Cord of 3

Last Thursday I met with a couple of guys for a group I have named "Cord of 3." This is a discipleship group that is done with some of the summer staff. "Cord of 3" is taken from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, where we gain the principle of relying on one another for strength. In our meetings we are reading through the book, "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer. There is also a time for review of our personal growth plans. A personal growth plan is a written set of goals to stretch us and cause us to grow. Some goals are spiritually focused and other goals are practical goals for life. We always finish our time praying for one another. This past week was a great time to connect with each other and encourage one another to press on with the goals we set. Thank You for those of you who prayed for this event.

Looking Ahead . . .
Parents' Night Out this Friday. This will be the last one of 2009. Would you Pray that God will prepare the hearts of the children for the Bible lesson?

Winter Camp is under 2 weeks away. Would you Pray for the preparation of this event? Would you Pray that God would draw the campers closer to Himself through Winter Camp?

The Curriculum is coming along. Would you continue to Pray that God will guide me as I put it together?

Acts

Yesterday I completed Phase 1 of the curriculum for next summer. If you remember, we are going to be telling stories from the book of Acts this summer. In Phase 1 of the curriculum I divided up the book of Acts into 40 days of stories. Now that Phase 1 is complete, I will begin Phase 2. In this Phase I will be going through the book of Acts and developing commentary notes for our directors, so that they will be more equipped to tell the stories. Would you PAUSE and PRAY that God will guide and give me wisdom as I put together these commentary notes?

Looking Ahead . . .

Tomorrow, Cord of 3 (a discipleship group with male staff) is meeting. Would you PAUSE and PRAY that are time together would be honoring to God, that we would hold one another accountable to the personal goals we set, and that God would guide us as we learn more about Him (We are reading the book “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer)?

Thank you for your prayers!

Peoria PNO

Last Friday we had a Parents Night Out at the Christian Center. We had a great night. There were about 30 kids that came and 10 staff that helped out. In the Bible lesson we told part of the story of Joseph, and focused on how God is always in control through the good and bad. The campers also got to participate in the "Glow Bowl" that the Christian Center has, some intense games of dodgeball, and "fire ball." All in all it was a fun night and a great opportunity to reconnect with campers and staff. Thank you for your prayers and for those of you who helped out. It was a true blessing.

Looking Ahead . . .

Winter Camp 2009 is just around the corner and there is a lot to be done. Would you pray that God will guide and direct the preparation of this event?Would you also pray that it would be a good time to refocus the campers on Christ? Finally, would you pray that God would bring the staff needed to minister at this event?

Camp 11/11

Last Wednesday we had a full day of camp for kids who didn't have school on Veterans day. We call this Camp 11/11 or Veterans Day Camp. We had just under 20 campers come and 6 staff members. It was a great day. It was so nice we even got to spend time outside. God truly blessed us with great weather and a great day to minister.

I had the opportunity to tell the Bible lesson for our day. As I approached the end of the story I didn't finish it and told the campers that I would conclude the story at the end of the day. While we were bowling one of the campers came up to me and begged me to tell him the end of the story. He couldn't wait to hear what had happened. I couldn't say no to his desire to know more and told him the rest of the story. It was awesome to see his passion to know the story.

I want to say thank you to all of you who prayed for this day. The Lord was at work and provided us with great opportunities to reconnect with the campers.

Looking Ahead . . .

Friday we have a Parents' Night Out at the Christian Center and we usually serve around 40 to 50 kids. Would you pray that God will soften the hearts of the kids to His Word. Pray that they would be challenged to live a life that glories God.

PLAYGROUND!

Tuesday was an exciting day for the Eureka Camp. After 6 years with no playground for older campers, we finally purchased one for them. This is a really nice system that we bought from Rainbow. It has swings, slide, rock wall, rope latter, and tire swing. It is now on site, ready to go and we look forward to putting it into action next summer.

Things to come . . .
Next Friday we are planning a Parents' Night Out for Eureka. Pray that it will be a good time of reconnection with the campers.

On November 11, we will be having a full day of camp at the Christian Center. Pray that God will guide our conversations with the campers.

Curriculum 2010

This week I am beginning the process of developing our curriculum for next year. In 2008 we focused on the Bible as a whole. We told stories from both the Old and New Testament, so that campers could get the big picture. This past summer we focused in on the Life of Christ. Starting from the beginning and working our way to His death, resurrection, and ascension. This year we will focus in on the beginning of the church as we tell stories from the book of Acts. The purpose of theses stories will be aimed at the spiritual growth of the campers. Will you pray that as I develop this curriculum that God will guide me and use it to encourage campers to grow spiritually in their walk with Christ.

Peoria PNO

Last Friday we had our first Peoria PNO. It went really well and was a lot of fun. We had about 40 kids that came to the event, along with 16 staff that helped out. One of the unique things about the Peoria PNO is a lot of the kids that come are not camp kids. The Christian Center is involved with the Peoria PNO, and thus brings in several kids from their connections. So it is a great opportunity to meet new kids and minister to them.
For the Peoria PNO's I have chosen a theme on Trusting God. I decided to use the story of Joseph to teach kids to trust in God. This past Friday we talked about Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery, his time spent at Potipher's house, and finished with Joseph telling the baker and the butler the meaning of their dreams. Would you pray that God will teach the kids to trust him in all situations as we study through Joseph's life?

Looking Ahead . . .
Next Monday we will be having a full day of camp. We call this our Fall Frenzy. Would you pray that God will bring more campers to this event, and that we will be intentional in our relationships witht he campers.

