Day 2 of bible study introduced a concept that is difficult for teenagers to grasp, obedience. We always started off day 2 by doing a little role-playing activity. We would divide our students into groups and force them to create and act out a situation in which disobedience became an issue with a particular authority figure. Now at the end of this exercise an interesting question was presented to our youth, is it ever ok to disobey an authority figure? 90% of the time the first answer they would give would be what they perceived to be the biblical answer by saying, no you always have to obey those in authority, but most of the time someone in the room truly thought about my question and gave a good answer. The correct answer is of course yes, but only when what the person in authority asks you to do something that is against what God called you to do.
This idea led us into the first of two stories covered in Day 2 Bible Study. This first story was about a man by the name of Daniel and his three friends: Azariah, Mishael, and Hananiah. Now these four men were from Judah who had just been taken over by the Babylonian Empire. All four were entered into the king's service and given the choice meats and wine, straight from the king's table! Pretty sweet deal, right? Not if you were a Hebrew, see in Leviticus 11 God gives laws about food and what you should and shouldn't eat and these four guys knew this, but their authority told them they had to eat this choice food. Now they were faced with a decision: obey God or obey the earthly authority?
So these four young men decided to take a major stand for obedience and obey God even though it was a dangerous decision. But, they didn’t do this disrespectfully to the authority figures, Daniel created a compromise which allowed he and the others to be obedient to the Lord, but didn’t disrespect those in authority over him. Because he and the other three guys remained obedient to the Lord, He blessed them with great success in the King’s service.
We transitioned from this smaller step of obedience by these four guys into what would be the ultimate step of obedience for Azariah, Mishael, and Hananiah or as you may more commonly know them: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego. While obeying the Lord and not eating the king’s food took some major faith on all four guys’ parts, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego were about to have to really take a stand even when it might cost them their lives. You know the story, the king builds a statue, calls for everyone to bow down to it, or be thrown into a fiery furnace. These three men decide to obey the 10 commandments and not worship a false idol so the king brings them before him.
When they are brought before him, they make an even bigger stand. In Daniel 3:17-18 they say that God is ABLE to deliver them from the king’s hand, BUT EVEN IF He does not, they still will not bow down to this false idol. They will remain obedient even if God does not rescue them from this situation. So we had the students write down things in their lives that they needed rescuing from. I assured them that God is ABLE to rescue them, but even if He doesn’t rescue them, they are still supposed to OBEY God’s word.
This lesson taught me a lot personally. There are many things in my life that I need rescuing from. However, God isn’t ready to rescue me just yet, He is able to, but instead there are things He still wants me to learn from the situation. But even though He doesn’t rescue me now, I’m still called to obey Him.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Love-The Story of Jonah
Sorry for not posting about weeks six and seven, but the end of camp was a busy and crazy time so having time to write was difficult. Over the next couple weeks or so I will be wrapping up this blog about my summer and sharing what and how different elements of camp impacted my life beyond the summer. The first way I am going to do this is by going through our bible study and sharing how God used the bible studies I taught every day all summer to re-shape and mold me.
I waited on the bible study packet with great anticipation in the months leading up to camp. I was anxious to see what the Lord was going to do through this bible study, so I was obviously on the edge of my seat waiting to see what scripture I would be teaching. So, the day camp and I opened the packed. The first scripture passage I came to was Day 1 where the theme was Love and the scripture was the entire book of Jonah. What a bummer--a story I've heard a million times and a story my students have heard a million times, right?
I will admit that because I knew the STORY well, I just skimmed over the commentary and scripture but during my skimming some things I had never thought about popped off the page at me. First, why WAS jonah so against going to Ninevah? Yeah its a bad place, yeah they hung captured heads after a victory in war, but was that the WHOLE reason? The answer, I discovered, was no. The commentary pointed out that the Hebrew people were extremely nationalistic; they believed that they were set apart and the reason Jonah didn't want to go was because he didn't want anyone else to be shown God's mercy like his people had and he knew as he says in Jonah 4:2-3 its the REASON he fled. The point of this in bible study was to make the students search out who in their communities, in their lives, in the world, that they have prejudice against, who is their Ninevah? who is MY Ninevah?
The fun question that I liked to ask my students each week was,
"So guys, what do you think the consequences of Jonah's disovedience to the Lord were?"
Their answer was the same each week: "being swallowed by a whale".
I asked, "was it?"
someone usually stuttered, "I......don't know"
From really reading I discovered that despite the conclusion I suspect most of us have that being swallowed was a consequence, it was in fact Jonah's saving grace. If God hadn't sent that whale, Jonah would have be engulfed and swallowed up by the waves.
The final big thing that I took away from this study was Chapter 4 of the book. In Chapter 4, Jonah throws a serious temper tantrum and to be honest I can't remember ever truly reading over chapter 4 before camp. The end of Jonah's story is a lot different than what I always learned as a kid, it does not end "and they all lived happily after." In fact, it ends without us knowing what happens at all. After Jonah throws a temper tantrum, God causes a vine to grow up and give shade for a brief time before causing a worm to eat it up. I knew that part of the story but what I didn't remember was HOW God used this to prove a point. Jonah gets mad about the plant being gone so God asks if he really has a reason to be angry. When Jonah says yes, God slams him by saying if you think you have reason to be angry about this plant you didn't create, this plant you only had for a brief moment in time, then why shouldn't I have compassion on Ninevah, a city I created of 120,000 people? And then the story ends. We don't know what Jonah says, how he responds, but we are left with God's lesson to him.
A quote from the monologue my great friend and roommate for the summer John Sickles performed every tuesday night sums up what i pulled from this lesson all summer long it says "God loves everyone, not just our friends". When are we gonna wake up and realize God loves that homeless man standing on the street corner, that prostitute, the people in China, our worst enemy, just AS MUCH as he loves us?
