, as is true for me.  So here is my letter:

Dear Preacher Elliot,

I grew up in your congregation and have fond memories of you, especially from our Vacation Bible School days.  I was about 9 or 10 when I became very afraid of dying.  I can remember my parents watching Billy Graham on TV, and I heard him talk about hell and I was afraid.  I often had trouble sleeping at night because of this.  I knew I needed to be saved.

I talked to my parents, but they were young and unsure of how to lead me, and so they brought me to you.  We all sat down in your office at church, and you led me to pray and invite Jesus into my life.  Later you baptized me.

A few years later I heard the gospel at a different church and had such a greater understanding of what it all meant that I decided I needed to pray and receive Christ in light of this new understanding.  I was baptized again and have followed Christ faithfully from that point.

Looking back on it now I have decided that my experience with you was the beginning of my spiritual life.  I acted based on my comprehension of the Gospel of Christ up to that point in my life.  I found peace in my decision, and I was able to rest at night once again.  I am so thankful for your concern for me as a young child, and the help you provided my parents in dealing with my young heart.

God has blessed me greatly, and I have continued to serve Him through the years.  Any rewards I have in heaven will be shared with you because of your faithfulness in preaching the Gospel.  Thank you for loving me.

                                                                                    Pam