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| Ethan showing off his first-ever fish he'd caught, a prize-winner for sure! |
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| Eric showing off also as he caught his first fish while at summer camp! |
Just imagine a group of 21 military
teens attending their first-ever Club Beyond summer camp as a ‘joint event’
between Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield for six days and five nights,
secluded on the marshes of Midway, Georgia. Up until this point, we seldom had
opportunities to combine our efforts between our students because of the limitation
of transportation and timing. While brainstorming after completing our 2013 summer
camp, I felt led to provide our middle
school kids an opportunity to attend a real summer camp. A combined summer camp
opportunity came to fruition after a friend of one of our leaders shared about a
local camp only about 30 minutes from both of our ministry sites, plus
wonderfully located on the marsh waterfront. The best part was the initial
visit for me personally and how rustic the camp was along with the key points
they drove home – fully unplugged from all media sources, amazing game times
together, multiple times in the chapel throughout the day with lessons and a
way to honor one another with modesty.
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| Our ladies who immediately enjoyed meeting their friends from the other Club Beyond location. |
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| Our group of guys who blended so well together from Fort Stewart and Hunter. |
Our students experiences so many
firsts in attending summer camp – riding a horse, catching a fish, using a
kayak, walking across a rope bridge, learning to swim along with multiple team
competitions. One of the biggest God-centered moments was how our kids began to
embrace the overall culture of camp and memorize the Scriptures that were part
of the overall team challenge. The camp’s direction was focused in Romans and
students were challenged each day to memorize their verses and a ‘primary
verse’ to earn points for their team. Many of our own kids carried around
scriptures on paper ready to learn and memorize them to earn points for their
team’s possibility of earning the pizza party at the end of the week. Not only
memorizing but truly understanding what the Scripture means was included in
their awarding of points which made things even a bigger blessing! If you
recall one of our Hunter youth in the May newsletter, Kyle was actively one of
those students memorizing Romans so his team could win! J
If the experiences and memories
made within our student body wasn’t enough, working alongside such an amazing
staff put icing on the cake! I had the amazing opportunity to work with such a
servant-minded and humble amount of adults I’ve never experienced before. I was
the new kid on the block who had 20+ students coming to their camp. It could
have been seen as a negative; however, everyone embraced us as immediate
family. To that alone, I am ever so grateful for everyone’s open hearts to
accept the group we brought to camp that week.
Camp was one of those ‘mountaintop
experiences,’ and as each one of our students come back to their homes, they
will be faced with challenges. Stresses of the home life, military changes and
culture, sibling rivalries, pending divorce and ongoing fighting and anything
else in between await our youth when they left camp. “Mr. Phil, can’t camp last
all summer…….at least a month long,” was the routine question from over half of
our youth as we finished the week at camp.
Our military teens long for true relationship and people who care for them which
they experienced fully this week at summer camp in Midway, Georgia. I thank God
daily for opening doors to allow us to attend this camp that affected not only
their lives but my own in a great way. It was because the camp lived throughout
the week that we were ‘unashamed of the Gospel’ as Paul stated to the Romans.
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| A snapshot of our wonderful group together on the final day of summer camp. |
Every one of us was unashamed in
living it out that week. Pray for each of us that fire burns strong through the
summer and beyond.
Prayer requests:
- For the teens who attended summer
camp that they press into Christ’s plan even more, no matter where they stand
now.
- My upcoming marriage to Amy on the 4th of July and all the happenings around it. That we serve Christ in everything we do.
- For MarshView Bible Camp and all the teens impacted by their amazing location and staff.
- My upcoming marriage to Amy on the 4th of July and all the happenings around it. That we serve Christ in everything we do.
- For MarshView Bible Camp and all the teens impacted by their amazing location and staff.
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