I waited on the bible study packet with great anticipation in the months leading up to camp. I was anxious to see what the Lord was going to do through this bible study, so I was obviously on the edge of my seat waiting to see what scripture I would be teaching. So, the day camp and I opened the packed. The first scripture passage I came to was Day 1 where the theme was Love and the scripture was the entire book of Jonah. What a bummer--a story I've heard a million times and a story my students have heard a million times, right?
I will admit that because I knew the STORY well, I just skimmed over the commentary and scripture but during my skimming some things I had never thought about popped off the page at me. First, why WAS jonah so against going to Ninevah? Yeah its a bad place, yeah they hung captured heads after a victory in war, but was that the WHOLE reason? The answer, I discovered, was no. The commentary pointed out that the Hebrew people were extremely nationalistic; they believed that they were set apart and the reason Jonah didn't want to go was because he didn't want anyone else to be shown God's mercy like his people had and he knew as he says in Jonah 4:2-3 its the REASON he fled. The point of this in bible study was to make the students search out who in their communities, in their lives, in the world, that they have prejudice against, who is their Ninevah? who is MY Ninevah?
The fun question that I liked to ask my students each week was,
"So guys, what do you think the consequences of Jonah's disovedience to the Lord were?"
Their answer was the same each week: "being swallowed by a whale".
I asked, "was it?"
someone usually stuttered, "I......don't know"
From really reading I discovered that despite the conclusion I suspect most of us have that being swallowed was a consequence, it was in fact Jonah's saving grace. If God hadn't sent that whale, Jonah would have be engulfed and swallowed up by the waves.
The final big thing that I took away from this study was Chapter 4 of the book. In Chapter 4, Jonah throws a serious temper tantrum and to be honest I can't remember ever truly reading over chapter 4 before camp. The end of Jonah's story is a lot different than what I always learned as a kid, it does not end "and they all lived happily after." In fact, it ends without us knowing what happens at all. After Jonah throws a temper tantrum, God causes a vine to grow up and give shade for a brief time before causing a worm to eat it up. I knew that part of the story but what I didn't remember was HOW God used this to prove a point. Jonah gets mad about the plant being gone so God asks if he really has a reason to be angry. When Jonah says yes, God slams him by saying if you think you have reason to be angry about this plant you didn't create, this plant you only had for a brief moment in time, then why shouldn't I have compassion on Ninevah, a city I created of 120,000 people? And then the story ends. We don't know what Jonah says, how he responds, but we are left with God's lesson to him.
A quote from the monologue my great friend and roommate for the summer John Sickles performed every tuesday night sums up what i pulled from this lesson all summer long it says "God loves everyone, not just our friends". When are we gonna wake up and realize God loves that homeless man standing on the street corner, that prostitute, the people in China, our worst enemy, just AS MUCH as he loves us?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Every Week is Different
Well, week 4 has come and gone and I can't believe that in the midst of this week we passed the halfway point in our summer with students. God has done amazing things in the past 4 weeks and I am just a little, ok a lot excited about what He is going to do in the last three weeks here in Nashville.
The week started off with a lot of promise, a high energy opening celebration got our hopes up that this was going to be a great group of students, who were energized and ready to go. As the week went on, though, their energy level began to drop drastically. Every AM Show was a challenge to get them awake and energized, and for my group that energy never really came. We do a lot of activities in bible study to get the students awake and active and this week nothing seemed to engage the students in my group. I pray that God spoke to them and worked in them somehow through the week of bible study.
Ministry site this week was the strangest of the summer so far. It started off normal enough, rough at first to try to get my students engaged with the kids at the center which is normal. The first couple of days I enjoyed spending time in the pool with some of my students and it was really great to get to invest in them each afternoon in the pool, but I realized that this was attributing to them being engaged with the kids so we started to split up in the afternoons. For the rest of the summer, I'm going to do a lot of encouragement the first night to prevent clusters of students throughout the week so that more ministry can be done.
Thursday at site was the most stressful, but one of the most rewarding days of my life. The morning went on as normal, but as we walked out of lunch there was a commotion at the end of the hall. I walked towards the commotion and when I looked out the door, I saw a girl laying on the ground after being tackled and a gun laying on the ground a few feet away. I immediately got my students and adults into the gym with instructions not to let kids leave the building. I then tried to herd the kids on site into the gym and away from the door. The kids were very resistant to this and started to hit, kick and push me as they ran back to the door. My nerves were on edge throughout, but we did eventually manage to get them all into the gym as the center went on lockdown. Even once they were in the gym they kept picking sides and I was afraid for a while a riot was going to break out in the gym. Finally we headed to the pool which did cool off the situation a good bit, but at the pool we had some things stolen which was a rough thing to handle.
The week finished up nicely at site, though. On friday, a new staffer was brought into the center and apparently a lot of structure is soon to be put into Easley which will make the last three weeks there a lot different than the first four. I will actually get to plan and assign some of my students to different tasks in the center which will be fun. I will miss the staffer that this new one replaced, but if it means structure than I will take it. I do think that the non-structure that I dealt with taught me a lot and taught the people there with me a lot as well. It taught me to roll with the punches and that ministry doesn't have to happen in the confines of a structured environment. I am really excited, though, because having structure means that a lot more intentional ministry will be possible because kids will be stuck in rooms with my students for an hour at a time which will be wonderful.
All in all i had a good week and look forward to making some changes and making the next three even better.
The week started off with a lot of promise, a high energy opening celebration got our hopes up that this was going to be a great group of students, who were energized and ready to go. As the week went on, though, their energy level began to drop drastically. Every AM Show was a challenge to get them awake and energized, and for my group that energy never really came. We do a lot of activities in bible study to get the students awake and active and this week nothing seemed to engage the students in my group. I pray that God spoke to them and worked in them somehow through the week of bible study.
