Winter camp 2011 is beginning to wind down.  It is just after 2:30am and the high school late night is in full swing.  There are approximately 25 students still awake or at least semi-awake partaking in board games, card playing, consuming large quantities of candy, soda, and other highly caffeinated beverages.  This has been a great camp and we have enjoyed ourselves tremendously.  This morning, Austin challenged us on the topic of gossip.  It was another dagger to the heart.  He defined gossip as speaking evil in a whisper.   He walked through the proverbs showing us that God hates gossip, a gossip is a fool, gossip separates friends/destroys fellowship, gossips are to be avoided, gossip is in opposition to Christian love, gossip ruins your reputation, and gossip receives the judgment of God.  What an insidious sin that permeates each of our lives and leaves a pathway of destruction in its wake.  This is a respectable sin that too often finds a home in the speech of believers.  It was a super applicable message and found a target in every heart present.

Instead of extended free time in the afternoon, we had an extended worship session where we heard testimonies from the band and sang for over an hour.  It will certainly be remembered as a highlight of this camp.  To hear the voices and see the tears and experience the worship of God in this setting was quite a memorable time.

In our final evening session, Austin turned our attention to Colossians 4 and the topics of evangelism and prayer—2 ways that we can use our words to edify and build others up.  He left us with a charge to do something with our lives by becoming warriors in prayer and by speaking often to unbelievers about the treasure we have in Christ.  These have been incredible messages and God has used them in individual hearts.  We partook of the Lord’s supper together and closed our final session in worship.  It has been a great camp and I have been humbled and blessed to be a part of it.  My prayer tonight is that we would see much lasting fruit from our time away.

Shawn

The sun is up on our last full day and camp is quiet.  Most of the staff members are sitting around the lounge spending time with the Lord before the day’s events pull us in a thousand different directions.  As we begin to wear down and fatigue from intense sleep deprivation and exhaustion and Jr High mayhem, I am reminded that “The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power.” Isaiah 40:28-29

Our session last night continued in the theme of the tongue and more specifically was titled “Saviors of the tongue”.  After looking at how the tongue can cut down and destroy in James 3, and then seeing in great detail the sin of lying, Austin turned our attention to Ephesians 4:55-32 and how the tongue can be used for good.  The passage takes us through 5 steps for our walk as Christians—putting on true speech, being righteously angry (when God does not receive the glory He is due), a command to honest work, speaking helpful words, and walking in epic love.  The passage is extremely applicable and we were challenged to use our mouths and the rest of our lives to honor God.  We often think only of the sins of the mouth and how the tongue has the power to kill, but the proverbs tell us that it also has the power to give life (Prov 18:21). Eph 4 tells us to use our words to build up, edify, and bring love to others. The session ended with Least of These (our camp band) leading us in worship.  I can’t believe how loud the singing is.  We have abandoned all efforts at maintaining tone and pitch but are singing out nonetheless.  The last song we sang was “How Great is Our God” and the room echoed and reverberated with our praise to God.  Overall, it was a great day.

This morning we will be studying the insidious sin of gossip. Pray that God would bring His word to bear on our hearts.  We have just over 24 hours left and continue to ask for you to pray for us.  Pray that God would open blind eyes.  Pray that God would bring revival to our group.  Pray that as your child (and others) is hearing the clear teaching of the word that their hearts would be open, that God would work, and that lives would be changed.

Shawn

I am sitting in our meeting room and Aaron Shackelford and Johnny West just finished singing a duet of Beauty and the Beast in our afternoon Karaoke session.  I will spare you the details but there were few dry eyes in the room when the song ended.  This caps off a fun afternoon of free time.  We have been out in the snow sledding, throwing snow balls, building snow men, etc. Students are in our lodge drinking hot chocolate (even though its 50+ degrees up here), playing cards, board games, and an extreme version of spoons.   There are a lot of smiles and laughter as I look around the room.

We met this morning in our second session and Austin challenged us on the topic of lying.  It was a dagger to the heart.  He started by telling us what lying is not (being incorrect, figurative language, hyperbole, fiction, kidding, etc). He told us what lying is (saying something  not entirely true, exaggeration, misleading or deceit, deliberate omission, and unbelief, etc).  He then walked through the Scriptures addressing lying from God’s word—how it contradicts the character of God, how it ignores and defies His direct commands, and ultimately how it calls for our condemnation.  In short, God hates lying and will judge all liars.  It is not a little sin.  It is detestable in the eyes of God and amazingly it quickly reveals the condition of our heart.  The gospel has been central in his preaching and we have been called to honor Christ not only with our lips but more importantly with our hearts.

I am thrilled to be up here and excited to see God at work.  This afternoon, I spent 30 minutes with a student who is at camp as a visitor.  He is not even sure why he is here.  I shared with him that God is sovereign and the fact that he is at camp is not an accident. God brought him here for a reason.  Amongst tears, he shared his heart—recognizing his own sin and need for a Savior.  Please pray for him as he is even now counting the cost of what it means to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus.  He is not alone.  There are great conversations happening all over camp.  It seems that hearts are soft and unusually open at this camp.  We covet your prayers as we remember that “neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” 1 Cor 3:7

Shawn

It is early in the morning and most of the students are still sleeping snug in their beds.  The first day of camp has officially come and gone and it was a great time.  We arrived to camp safely but had our first little incident in the bus parking lot.  As the lead bus stopped, it unwillingly slid into the luggage truck.  Unknown to the bus driver, he applied his brakes on a 3” thick sheet of ice.  After dismembering the truck’s rear view mirror, the bus came to rest with its right side pressed against the truck.  The best part was that 50 students and a handful of staff were stuck on the bus unable to exit as the bus’ door was pinned shut.  Within about 30 minutes we were able to extricate the trapped students without much fanfare and camp officially began.  We enjoyed chicken fajitas for dinner and then started our first session.  Least of These led us in worship and Austin Duncan preached from James 3:1-12.  The theme of the week is the tongue.  It is amazing to look into the scriptures and find that the mouth is addressed in almost every book of the bible.  God is very concerned with what comes out of our mouth and Austin helped us to see that the tongue reveals very clearly what is in our heart.  In fact, one of the best indicators of a person’s spiritual maturity and fervor is their tongue.  The message hit home for both staff and students and God is at work already.   I met with a group of HS guys last night during cabin time and one said “I came to the dodgeball tournament and then to Wednesday night this week. It has been 3 years since I have been to church and I need to be here to get my heart right before God.”  The walls are beginning to come down already.  This morning we will be meeting for Session 2 and a look at “words that tear down”.  As our staff prepared for camp, we reminded ourselves of the words of Jesus Christ when He said “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5  We ask that you partner with us in prayer this weekend—for apart from Him we can do nothing.  More updates to come.

Shawn