CELEBRATION
for anyone who's never been to SL CAMP before, celebration is a morning worship service to get us pumped for the rest of the day. it's in the form of a news show of some sort and camp news & announcements are given by the drama group, All Things To All People (AT2AP for short). this year, jill, a crazy news anchor woman, would ask 7, who worked for...THE GOVERNMENT (insert ominous music and heavy breathing here...you had to be there, trust me), a joke every morning. today's joke:
jill- (while bending her index finger & moving it toward him: see picture) "hey 7, what's this?"
7- "umm...i don't know, jill, what is it?"
jill- "i don't, either, but here comes another one!" (repeats previous motion)
i know it sounds dumb, but it gets better tomorrow. once again, you just had to be there. her voice was so funny you couldn't help but laugh.
(photo borrowed from Student Life website)dave came out and started by talking about a retreat he spoke at once. it was an "extreme retreat" & they did crazy adventure stuff everyday. he went along when they went caving, not fulling understanding what that involved. he thought they would walk into a cave, tell some ghost stories, and leave. not so!!! he said most of the time he was down on his hands and knees. at one point, they told him to turn his headlamp off & that he wasn't allowed to talk, but he'd be the only one. everyone else could see & communicate with each other. even though he was scared half to death, he agreed. partly because, he's the camp pastor; if he was afraid, what hope was there for the students he was teaching. he said it also might have had something to do with the fact that there were girls on this trip and he didn't want to look like a wuss because he was afraid and these girls were anything but. a couple minutes into it, and at the end of the line of crawling people, he couldn't hear or see the people in front of him. so now, he' has no idea where to go, and he's not supposed to say anything. he interrupted the story there and read to us john 14:1-14, where Jesus says:
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
now back to dave's story. he decided that he didn't care if he looked like a wuss or people made fun of him for not being a man. he needed help and he wasn't afraid to ask for it anymore. he turned his light on and screamed at the top of his lungs for someones help.
dave said in verse 5, thomas was scared because Jesus was telling them that He was leaving them but that they already knew the way to where He was going. thomas was confused & no idea what Jesus was talking about. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" thomas turned his light on and didn't care if he was the only one who didn't know what Jesus meant. Jesus's response?
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus longs for us to turn our lights on, to give up our reputations for being tough and fearless, and surrender to His help, to His guidance, to His Way... to Him. when we're in the midst of our peers at school, around those who mean the most to us, and stand up for Him, without a second thought toward our popularity or whether we may look like fools in the eyes of the world.
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." translation? "God give us a burning bush moment, a mountain top experience where we see You in such an amazing way and can surrender to You among those who love you and will support me (so i don't get embarrassed in front of the world). that's all we need."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. "
Jesus is saying to philip, to us, "I'M RIGHT HERE! AM I NOT ENOUGH? WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? WHAT ELSE WILL MAKE YOU BELIEVE? I'M WHAT YOU NEED!
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."
Jesus is saying, "surrender to Me now. do as I do. love Me and walk with Me. get to know me and imitate me. don't just say you follow Me. DO IT! show you love Me. be an example into the world."
dave said when we don't know where to go next, or even where we are now, our next step is always Jesus. He's our first step, our last step and all the ones in between. He is the Way and the destination. if we truly love someone, we love what they do also. Jesus says, "if you love Me, do what I do. live not for yourself, but for the Father."
"If you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, we are raising the bar this week,' Rhodes said. "Because that’s what it means to walk in the Way."
if i wasn't awake yet, i was now.
now, off the serious for a while and on to the wild and crazy section of my day
RECREATION
once again, to you SL CAMP new-comers, campers are divided into color squads, and compete for the spirit stick every morning @ celebration. whoever cheers the loudest wins. the high schoolers were the BLUE CREW!!! we met outside after celebration and one of our REC leaders, steven (see following days for pictures), taught us our cheer. it was pretty awesome, amazing actually. there was chanting and...oh, wait! do you want to hear it? or better yet, read it:
us: AHHHHHHHH BLUE! (getting louder as steven rose his arm higher & higher)
steven: BLUE CREW, WHERE YOU AT? LET ME HEAR YOU HOLLA BACK!
us: HOO-HA! (clap, clap) HOO-HA! (clap, clap)
steven: BLUE CREW, WHERE YOU AT? LET ME HEAR YOU HOLLA BACK!
us: HOO-HA! (clap, clap) HOO-HA! (clap, clap)
steven: HEY! HEY! ALL THE WAY! WE TAKE VICTORY EVERY DAY! WHO'S THE BEST?
us: WE'RE THE BEST! (not WE ARE. that's just not cool.)