Ministry site this week was the strangest of the summer so far. It started off normal enough, rough at first to try to get my students engaged with the kids at the center which is normal. The first couple of days I enjoyed spending time in the pool with some of my students and it was really great to get to invest in them each afternoon in the pool, but I realized that this was attributing to them being engaged with the kids so we started to split up in the afternoons. For the rest of the summer, I'm going to do a lot of encouragement the first night to prevent clusters of students throughout the week so that more ministry can be done.
Thursday at site was the most stressful, but one of the most rewarding days of my life. The morning went on as normal, but as we walked out of lunch there was a commotion at the end of the hall. I walked towards the commotion and when I looked out the door, I saw a girl laying on the ground after being tackled and a gun laying on the ground a few feet away. I immediately got my students and adults into the gym with instructions not to let kids leave the building. I then tried to herd the kids on site into the gym and away from the door. The kids were very resistant to this and started to hit, kick and push me as they ran back to the door. My nerves were on edge throughout, but we did eventually manage to get them all into the gym as the center went on lockdown. Even once they were in the gym they kept picking sides and I was afraid for a while a riot was going to break out in the gym. Finally we headed to the pool which did cool off the situation a good bit, but at the pool we had some things stolen which was a rough thing to handle.
The week finished up nicely at site, though. On friday, a new staffer was brought into the center and apparently a lot of structure is soon to be put into Easley which will make the last three weeks there a lot different than the first four. I will actually get to plan and assign some of my students to different tasks in the center which will be fun. I will miss the staffer that this new one replaced, but if it means structure than I will take it. I do think that the non-structure that I dealt with taught me a lot and taught the people there with me a lot as well. It taught me to roll with the punches and that ministry doesn't have to happen in the confines of a structured environment. I am really excited, though, because having structure means that a lot more intentional ministry will be possible because kids will be stuck in rooms with my students for an hour at a time which will be wonderful.
All in all i had a good week and look forward to making some changes and making the next three even better.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Love
So I want to talk a minute about what the Lord has been teaching me about Love this summer. Love is one of the five character traits we are teaching this summer. It is the first and I think for good reason. It all starts with love; in 1 John 4:8 it says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." We start the week teaching this and I think that that helps show what it is we want our students to do on site that week.
Loving others is something that often times I have struggled with, the words of the Hillsong United song Hosanna have always been my prayer:
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity
The line, show me how to love like you have loved me, is something that has constantly been weighing on my heart, then the next line, break my heart for what breaks yours just adds to the message. Jesus calls us throughout the new testament to love the least of these, to serve them. How many times have I brushed someone aside just because I thought they were scary, dirty, annoying? Thats not what I'm called to do, I'm called to love them anyway. So, as I entered into this summer, my prayer was that the Lord would break my heart for what breaks His. That I would come to love the people I come into contact with unconditionally. And then out of an overflow of that love have no choice but to share Jesus with them.
And so, after three weeks of campers, and site kids, I am in love with every single one of them that has passed through. And as I mentioned yesterday, it is now my desire to finish so strong the next few weeks and pour everything I have into the lives of my students and the kids on my site.
Pray for us this week, 550+ students, 22 churches, its gonna be interesting!
Loving others is something that often times I have struggled with, the words of the Hillsong United song Hosanna have always been my prayer:
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity
The line, show me how to love like you have loved me, is something that has constantly been weighing on my heart, then the next line, break my heart for what breaks yours just adds to the message. Jesus calls us throughout the new testament to love the least of these, to serve them. How many times have I brushed someone aside just because I thought they were scary, dirty, annoying? Thats not what I'm called to do, I'm called to love them anyway. So, as I entered into this summer, my prayer was that the Lord would break my heart for what breaks His. That I would come to love the people I come into contact with unconditionally. And then out of an overflow of that love have no choice but to share Jesus with them.
And so, after three weeks of campers, and site kids, I am in love with every single one of them that has passed through. And as I mentioned yesterday, it is now my desire to finish so strong the next few weeks and pour everything I have into the lives of my students and the kids on my site.
Pray for us this week, 550+ students, 22 churches, its gonna be interesting!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Halfway There
So today marks the exact halfway point in our summer here in Nashville. That has made all of us very sad as we think through what that means today. Week three was a hard one on the majority of our staff. Part of it was just because it is the third consecutive week and therefore just hard to get as excited for it, the other just had to do with all the situations that came up throughout our week.
My week started off a lot differently than the other two. My first two weeks had me excited from the first night meeting my groups. This week, however, my group was super quiet that first night and apprehensive about my ministry site. This was a hard adjustment for me and made it very hard to get excited about going to site with them on tuesday. Tuesday was a LONG day on site and I had to push them every second of the day. As the week went on though, they started to fall in love with the kids on site which made my heart happy! This was good for them and good for the kids.
My kids on site have gotten so used to having love and affection every week and I discovered this week that my last day on site in 4 weeks will be one of the hardest of my life. I'm scared that the love and affection they receive from me and my students will be the only they see all year and that just breaks my heart. One of my prayers at the start of this summer was that God would just strengthen me to fall in love with the site, its kids, and its adults. And man has that prayer been answered. I love the program that my site does: Free Child Care with lunch included for ages 6-14, this just makes the parents lives so much easier. I also have completely fallen in love with my kids. They are so much fun to be around and so much fun to talk to. I desire so much for each of them to grow up knowing Christ and His plan for their lives, because without that I'm scared of what may happen to them. The adults here are also a ton of fun, great conversations have been had and they love the kids at this site as much as I do. My prayer for the rest of the summer is that I get time to have INTENTIONAL conversations with the Easley Staff about Christ!
