Before I begin my update on the Collide trip, I want to provide you with the details about Kalahari. We’ll be meeting at the church at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8, and returning at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 9. If you have any additional questions or concerns, you can call Sara at the church office (330.645.2681) or shoot her an email at .
Now on to Collide! Tuesday and Wednesday went really well. We have been doing some service projects around the school we’re staying at. The janitors are very grateful for our help, and the kids have been so efficient that they’ve worked themselves out of a job. It’s been really great to see how thankful the maintenance staff is for what our kids are doing.
Before we left to go to Brimfield, I made the comment that we should probably take the schedule we have and throw it out the window because it's more of a guideline than anything else. I was right. We got off to a late start on Monday. When we arrived, we unloaded and set up camp. This took longer than I expected. However, we hit the road running at 10:00 am. Monday's focus was on literature distribution. The students did a great job. They passed out over 1,000 door hangers yesterday.
SuperWOW! That is the only way to describe yesterday at camp. All week we have seen God move in huge ways. Last night was incredible! The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7:10 that godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. We saw godly sorrow last night. It was awesome. Kids were flat on their faces confessing sin and turning to Jesus. For some, it was an incredible time of healing and restoration of their lives. Just the sight of students sincerely repenting and surrendering was a blessing for me.
Wednesday at camp was a bit soggy. We had showers all morning and thunderstorms all afternoon. The morning started with a rafting race. Each team used up to 6 inner tubes, some boards, and rope to construct a raft. When they had finished building it, they raced down the creek. The winner had to be the first team to get down the creek with their flag using the raft. Only one and a half rafts made it down the creek, but the students had a blast.
Tuesday was a blast at camp. We started the morning with quiet times and then breakfast. Then we had our "rise and shine" activity. The students were split up into four teams—red, green, blue, and black. Every day, teams compete in different tasks. Each team is awarded points for how well they do. At the end of the week, we will crown the team with the most points SuperWOW champs. The students had an opportunity to design a team flag that they take with them to each event. It has been great seeing the students working together as a team to accomplish these tasks. On Monday they competed in a game of slip-and-slide kick ball. Yesterday, they had to construct a boat out of 6 tubes and a few planks. Today we are going to have a race down the creek.
First day of camp went without a hitch. The kids love everything about the camp. I was a bit worried how they would like the primitive aspect of the camp, but so far so good! Last night we focused on the sower and the seed. The challenge for the students was to determine what type of soil they are. God desires us to be planted in the good soil, which bore 30, 60, to 100 fold. The students were honest and candid about what soil they were. Be in prayer as we focus even more on the depth of their relationship with God.
Quote of the day:
Scott (to Jonathon)- Jonathon, you need to do your quiet time now.
Jonathon (to Scott)-Do we need our Bibles for that?
I’ve been listening to Jeremy Camp’s latest album all week. I love his stuff. I connect with it. It’s like he goes through the same stuff we go through.
The last few days I’ve been in a weird mood. Between trying to be a good husband and father, doing school work, and being sick, I’ve kind of been down. I’ve felt a little dead inside. However, one of Jeremy’s songs spoke a lot of truth into my life. It’s called “I’m Alive.”
