A Fantastic Week

I have to tell you all how blessed I was to go up to United Christian Youth Camp with the youth last week. I had so much fun hanging out with these kids. I was also able to see them being touched by God in many different ways.

I saw a kid that was somewhat withdrawn the first day and I know for a fact he did not even want to be there. But by the second day, he was having fun and joining in with the rest of us. we would have a group meeting after the service each day and on the last day I paired folks up and asked them to pray for each other. What a blessing it was to see this kid praying for another. He also participated in the discussions each day. The growth I saw in him in just a weeks time was awesome.

Another guy said he was ready to give up on God. But God touched him one night after a powerful talk by the guest speaker that challenged each and every one of us. It was awesome to hear this kid say that he was running back to Christ because he had been running away from Him for so long.

Now let me put in a plug for the speaker. If you could have any speaker come to a camp to speak to high schoolers, Jim Burgen is that speaker. Jim is the pastor of Flat Irons Church in the Denver Colorado area and was very relevant and emerging. I got just as much if not more out of his sermons than the kids did I think. Please visit the church website and listen to some of his sermons. He has a way of reaching people that normally wouldn't step foot in a church. And do you want to know why? Because he doesn't judge people. He gave one of the best talks I have ever heard about taking the plank out of your eye while pointing out the speck in your brother's eye.

I also need to give a shout out to our mother church the Vineyard Community Church of Gilbert for allowing us the use of the 15 passenger van. Thank you! I am proud to be a part of your family.

A special thank you also to Lyndsay O. for being a counselor to the girls in our group. She was awesome and did a great job.

The other thing I liked about this camp was that it was not too churchy. The camp is a non-denominational camp and there were several different denominations represented. It was also very structured which was great for us leaders. Some of the activities were a rock climbing wall and zipline, a skateboard and bmx area, swimming pool, leap of faith (which was scarier than I thought when I got to the top), kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking, billiards, foosball, ping pong, paintballing, and hiking.

The food was just awesome too. I was impressed with the quality and it was like a buffet and salad bar.

There were also the normal nighttime pranks that went on but it was all in good fun. If there was a negative at all, it was the smell of our room (the guys) after about the second day. There were seven of us. Just imagine this...teenage guys sweat, mingled with wet clothes, dirty socks and dirty shoes and farts. Get the picture?

Be MoVeD!