As I mentioned earlier this week was so incredibly difficult for so many us, which meant a TON of encouragement was needed. This happened in one big way the last night before worship. We stood in a circle, embracing one another as everyone took turns saying something encouraging to someone else on staff. This was great and made me fall even deeper in love with my 25 best friends. Encouragement is something we are going to require the next 4 weeks as we only get more and more tired with each passing day, so for those of you not here, feel free to send me nice messages, they will make my day!
So I mentioned that it started off pretty frustrating for me with my group. By the end of the week, I fell in absolute LOVE with the kids and adults in my track group. They were a lot of fun to be around and truly showed me to give time before jumping to judgements about people so quickly. I have a lot more stories and things the Lord taught me this week and will be posting some of those tomorrow.
My week started off a lot differently than the other two. My first two weeks had me excited from the first night meeting my groups. This week, however, my group was super quiet that first night and apprehensive about my ministry site. This was a hard adjustment for me and made it very hard to get excited about going to site with them on tuesday. Tuesday was a LONG day on site and I had to push them every second of the day. As the week went on though, they started to fall in love with the kids on site which made my heart happy! This was good for them and good for the kids.
My kids on site have gotten so used to having love and affection every week and I discovered this week that my last day on site in 4 weeks will be one of the hardest of my life. I'm scared that the love and affection they receive from me and my students will be the only they see all year and that just breaks my heart. One of my prayers at the start of this summer was that God would just strengthen me to fall in love with the site, its kids, and its adults. And man has that prayer been answered. I love the program that my site does: Free Child Care with lunch included for ages 6-14, this just makes the parents lives so much easier. I also have completely fallen in love with my kids. They are so much fun to be around and so much fun to talk to. I desire so much for each of them to grow up knowing Christ and His plan for their lives, because without that I'm scared of what may happen to them. The adults here are also a ton of fun, great conversations have been had and they love the kids at this site as much as I do. My prayer for the rest of the summer is that I get time to have INTENTIONAL conversations with the Easley Staff about Christ!
As I mentioned earlier this week was so incredibly difficult for so many us, which meant a TON of encouragement was needed. This happened in one big way the last night before worship. We stood in a circle, embracing one another as everyone took turns saying something encouraging to someone else on staff. This was great and made me fall even deeper in love with my 25 best friends. Encouragement is something we are going to require the next 4 weeks as we only get more and more tired with each passing day, so for those of you not here, feel free to send me nice messages, they will make my day!
So I mentioned that it started off pretty frustrating for me with my group. By the end of the week, I fell in absolute LOVE with the kids and adults in my track group. They were a lot of fun to be around and truly showed me to give time before jumping to judgements about people so quickly. I have a lot more stories and things the Lord taught me this week and will be posting some of those tomorrow.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Weekend after Week 2
Weekends at Fuge are an amazing time that the campers will never know about. A time to be refreshed, a time to sleep, and a time to grow friendships with your staff. All of this has happened for me this weekend and I couldn't be happier.
We spend the first few hours after camp just talking over the week and how we can improve. But the time of refreshment started at lunch between meetings on saturday. Five of us piled into one of the girls' cars and went for some burgers at a local nashville burger joint. We spent the hour eating, laughing, and sharing about our weeks, something that sadly doesn't really happen very much during the week. It was just so good to hear great things going on in our groups and at our sites, as well as getting to hear that others were having some of the same struggles in ministry that I was.
After meetings, our apartment took a three hour nap time before spending the night together as roommates. The Lord has truly blessed me with three wonderful roommates for the summer who encourage and love me and I do the same for them. We had a great dinner, listened to some amazing jazz then joined our Worship Leader for a little movie night. Its just so necessary for us to have this time to refresh before the campers get back.
This sunday was different. We didn't make church, and didn't see any other staffers until late tonight. We did however, spend a very encouraging evening with a couple of newfound friends from Belmont. It felt good to spend time with people outside of the M-Fuge bubble, but yet still great Christian girls who can encourage us and understand where we're coming from cause they too deal with the campers.
During a chat with one of the girls I realized a couple of things the Lord is really showing me so far this summer. Our camp pastor for the past two weeks used the rich young ruler in the gospel of Matthew to preach on sacrifice. He provided an interesting challenge. A lot of times I've read that passage and when Jesus talks about how much easier it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven, I usually say well thank goodness I'm not rich. Well Josh reminded us the past couple of weeks that compared to the rest of the world, we are FILTHY rich. This is a stumbling block to me because I've grown up without a lot so its hard to imagine I have anything to sacrifice of value. Josh also reminded us that first of all God wants us, all of us, and everything we have, no matter how great or small. I also taught my students on sacrifice this week and I gave them a pipe cleaner and asked them to shape it into the thing they desire most in the world. After they shaped it, I asked them if God wanted them to give up getting this, would they be willing to? This challenged me as much as it did them.
So, think about it, what is it you desire most in the world? Is that getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord, would you give it up for Him?
After all, he does want our EVERYTHING
Pray for me this week. Its week 3, we've done this before. Pray that I stay focused, I don't let distractions set in, and that most of all I'm intentional in my ministry with students and on site.
We spend the first few hours after camp just talking over the week and how we can improve. But the time of refreshment started at lunch between meetings on saturday. Five of us piled into one of the girls' cars and went for some burgers at a local nashville burger joint. We spent the hour eating, laughing, and sharing about our weeks, something that sadly doesn't really happen very much during the week. It was just so good to hear great things going on in our groups and at our sites, as well as getting to hear that others were having some of the same struggles in ministry that I was.
