Our summer went really well. There were difficulties, but overall it was a great summer, with lives changed in both campers and staff. This summer we saw 6 follow Christ for the first time, and 18 recommit their lives to Christ. One girl, an 11 year old, said she wants to be closer to Jesus and read her Bible more. Two Jr. High boys that weren't even friends, decided that they wanted to be pastors when they grow up, and want to make right decisions now. I am always amazed at how much God works in lives at camp. Part of it may be the concentrated amount of Jesus, between 2 chapels a day, Bible memory time, and organized time to talk about the chapels (we call them cabin talks), but I think the main reason is that camp is what the church should look like. You have people serving each other, leaders teaching practical ways to follow Jesus in our lives right now, and examples of how Christians live from waking to sleeping. Camp is a place of community. Camp is a place where God's love is real; a love that isn't understood by many of our campers, because they don't have examples of that love in their lives.
After our last camp, I went to help out at youth group at our church, Cold Springs Church, in Placerville. We had a great night welcoming students back to youth group, and eating a bbq dinner together. I had the privilege of burning my hand hair on the bbq =) The leadership team led the kids in a game of Live Pacman, which was a blast to watch and play. At the end of youth group, one of the mothers of some of our campers approached me, and told me that she was so impressed with her boys experience at camp. She had sent her kids to camp before, but was excited to see how much they had grown this year, and said it was like they came back from a revival. I do think the Jr. High camp was like a revival, and was very excited to see God work in the lives of boys that are at an age that generally is associated with confusion, rebellion, and fighting peers. This mom told me that one of her boys spent 45 minutes going over his notes and what he learned in chapel. Both of her boys are getting baptized next month.
