Camp

I realize that you have been waiting for the camp recap blog, but this has been a tough project to try and somehow explain camp in words. Being our first youth camp, this year's camp will obviously always hold a special place in Danny and I's hearts. I think that we can easily say that all of our greatest expectations for camp were blown out of the water and we found ourselves consistently overwhelmed by the grace of God. Pastor Jonathon Owens was our speaker this year and brought such a great impartation to our youth ministry in the area of evangelism. Our theme was "Shout It Out!" and we saw God release a boldness into our young people as fear and timidity were broke off of their lives. One of the words that Pastor Jonathon most impacted us with was the ABC's of our faith: C- Confess, B- Believe, A- Action. I am still hearing testimonies from young people telling me about how they are putting action to their faith and refusing to live in fear. Pastor Jonathon also introduced our youth ministry to a whole new level of praise that pushed us past all limitations to worship God completely unashamed. It was fun to watch!
We also played some crazy games and had an overall really fun time! The first day of games though nearly killed all of us and our nurse was ready to pack up and head home. Probably our biggest lesson that Danny and I learned is how big the role of the nurse is during your week at camp. Down below you can see the picture of the final round of the Sock Game, which turned out to be more brutal than we anticipated. We had ten teams competing during the week and the goal of the sock game is to be the last team with your socks still on at the end. So obviously the goal for everyone else is to get your socks off. All of your Bendonites will appreciate this following story that occurred during the sock games: Trina was cornered and tackled by an entire team in pursuit of her socks. During the wrestling match that followed, Trina located a random calf that happened to be close to her teeth and chomped on it! When the dust settled, one of our young men was standing there with a look of bewilderment on his face as he examined the intense bite mark on his leg. Imagine the surprise of the nurse when we called her in to treat a counselor inflicted wound! Don't worry though, we instructed this young man to keep his calves clear of Trina's teeth in the future and he eagerly agreed to our counsel.

On the other side of camp, we have testimonies of 10 new commitments to Christ, over 20 people baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time and countless young people walking past fear into faith and boldness to preach the Gospel to their generation. The impact that camp has made on our youth ministry is still untold as we are watching the seeds take deep root and bear awesome fruit.
Next week, we head up to McCall for our youth leadership retreat. It should be a great time of vision casting for the new school year that lies ahead of us. We will be keeping you posted on the NXT youth church as we continue to press in to the amazing things God has in store for Canyon County!