After meetings, our apartment took a three hour nap time before spending the night together as roommates. The Lord has truly blessed me with three wonderful roommates for the summer who encourage and love me and I do the same for them. We had a great dinner, listened to some amazing jazz then joined our Worship Leader for a little movie night. Its just so necessary for us to have this time to refresh before the campers get back.
This sunday was different. We didn't make church, and didn't see any other staffers until late tonight. We did however, spend a very encouraging evening with a couple of newfound friends from Belmont. It felt good to spend time with people outside of the M-Fuge bubble, but yet still great Christian girls who can encourage us and understand where we're coming from cause they too deal with the campers.
During a chat with one of the girls I realized a couple of things the Lord is really showing me so far this summer. Our camp pastor for the past two weeks used the rich young ruler in the gospel of Matthew to preach on sacrifice. He provided an interesting challenge. A lot of times I've read that passage and when Jesus talks about how much easier it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven, I usually say well thank goodness I'm not rich. Well Josh reminded us the past couple of weeks that compared to the rest of the world, we are FILTHY rich. This is a stumbling block to me because I've grown up without a lot so its hard to imagine I have anything to sacrifice of value. Josh also reminded us that first of all God wants us, all of us, and everything we have, no matter how great or small. I also taught my students on sacrifice this week and I gave them a pipe cleaner and asked them to shape it into the thing they desire most in the world. After they shaped it, I asked them if God wanted them to give up getting this, would they be willing to? This challenged me as much as it did them.
So, think about it, what is it you desire most in the world? Is that getting in the way of your relationship with the Lord, would you give it up for Him?
After all, he does want our EVERYTHING
Pray for me this week. Its week 3, we've done this before. Pray that I stay focused, I don't let distractions set in, and that most of all I'm intentional in my ministry with students and on site.
Week 2
Well crazy as it seems to us here on staff, week 2 has come and gone. This week was great just as week 1 was and that makes me so very excited for week 3 which is just a day away.
The week started a lot more smoothly at registration and in the opening celebration. The first fun part of the week was that we had a church bring 105 high school aged youth to camp this week, which made up 1/5 of camp. Camp was a lot bigger this week with 110 more students, but I found out on opening night I was going to have a much smaller group of 23. And of that 23, 17 of them were going to be guys. So I got my group and headed to our room where we had a great MTET where i got to know almost all of my students names.
Bible Study this week was a lot more prepared, but the group this week was less talkative, it was frustrating at times because I didn't think they were getting anything out of it. But at the end of the week when I read their cards they wrote for me, I came to see that they did indeed listen and get a lot of things out of it.
Site this week was a lot better than the first, but that was just because I knew what to prepare for and prepare my group for. The center had a lower week in terms of number of kids so that probably contributed to a smoother week on site. My students did an absolute phenomenal job of being intentional in their conversations on site. It seemed like every time I looked around one of my students was in deep conversation with one of the kids on site. This culminated when, on Thursday, one of the kids accepted Christ. In addition to this, one of my students talked and found out another kid on site was a Christian and in conversation with him was just very encouraged by him. My student actually bought a new bible and gave it to this kid on friday. Needless to say, the week on site did my heart good.
Worship was a bit different this week. It started out GREAT for me by getting to see two good friends from home who were passing through and came and sat in on worship tuesday night. The rest of the week I spent running the words on the screen so I didn't get to see the kids worshipping which wasn't fun, but it gave me an awesome time of worship sitting backstage alone.
I had some great adults this week and I loved getting to know them and spend time with them over the course of the week! The week closed with Mega Relay which my group ended up winning our heat and I was so proud of them. Week 3 gets underway in about 28 hours and I'm ready for it!
The week started a lot more smoothly at registration and in the opening celebration. The first fun part of the week was that we had a church bring 105 high school aged youth to camp this week, which made up 1/5 of camp. Camp was a lot bigger this week with 110 more students, but I found out on opening night I was going to have a much smaller group of 23. And of that 23, 17 of them were going to be guys. So I got my group and headed to our room where we had a great MTET where i got to know almost all of my students names.
Bible Study this week was a lot more prepared, but the group this week was less talkative, it was frustrating at times because I didn't think they were getting anything out of it. But at the end of the week when I read their cards they wrote for me, I came to see that they did indeed listen and get a lot of things out of it.
Site this week was a lot better than the first, but that was just because I knew what to prepare for and prepare my group for. The center had a lower week in terms of number of kids so that probably contributed to a smoother week on site. My students did an absolute phenomenal job of being intentional in their conversations on site. It seemed like every time I looked around one of my students was in deep conversation with one of the kids on site. This culminated when, on Thursday, one of the kids accepted Christ. In addition to this, one of my students talked and found out another kid on site was a Christian and in conversation with him was just very encouraged by him. My student actually bought a new bible and gave it to this kid on friday. Needless to say, the week on site did my heart good.
Worship was a bit different this week. It started out GREAT for me by getting to see two good friends from home who were passing through and came and sat in on worship tuesday night. The rest of the week I spent running the words on the screen so I didn't get to see the kids worshipping which wasn't fun, but it gave me an awesome time of worship sitting backstage alone.
I had some great adults this week and I loved getting to know them and spend time with them over the course of the week! The week closed with Mega Relay which my group ended up winning our heat and I was so proud of them. Week 3 gets underway in about 28 hours and I'm ready for it!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Week 1
So my first week as a staffer at M-Fuge has wrapped up and I am completely exhausted. Camp provided such an amazing week for all involved. I could not have asked from anything better from my first group as a staffer. The week started off with an amazing opening celebration that got everyone really excited for the week of fuge ahead.
