Camp 2010

"Camp" can sometimes be a very dangerous word in the Christian environment. For some, "camp" represents a "spiritual high" where people professed their undying love to Jesus and come back to the real world with little changed about their lives. I hope that it is not this way with our students. We have always prayed and hoped that for any students that come with us, camp would be a time where they grow in honesty with God and fellow believers and where they learn that walking with God at camp is something that can be done on a daily basis at home.

For Sonny and I, "camp" is often a time of mixed worry and excitement; worry because of all the things that can potentially go wrong and excitement at the thought that the Lord could do something wonderful in the lives of students. This year the Lord again showed us how faithful He is to our prayers.

Usually we start praying diligently for camp a couple months before it happens (it is something that we pray for all year but we start praying daily for it the last few months). For the most part it seems like the Lord has me pray a specific scripture or theme from a book over the camp. This year there were two things that came to my mind almost every time I prayed for camp. I had been reading through Acts and was seeing how clearly the Spirit was leading the disciples. So many times, Peter and Paul would say that they were "led by the Spirit" or "prevented by the Spirit" from going to such-and-such a place. (Acts 11:12, 13:2, 13:4, 16:6-7, 16:10) , I started to pray for that with our camp. I prayed that every detail of camp would be led by the Spirit and that if we were doing something that the Lord did not want, that He would prevent us from moving forward. I prayed so much about how the small groups should be split up. Who should be in who's group? What counselor would really be best for each student? What should we talk about in the small groups. I cannot even begin to share all of the stories that encouraged me with God's faithfulness. I would hear story after story about how girls/guys felt so connected with their counselor. I would hear about connections between the students and their counselors that I was totally unaware of before camp- like how a certain counselor confessed struggling with something and found out that almost all of their students struggled with the same thing! The groups could not have been more perfect. Every night when we would have our counselor meeting, I would leave so refreshed in the Lord and thankful for His answer to our prayers. I truly feel that He led EVERY aspect of camp. Even the things that seemed to go wrong were just opportunities for Him to show His faithfulness.

Another thing that I had been praying was from 1 Kings 8:11. In this chapter, Solomon was praying that the Lord would fill the temple with His glory. Solomon recorded that at one point the temple was so full of God's glory that the priests could not even enter! This was my prayer for camp. I prayed that God's glory would be so overwhelming that no student could leave without having recognized His presence. I really do feel that this prayer was answered. The teaching that the Lord gave to Sonny and all of the counselors was such a demonstration of His glory. I was so encouraged by the worship, fellowship, and teaching of God's Word. I know that the Lord was with us, speaking to us in different ways through His Spirit and Word. It was not a "camp high" but a time where I felt that we all met with the Lord and were given the strength and wisdom to continue walking in His presence once we left and were back in the "real world."

I want to thank everyone for all of the prayers for us. We truly felt covered in prayer. Yes, it was hard for me to leave Asher for a week but we all survived and I am pretty confident that he does remember who we are =). Thank you again. I hope my recount of this trip blesses you and encourages you that the Lord desires so much to be near to His children. He wants us to constantly be praying to Him and watch as He answers those prayers! What a great God we serve!