steven: WHO'S THE BEST?
us: WE'RE THE BEST!
steven: WHO'S THE BEST?
us: WE'RE THE BEEEEEEEEE...(leads into random loud screaming)
steven: (moving hand around to gather our screams into his fist then rhythmically beating on his heart)
us: BLUE! BLUE! BLUE! BLUE! BLUE! (in sync to steven's rhythmic beating)
steven: (throwing his hand up into the air and releasing our screams)
us: (random louder screaming)
(haha! the spell check is going crazy with our cheer!)
we also used sign language:
at the beginning of our cheer when steven raised his hand, he'd make the "b".
when you make "b" with you hand and do the princess wave, that's blue in sign language. who knew? so jacey (REC leader #2) told us to wave blue to anyone on the BLUE CREW when we saw them around campus.
and while kindergartners hold a finger over their mouths when they have to be quiet, we on the BLUE CREW prefer to hold moustaches on our faces. don't ask me why, but we do. steven said so!
and any time it got quiet in celebration, steven told us to chant USA! USA! USA!
anyway...
note: just because you're on the top of a mountain and above the clouds DOES NOT mean it's any cooler than the valley. it was sooooooo hot! it was a good thing we had water day tuesday! my favorite game wasn't any of the running around & energetic games, but the quiz station. steven would ask us a true/false question and if we answered correctly, the other two groups got hosed down from head to toe (not that we weren't already soaked). but if we were wrong...WE got wet!
FAMILY GROUP BIBLE STUDY
so the room we were supposed to meet in was the Caudle Room, probably named after someone important. well, we didn't really like that name. so we changed it to the "Cuddle" Room because there were lots of big chairs and couches in it.
my notes aren't very extensive for this meeting but we looked at matthew 7:13-14 which says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it," and john 10:7-10 which says, "Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
we discussed how we can stay grounded in Christ and on that narrow road that leads to Jesus, Shepherd God, Jehovah Raah:
-praying
-accountability partners
-staying away from things that cause our minds to wander (certain shows, movies, songs, etc.)
-do others see Christ in us?
-“We recognize that becoming people on the Way requires us to become people of the Word.”
as dave said that morning, we can't just say we follow Christ. we must actually do what He does and walk that narrow road with Him.
FREE TIME
there was a really bad storm moving in after lunch. so brittany, zach, oscar, veeka, & i were in the college store and the power flickered off and then came right back on. we didn't think anything of it until the fire alarm started blaring! before we knew it, the entire building was being evacuated. somehow every person in the building fit onto the front porch while the staff was running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out what tripped the alarm. no one knew if the alarm just shorted out in the power surge or if the building was actually on fire. meanwhile, jesse finds us outside and she's got a hoodie on with the hood pulled up. it's like a million degrees and muggy outside & she's wearing a jacket? her mom was like, "jesse was doing her hair when they evacuated. show 'em your hair jesse." jesse has the prettiest curly hair ever...when it's styled. jesse pulls down her hood and her hair was sticking up in the air all over the place. she was freaking out because she was so worried it looked bad. so the second they let us back inside, she ran upstairs and comes back down later with her hair all beautified and pretty. she's so crazy! while she was fixing her fro, we our church group sat in the lobby outside the cafeteria eating BEN & JERRY'S and playing UNO. the plastic spoons we had weren't doing a very good job so i asked the guy in the cafeteria if i could borrow some spoons and bring them back later. he was confused as to why i needed spoons outside the cafeteria when all the food was inside. once i explained to him, he said i'd have to ask a manager. then the manager was like, "yeah, sure. BUT! you gotta bring them back, SOON!"
...well, it's 10:00 and i'm incredibly tired. so i'll be back tomorrow with worship notes from tuesday. too much to get all in tonight.
and don't worry, i brought the spoons back!
GOD BLESS!
2 comments:
I was worried about the spoons, so thanks for throwing that in there. I had forgotten about just how goofy camp is too, besides all the serious stuff - but the memories are coming back now - thanks.
Jordan - I am so proud of you for taking such a big step and going to SL. It's an absolutely awesome expierence, but the fact that you went with the PCC guys showed grace. You've shown us 'older' folks how to put down the emotions, hurt, anger, and hate and be Christ in the world. Not to mention getting to go to SL!! Thanks for taking the time to share your passion and the flame burning brighter from being exposed to the Gospel, God honoring worship and time in the word with fellow believers.
I'm proud of you, you continue to inspire and encourage me. There is reason to be optimistic with young adults like you who are not only passionate about the King, but living like He's reigning.
In Chris alone - Mr. Robert
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