Opening night bible study time was a great time spent with my group. After getting all the paperwork out of the way and explaining what the rules for the week were and what to expect on our ministry site, we went outside to play some name games. Then began the process of training my group to do evangelism on our ministry site. We ended our first night by playing some more games with some other groups outside.
Bible study started off rough at the beginning of the week, but got more awesome by the day. After a day of warming up to me and to each other, they really started discussing things in the group and talking about things on a deeper level and this made me very happy!
Ministry Track Site did about the same as bible study, it started off a little rough, but got progressively better as the week went along. This site has a lot of kids (around 160) and they range in ages from 6-14 supposedly, but there were some kids there that were older in high school. It was really neat to watch my students interacting with the kids on site and talking to them. They were so much fun to watch playing. I can tell already that my heart is going to break for the kids at this site as the summer progresses. They were so starved for attention and it was good to watch them get that this week. While on site this week, one of my students led one of the kids to Christ; it was just a great time!
The other serious note is that in my one-on-one time spent with students I discovered one of my students who proclaimed to be a Christian, when in reality, he was not. He told me he just circled yes because its what he thought I wanted to hear. Well after a message last night about not faking being a follower of Christ, he was convicted and accepted Christ, he told me this at breakfast this morning and I was very excited about it.
One thing that coming into camp I was not excited about was mega relay. For those of you who have never experienced fuge, mega relay is an event that challenges your students in every way possible. They have events that they have to work as a team and events that test some individuals. I always hated it as a camper, but after my first night running it as a staffer and encouraging my kids along, I absolutely love it. It culminates the week, and its fun to see how at the end of the week, they really do act as a team.
Be praying as we go into week 2, that ministry on site gets a lot better and that I can find some more time to spend with my students.
Opening night bible study time was a great time spent with my group. After getting all the paperwork out of the way and explaining what the rules for the week were and what to expect on our ministry site, we went outside to play some name games. Then began the process of training my group to do evangelism on our ministry site. We ended our first night by playing some more games with some other groups outside.
Bible study started off rough at the beginning of the week, but got more awesome by the day. After a day of warming up to me and to each other, they really started discussing things in the group and talking about things on a deeper level and this made me very happy!
Ministry Track Site did about the same as bible study, it started off a little rough, but got progressively better as the week went along. This site has a lot of kids (around 160) and they range in ages from 6-14 supposedly, but there were some kids there that were older in high school. It was really neat to watch my students interacting with the kids on site and talking to them. They were so much fun to watch playing. I can tell already that my heart is going to break for the kids at this site as the summer progresses. They were so starved for attention and it was good to watch them get that this week. While on site this week, one of my students led one of the kids to Christ; it was just a great time!
The other serious note is that in my one-on-one time spent with students I discovered one of my students who proclaimed to be a Christian, when in reality, he was not. He told me he just circled yes because its what he thought I wanted to hear. Well after a message last night about not faking being a follower of Christ, he was convicted and accepted Christ, he told me this at breakfast this morning and I was very excited about it.
One thing that coming into camp I was not excited about was mega relay. For those of you who have never experienced fuge, mega relay is an event that challenges your students in every way possible. They have events that they have to work as a team and events that test some individuals. I always hated it as a camper, but after my first night running it as a staffer and encouraging my kids along, I absolutely love it. It culminates the week, and its fun to see how at the end of the week, they really do act as a team.
Be praying as we go into week 2, that ministry on site gets a lot better and that I can find some more time to spend with my students.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tomorrow We Start
We will be Your hands , we will be Your feet
We will run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place, we will be your light
We will be your light
Above are lyrics from Hillsong United's Solution. Today, I heard this song for the first time as our amazing worship band played in rehearsal. We then sang it tonight at staff worship. This particular set of lyrics really caught my eye and tugged at my heart. This is my prayer for us, as a staff this summer. We are called to be His hands and feet in Nashville this summer. My prayer tonight as been that the Lord will break my heart for those I will come in contact with this summer that do not know Him so much that I have no other choice but to share the gospel with them. So many kids are going to come to camp tomorrow just wanting to hang out with friends and to have a good time with no spiritual expectation, but God has something amazing for them here and I can't wait to see it.
Tomorrow will be an amazing day, and I wait expectedly for it. We will start off with staff family groups where we will just have a time to dive into God's word as a group before spending some time in prayer lifting one another up before camp week begins. We will then have lunch as a staff and get everything set for registration. Pray for patience and wisdom for our staff as registration is going on. A lot goes into this behind the scenes and they need strength to make it through. The campers and staff will then have dinner followed by the Opening Celebration. We will then be dismissed to our track groups where we will have that MTET time I talked about in a previous post.
So, even though tomorrow is going to be amazing because I get to meet my campers and get to know them, there will be some stress involved for all of us, so pray that God will take that away from us as we get this thing kicked off.
We will run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place, we will be your light
We will be your light
Above are lyrics from Hillsong United's Solution. Today, I heard this song for the first time as our amazing worship band played in rehearsal. We then sang it tonight at staff worship. This particular set of lyrics really caught my eye and tugged at my heart. This is my prayer for us, as a staff this summer. We are called to be His hands and feet in Nashville this summer. My prayer tonight as been that the Lord will break my heart for those I will come in contact with this summer that do not know Him so much that I have no other choice but to share the gospel with them. So many kids are going to come to camp tomorrow just wanting to hang out with friends and to have a good time with no spiritual expectation, but God has something amazing for them here and I can't wait to see it.
Tomorrow will be an amazing day, and I wait expectedly for it. We will start off with staff family groups where we will just have a time to dive into God's word as a group before spending some time in prayer lifting one another up before camp week begins. We will then have lunch as a staff and get everything set for registration. Pray for patience and wisdom for our staff as registration is going on. A lot goes into this behind the scenes and they need strength to make it through. The campers and staff will then have dinner followed by the Opening Celebration. We will then be dismissed to our track groups where we will have that MTET time I talked about in a previous post.
