God is doing some incredible things in the lives of our Jr High students! Earlier in February, we took a trip to Hume Lake Winter Camp; which was amazing. The camp was covered in fresh powder, the mountains and trees were absolutely stunning, and it was a true testament to the beauty that God put into the world. Most importantly, five of our students gave their lives to Christ for the first time! The speaker and worship band were great as well. One student was so moved by the worship experience of the band that he gave his special camp sweatshirt up to one of the band members, who then wore it the very next day while leading worship. The surprise and joy on our students faces to see the lead singer wearing our camp sweatshirt was awesome!
Our students spent their time on a variety of activities. Some grouped together and formed Broom hockey teams (similar to Ice hockey, but no skates and you use brooms instead of sticks) and played their hearts out. Others went down the side of the mountain on inner-tubes, or snowboards. While still others were perfectly content to play in the snow and build snow forts and toss snowballs at one another.
While both summer and winter camp are places of fun and excitement, the biggest and most important aspect of camp is the ability to grow in a relationship with our students. There is something about camp, maybe it’s being away from the distractions of the world or being stuck in a stinky cabin after chili soup night, that forms connections like nothing else. Even just a weekend at camp is worth months of ministry time elsewhere. If you have a Jr high or High school student, I would highly recommend that you encourage them to go and participate in Summer and Winter camps.
There is one thing I would like to ask of you: please pray for our students and leaders. Prayer is the biggest and best thing that we can do. Life for our students is crazy, stressful and the pressures put on them to preform athletically or academically is immense. Ask God to give them peace, guidance and to surround them with good Godly friends and influences. For our leaders pray for encouragement, patience and wisdom as they lead these Jr High students though some of the toughest times of their lives so far.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
- By Anthony Webb