Why Camp?

Some people today may wonder if church youth camp is all that important.  They may wonder this especially when they see the cost of it.  However, in my opinion camp is worth every penny.  That is not because I am a youth pastor and it is part of my job.  On the contrary I am volunteer staff at the moment, I am organizing much of the camp for a total of three churches, doing all the speaking, missing a week away from my family,  and trying to help pay a little for myself to go.  With that said, I am not looking for a pat on the back or anything else.  I am simply trying to show how important camp is to me.  Now comes the reason why I would be willing to do all this work.

When I was in jr high I went to my first youth camp.  It was only my home church that was using the facility that we were at.  I can still see the entire place in my mind as if I had just got back from camp yesterday.  The meadows, forest, pond, buildings, main hall where we gathered for worship...everything as clear as day. I remember this camp because it was the first place where I learned to wake up in the morning and listen for God's voice (No accident that is the theme for camp this year).  I remember sitting on a stump overlooking the pond below with the woods surrounding me and the building behind.  I remember opening my Bible, being quiet and hearing the Holy Spirit gently whisper to me.  It is an experience that I can never fully explain to someone.

The other camp experience I want to relate to you is the last camp I went on as a student between my junior and senior year of high school.  Again I heard God speak to me in an extraordinary way.  Throughout the camp I had been drawn to reading 1st & 2nd Timothy.  Most of what I read I did not understand but that didn't keep me from reading and rereading these letters.  Finally one night I broke down in tears when I realized that God was calling me to vocational ministry.  On the final night when our church and a couple others where in the main hall they told us that if we needed to speak to a leader about anything we could find them in the back.  Well I went out and told my leader and within less then a minute a leader from another church walked out and stopped next to us.  He then took a moment and stated that he believed that one day I would be a pastor and felt that he needed to share that and went on his way.  That was my first experience of seeing the body of Christ being used by the Spirit to speak truth to me.  I received not only confirmation of this call on my life but witnessed obedience by a brother in Christ to go out in faith and communicate what God had told him to say.

I have many other camp experiences but these are the two that I desired to share with you.  The reason is that God used youth camp to bring me to West Greenway Bible Church.  That is why I believe youth camp is important.  I believe that it is a time that youth get away from the world and can much easier hear the voice of God speaking to them.

So if your youth hasn't signed up for camp it is not to late.  Please just let me know or even just show up ready to go on Sunday.  We will figure out finances later.  God is powerful enough to figure that out.  Send your student to camp...You never know what God will have to say to him/her.

More information can be found at my website:

http://www.lovinggodlovingothers.org/#!camp/cs5l