So, even though tomorrow is going to be amazing because I get to meet my campers and get to know them, there will be some stress involved for all of us, so pray that God will take that away from us as we get this thing kicked off.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Getting Closer
We are a few days closer to campers arriving and getting very excited for that. We've spent the past few days doing the things that make campers getting here seem ever closer. We spent tuesday hanging out with some special need adults planting flowers and then going bowling. It was an amazing time and God used that time to teach me a lot about what site was going to be like for me and what I needed to work on. The rest of tuesday was business as usual as we had worn ourselves out at that site and were just looking forward to getting into bed.
Wednesday was a very exciting day as we got to meet the people who head up the ministry sites we will be spending our summer at. Mine was able to make the luncheon, but I got to go visit the community center afterwards to meet with him and to see the place I will be spending 28 days this summer. I will have 160 kids at the community center every day ranging in ages 6-14, so it will be an amazing experience. The only down side to it all is that I am not allowed to openly share the gospel, instead his view was if it is an unavoidable question brought up by the kid then it is ok. But that's ok, I just need all of you to be praying for unavoidable questions this summer!
We finished out tuesday by setting up the stage for the summer, it looks great and kudos to our program director for leading us through that night! Yesterday we got to prepare our bible study rooms which was a challenge since I'm no good at decorating. It was funny that my bible study room is a room that I remember being our church group devotion room in 2006.
Wednesday was a very exciting day as we got to meet the people who head up the ministry sites we will be spending our summer at. Mine was able to make the luncheon, but I got to go visit the community center afterwards to meet with him and to see the place I will be spending 28 days this summer. I will have 160 kids at the community center every day ranging in ages 6-14, so it will be an amazing experience. The only down side to it all is that I am not allowed to openly share the gospel, instead his view was if it is an unavoidable question brought up by the kid then it is ok. But that's ok, I just need all of you to be praying for unavoidable questions this summer!
We finished out tuesday by setting up the stage for the summer, it looks great and kudos to our program director for leading us through that night! Yesterday we got to prepare our bible study rooms which was a challenge since I'm no good at decorating. It was funny that my bible study room is a room that I remember being our church group devotion room in 2006.
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Story of Two Unique Days
Well days four and five of training have come and each was completely different from the other. Day 4 was characterized by more and more sitting in the same room doing meetings and such which was really starting to wear on our staff and you could tell that through the faces of those in the room, we were learning A LOT, but just wanted a change of scenery.
Today was very different than yesterday. Our Development Director got us out of that room into a room with a lot of windows to do our bible study training for the day which was a welcome change. We then had lunch, went over recreation ideas, worked in the fuge store and then came back to the main room to work on bible study preparation. So the afternoon was spent moving around which was amazing!
Tonight we did our training for what we will be doing a week from tonight, Ministry Track Evangelism Training or MTET as I will refer to it. That training was wonderful and our Site Director did a wonderful job leading us through that. We ended that time with some beautiful moments of prayer as the staff prayed over lists of the sites we will all be serving at this summer. God is going to do such amazing things that we don't even expect this summer as He promises in Ephesians 3 and I can't wait to see what He does!
The MTET training ended and our bottled up energy exploded with a random dance break to Party in the USA, a great time of fun with my wonderful staffers who I have come to love so much the past few days. I look forward to many more moments like that as the summer progresses. God is Good!!!
Today was very different than yesterday. Our Development Director got us out of that room into a room with a lot of windows to do our bible study training for the day which was a welcome change. We then had lunch, went over recreation ideas, worked in the fuge store and then came back to the main room to work on bible study preparation. So the afternoon was spent moving around which was amazing!
Tonight we did our training for what we will be doing a week from tonight, Ministry Track Evangelism Training or MTET as I will refer to it. That training was wonderful and our Site Director did a wonderful job leading us through that. We ended that time with some beautiful moments of prayer as the staff prayed over lists of the sites we will all be serving at this summer. God is going to do such amazing things that we don't even expect this summer as He promises in Ephesians 3 and I can't wait to see what He does!
The MTET training ended and our bottled up energy exploded with a random dance break to Party in the USA, a great time of fun with my wonderful staffers who I have come to love so much the past few days. I look forward to many more moments like that as the summer progresses. God is Good!!!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
The First Few Days
Well, after about 8 hours of flights/layovers on thursday I arrived in Nashville Airport to be greeted by three fellow staffers. It was a great intro into the city. We then spent the first hour or so unloading everyone's cars at the dorms as they pulled in. We followed that up by playing a game that really got us to know one another's names very quickly and get real comfortable with one another. After this we had dinner together then had our first little training session followed by a "speed dating" game where I learned a lot about my fellow staffers.
Yesterday(Friday) morning we woke and embarked on an especially long day where we received the quiet time books we will be using this summer as a staff. The passage yesterday came from Romans 12 where Paul calls us to present our body as living sacrifices. The devotion really hit home the point that we are to let God's Word transform us from the inside out rather than letting the world transform us from the outside. We then heard from our staff coordinator a couple of times before going to lunch and retreating back to the staff office to do some work with our track groups. We spent our evening talking about our ministry sites as well as doing an intro with our bible study we will be teaching this summer. There we learned about the different age groups we will be teaching and what their learning styles are like. We ended our first full day together by having worship together by just singing a few songs and journaling, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my year.
Today was much of the same. A lot of time spent in the office listening to our coordinator and leadership staff. We did however play rec games where we had a lot of fun playing together and even had some bonding time during one particular game where you had to walk around and when the rec leader called a number you had to get in a group of that many people. Towards the end of the game she yelled 3 and there were four people left. One staffer created a great strategy by tackling another(much smaller) staffer figuring some one else would join, but instead we all just got a good laugh.
