Summer Camp 2008.

We bumped our little green bus (and I mean bumped!) down the dreaded I-78 highway before pulling into the church parking lot on Friday evening after a week-long adventure in southwestern PA. I've been to plenty of camps over the past 10 years and I always walk away with this thought: each one has the capacity to be Spirit-led, but it is up to the people involved to get to that level. God did some pretty amazing things this week and it wasn't all necessarily at the altar. It was back in the cabin, after a long day of preaching and games. It was in the swimming pool, as four teams competed against each other. It was during the meal times, when diligent campers studied verses. It was on those quiet walks to the bathhouse, where words of encouragement were whispered. Yes, God did something this week that has all the signs of lasting in eternity.

But now comes the tough part.

Camp is over and normal life has resumed. The convictions made at camp are on the very edge of being broken. The devil is doing a lot of damage control as he tries to make sure Christians don't go all out for God. But as the preacher said, IT'S ALL OR NOTHING. There is no such thing as holding out on God. All He wants is everything. That's all. So the little idols that have taken up residence in hearts must be knocked down. Standards must be maintained. Camp is good, but it's right now when those decisions are lived out. So although camp is over, the work continues on. It must so if we will dare to make a difference. Decisions determine destiny.

This was Tiffany's first time being a counselor. Tiffany's husband Jeremy gave a powerful testimony about all that God has spared him from... it was a wake-up call that needed to be shouted out.

One of the games we played (we?!?! I mean, the campers!) was this: all the kids took their shoes off and the girls' shoes were dumped in the gazebo while the boys' shoes were dumped in the dining hall. The teens had to run out of the chapel, cross over rocks and grass, get to the right place, find their shoes in the big pile, put them on (not backwards!) and line up in their specific team group. I thought for sure it would take longer than it really did, but I guess the rocks dodn't hurt as much when you're playing a game:o).

The theme of this year was faithfulness so all the teams were named after dogs. Here are the leaders of Team Rottweiler, filling up the water balloons for an afternoon game. Thankfully the day was hot, because this was one wet job! It was also worth it because we got 10,000 points for it:o).... and had a lot of fun spraying down the kitchen crew and anyone else crazy enough to get near a water hose:o). Somehow Mr. Anger (white shirt) managed to stay relatively dry... we'll have to rectify that next time!