450 students, and the state of California

I sit down to write this and the recognition crosses my mind that to date it is one day short of one month from my last post. One month, the entire state of California, and about 450 students later - it’s amazing to me how the days can fly when a fast-paced routine sets in. 

The last four weeks have held much. After the camp in Phoenix our team had a much needed environmental respite in San Diego at Point Loma Nazarene University, which had highs of about 78 degrees, was in sight of the ocean, and provided a spectacular view every evening when the sun turned hues of purple and red as it bid goodnight to the west coast.

 The week held its own challenges though, as there was another camp of 700+ on campus (compared to our 120) so we were at best secondary to anything that was happening during the week. At least two students came to know Christ that week though, and the opportunity to take part in something that was an instrument for those students’ salvation was worth the headache of the administration of the week.

Here is a picture of the sunset from the campus over the ocean at Point Loma:
 

Our camp at the Master’s College, just north of LA, held about 80 of the most mature group of students I have seen in five summers and over 30 camps. Students were a calm, deep group who were there to learn and encourage others to do the same, and being with them was rejuvenating in and of itself. 

At camp on Thursday nights we have an event called campfire where students have the opportunity to stand up and say what the week has meant to them. For some it was the first week that they had ever consistently had a quiet time, for some it was something learned in lecture that they want to take home, and for still others it was someone that they met during our evangelism practicum that they wanted to remember as motivation to go home and spread the gospel within their own communities. It was my opportunity to lead campfire this particular week, and as such I was able to have a front row listening to the stories of change, and I was reminded again of why I do this. 

My heart is honestly with reaching the lost, and sometimes at camp when it seems that we are only reaching Christians I wonder that we might be creating Pharisees at best. Campfire, though, reminded me that we aren’t just a holy huddle, but that camp was a time of equipping. Not patting each other on the back because we somehow found a faith that we could defend with history and logic, but a legitimate training of students to go out and spread a living and true gospel – seeing students go home not content with themselves, but burning to share because of the recognition of grace and redemption in their lives.

Our third California camp in Sacramento promised to be a great camp … and then sickness struck. My camp director was sick on opening day, so in the course of about three hours I had to put together an orientation presentation for students from scratch that would fill an hour and fifteen minute slot. Talk about adrenaline! As a mentor of mine used to say, “Opportunity knocks, who will answer?” Thankfully, because I had seen it given so many times, I was able to pull it off relatively well, and even had fun while doing it.

Our camp director got well the next day, but if that wasn’t enough, the very next day (Monday) it was my turn to get sick and I was out until Wednesday afternoon, just in time for our camp director to get sick again!  Our competent leadership team pulled through though, and camp kept trucking along like the duck sitting calmly on the water whose feet are going crazy beneath the surface.

Between Sacramento and Portland we were able to stop off at a fresh fruit stand with all of the staff and try to give our bodies the opportunity to recuperate from cafeteria food. Here is a picture of the harvest! 

And now I sit in Oregon – getting ready for evangelism day tomorrow, and beginning to prepare for the last week of camp, the drive home from Seattle to Dallas, and a brief vacation to beautiful Colorado in the summertime before settling in to Midland, Texas for the full time job of working for Worldview this fall. 

Please continue to pray for us! Sickness was passed around among our leadership team for about a week and a half, but now one of our staff members seems to have it, and our hope is to keep It from spreading amongst the staff team, so please pray for this for the last couple weeks of camp. 

Please pray for the stamina of our staff team. This point in the summer makes it easy for those who have traveled with us from the beginning to produce their functions by rote memory and not invest as much personally into students as they did at the beginning, so please pray that our staff will be rejuvenated so as to be able to continue to give of themselves.