This is going to be a very exhausting 12 days and I need your prayers to get me through it. Feel free to send email or facebook encouragement, it would be much appreciated!
Yesterday(Friday) morning we woke and embarked on an especially long day where we received the quiet time books we will be using this summer as a staff. The passage yesterday came from Romans 12 where Paul calls us to present our body as living sacrifices. The devotion really hit home the point that we are to let God's Word transform us from the inside out rather than letting the world transform us from the outside. We then heard from our staff coordinator a couple of times before going to lunch and retreating back to the staff office to do some work with our track groups. We spent our evening talking about our ministry sites as well as doing an intro with our bible study we will be teaching this summer. There we learned about the different age groups we will be teaching and what their learning styles are like. We ended our first full day together by having worship together by just singing a few songs and journaling, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my year.
Today was much of the same. A lot of time spent in the office listening to our coordinator and leadership staff. We did however play rec games where we had a lot of fun playing together and even had some bonding time during one particular game where you had to walk around and when the rec leader called a number you had to get in a group of that many people. Towards the end of the game she yelled 3 and there were four people left. One staffer created a great strategy by tackling another(much smaller) staffer figuring some one else would join, but instead we all just got a good laugh.
This is going to be a very exhausting 12 days and I need your prayers to get me through it. Feel free to send email or facebook encouragement, it would be much appreciated!
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Theme Verses
Here I sit in my mom's classroom at school waiting for her to finish. Had lunch with a friend and did some shopping for things i need before thursday. The last few emails from the camp staff are coming in and its getting me very excited. Now that I'm away from Auburn my thoughts turn to nashville more and more as the days go by. As I've been preparing for bible study God has been laying great things on my heart that I look forward to sharing with my students in just a couple of weeks. The theme verse for the week is Ephesians 5:15-16:
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Wow....talk about a slap in the face look at the beginning of verse 16: "making the most of every opportunity". When was the last time we made the most of every opportunity? Or maybe the easier question to ask is when was the last time we didn't WASTE an opportunity? I know that's the better question for me. And this part of the verse is a big part of my prayer life before going to camp. As a staffer at Fuge, there are going to be a lot of opportunities to talk to people in my groups as well as kids at the community center we'll all be working.
It is my job as this verse says to make the most out of EVERY opportunity. Whether its sitting with a random church group for breakfast, playing with a kid at the community center, or talking to one of my students during the afternoon free time it is my responsibility to always bring those conversations back around to Christ and encourage them along in their faith. This is a responsibility I take seriously and can not wait to carry out. The next post will probably come from Nashville on Thursday!
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Wow....talk about a slap in the face look at the beginning of verse 16: "making the most of every opportunity". When was the last time we made the most of every opportunity? Or maybe the easier question to ask is when was the last time we didn't WASTE an opportunity? I know that's the better question for me. And this part of the verse is a big part of my prayer life before going to camp. As a staffer at Fuge, there are going to be a lot of opportunities to talk to people in my groups as well as kids at the community center we'll all be working.
It is my job as this verse says to make the most out of EVERY opportunity. Whether its sitting with a random church group for breakfast, playing with a kid at the community center, or talking to one of my students during the afternoon free time it is my responsibility to always bring those conversations back around to Christ and encourage them along in their faith. This is a responsibility I take seriously and can not wait to carry out. The next post will probably come from Nashville on Thursday!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Leaving Auburn
Auburn has become home the past three years, I haven't been away from it for more than a week at a time since the summer of 2008. I told people good bye as they left for the summer last year, but never did I have to leave it for this long. Last summer at Auburn was life changing and one I won't soon forget which is why leaving is so hard. God showed me so much last year being here and I grew so much so fond memories are attached to auburn summers.
I know though, that God has even bigger things planned for His glory this summer. So, though I am a little sad today leaving my friends and the town i've come to love so dearly, I know that this will pass and that the next 10 weeks of my life will also be life changing and that God is going to do wonderful things with me this summer and here in Auburn.
I know though, that God has even bigger things planned for His glory this summer. So, though I am a little sad today leaving my friends and the town i've come to love so dearly, I know that this will pass and that the next 10 weeks of my life will also be life changing and that God is going to do wonderful things with me this summer and here in Auburn.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
What is M-Fuge?
Seven Days from now I will be preparing to land in Nashville and begin what promises to be one of the greatest summers of my life and certainly one that I am most excited for. M-Fuge has been a major part of my spiritual growth over the years and something I have always dreamed of being a part of from the staff side. For those of you that are unfamiliar with M-Fuge let me take a moment to explain it for you:
M-Fuge is a six day long camp for 7th Graders all the way up through college and includes of course a lot of Adult Chaperones. The First Day of Camp is exciting for campers as they arrive, move into the dorms, go to an Opening Celebration that is much like a Pep Rally where they at the end find out what group they will be spending their week with. From there they begin their time with Ministry Track Leaders like me whose job it is that first night to plan our ministry for that week as well as teaching them how to share the gospel.
Days 2-5 all have the same schedule. They wake up, eat breakfast, go to bible study where they have quiet time and then are lead in bible study by their track leaders, from bible study we will go to our ministry site. Our ministry site is a Community Center in the heart of Nashville which has a lot of kids for us to play with and share the gospel with. The Community Center has a pool and some basketball courts so some awesome water and other games will be played! After track time we come back for some free time which the staff uses to get to know our campers even better! From Free time they have dinner, worship, a time to decompress, and then a night activity which is always great!
The last morning we wrap up in bible study and then they have a closing celebration.
It is a very exciting week and I will get to do it for 7 weeks, I can hardly wait!
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