Consumed

So I have just come back from an amazing week at camp and I can honestly say that it went better than I expected.

Let me explain why first. Recently my only experience with a High School/Middle School Camp has been with the Nazarene church up in Lake Placid, FL (and if someone from this group is reading it, then I do apologise). Any ways, it was two years ago and it was probably one of the most unplanned camps I've ever been too. There was way too much free time and they didn't motivate the students in any way. I honestly don't even remember anything about out speaker or our worship band. Is that bad? The last time I was a student in a High School Camp was when I was living in Canada and I CAN remember our speakers and our worship band.

So unfortunately I was going into this years camp with this memory fresh in my mind. Now I already realised, from helping out in the student centre since October and also being on the planning team that this camp was going to be better than the last one that I participated in. I've already seen the love these students have for Christ and its been a long time since I've seen this in students.

Thankfully our speaker John R. Evans was amazing and our worship band Six Days from Sunday was awesome and I don't see us forgetting about either of them anytime soon. Our messages were from Jeremiah and being so consumed by God that no matter what is going on, we can't stop praising God and telling others about him, and constantly seeking his will in our lives.

Now the one thing that I was worried about was my group. In my group of 8 students, I only knew 3 of them well, the other 5 I just knew by name. Now to be honest about myself, unless I know you well I'm not very talkative and can be shy. I would have to say that by Tuesday night I was beginning to feel discouraged. I didn't feel as though the group was opening too much to me or to each other and I didn't feel like I was leading the discussions well but I realised that I needed to just give it over to God. As it usually happens, the next day the group opened up and I got the encouragement that I needed from a couple of my students.

I think one of the most amazing things that happened was on the second to last night. We had a cross walk. It involved each person taking up the cross and walking a few steps carrying it. You don't realise just how much Jesus did for us when he died on the cross. He had been beaten near death and then forced to walk through Jerusalem carrying the cross that he was going to be killed on. Anyways it make for an amazing night.

I don't think this is going to be a camp that I'll forget in awhile, nor do I want to forget. I hope that the students don't ever forget it either. I can't wait to see what happens for the next camp.

I'm not sure how well this is going to read since I wrote it while I'm sick and exhausted but I hope you get the gist of it.