First PNO of the Season

This last Friday we had our first Parents' Night Out of the Season. It was held at our Eureka Camp Site. We had around 19 kids and 8 staff that came to the event. During the night we played a variety of games such as Gold Rush, Human Pinball, Dodgeball, and more. We also enjoyed dirt cups, which really hit the spot. The kids seemed to have really enjoyed themselves and a few even asked their parents to stay a little longer. It was also a great night for staff to reconnect with the campers whom they haven't seen in a while. There were some great conversations that the staff had with the campers. Another great part of the night was the Bible story. I had the opportunity to teach and I chose to tell the story of David and Goliath. After finishing the story one of the boys raised his hand and said David and Goliath was one of his favorite stories. Would you pause and pray for the children that attended the Parents' Night Out. Pray that they would be bold in their life to do what God wants them to do, just like David. Overall it was a great night and a great opportunity to reconnect with the kids.

Looking Ahead...
Would you pray for us as a Full-Time Staff. We have a retreat this week to review the summer and plan for the coming year. Pray that God will guide our thoughts and give us wisdom as we plan for the next year.

Summer 2009

Hello again,
It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. So I apologize to all of you that follow this so closely. To bring you up to speed, we had a great summer this year. The staff that God brought to us were phenomenal and the changes that God brought about in both campers and staff were awesome. One story that is truly amazing is a story about a camper from Eureka. He was with camp for most of the summer so it was great to see God work. At the beginning of the summer this young man was really struggling with some tough issues that were going on in his life. His world seemed to have collapsed on top of him, which transferred to the way he acted at camp. Well as the summer went on the boy was able to hear more and more about Jesus as camp traveled through the life of Christ in our assembly times. He was also exposed to the Good News of Jesus Christ every Friday through the staff. It wasn't until late in the summer that he sat down with a staff member who shared the gospel with him and answered a few questions. The boy then prayed with the staff member and asked Christ to enter into his life. From that point on the staff did their best to encourage him and help him to grow. A few days after asking Christ into his heart the boy came to a site director and asked if he could have a Bible. The boy was given his Bible and from that point on he was seen with it many times through the day. He came to me about a week later and showed me that he had read through Genesis and was some chapters into Exodus. His excitement and passion to read the Word of God was amazing. Would you pray for him as he is back at school in an environment that could easily pull him away from God. This is one of the many stories of what God did in the lives of children this summer. I hope to share with you a few more stories over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open.

So whats going on now? What are you doing now? These are a few questions that I receive when camp ends, and its not what you think. I don't just sit in the office and stair at the wall. These past two weeks we have been cleaning up our 6 camp sites and "inventoryizing" (yes I made that word up). We have also been reading through our evaluations from staff to hopefully collect good ideas to improve camp.

So what can you pray for?
1.) Pray that God will give us diligence in this ministry.

2.) Pray that God will open up some one-on-one follow up opportunities with campers and staff.

3.) Pray that God will give us wisdom as we debrief the summer and look for ways to make camp more honoring to God.

What about you? I would love to know how I can pray for you and better serve you. Just send me an email or give me a call to let me know.

Whats New!

A lot has gone on since I last posted. We have had a lot to do in these past few months getting ready for the summer. I have still been working on our curriculum for the summer which centers on the Life of Christ. I am happy to say though, that i am almost done with it. I am very excited to see how God will work through our directors to teach the campers the Life of Christ. We have also been conducting a lot of staff interviews as we hire on about 115 staff members to serve this summer. We have been blessed so far with a lot of returning staff as well as some great new additions. Another event that has kept us busy is our Parents Night Out. We just had one in Peoria two weeks ago, and it went very well. We had around 40 kids that came and were able to here a Bible story lead by one of our staff members, as well as play some fun games. We also have another PNO coming up, which will be hosted at our Eureka Camp site. This is actually very exciting because it will be our 2 PNO ever at Eureka.

An interesting thought occurred to me as i was studying through the life of Christ that I thought I would share with you. Jesus is our King and yet He was willing to wash the feet of the disciples. Their nasty, smelly, and dirty feet. It makes me stop and ask myself how willing I am to do even the most lowly of tasks for those around me.

Well a few things that you can keep in prayer:
1. God will use the Bible lessons this summer to impact the lives of Children.
2. God will give us wisdom as we select staff for the summer.
3. God will help us all to be servants to those around us.

Chili Supper 09

The Chili Supper is on its way and as the days have become fewer and fewer, Brad has given me more and more to do. Brad has placed me in charge of designing the cover of the programs as well as putting together a slide show for the beginning of the program. I have actually really enjoyed both of these projects. Designing things comes somewhat easy to me and i have a lot of fun doing them. Along with those two items Brad also placed Pheaney and I in charge of the staff for the program. It is exciting to see that a good number of staff have volunteered their time to serve at the supper. In between those times i have continued to work on the curriculum, which has proven to be a huge task. Here are a few things that you can pray for:
1. God guides us as we prepare for the Chili Supper.
2. God gives me wisdom as a develop the curriculum.
3. God brings solid students to minister at Camp of Champions this summer.

Our theme this summer is Superman. I know Superman...You can too!
Our focus is on the life of Christ.

First Post

I guess the first post should tell you the purpose of my blog. I think the the main reason for my blog is to keep people who support me in ministry updated on whats going on here at Camp of Champions USA. Second, would be to provide some humor for you from my life. So camp, from this moment we have 125 days, 19 hours, 18 minutes, and 8 seconds until the first day of camp begins. Having said that there is a ton to do. Right now i am putting our curriculum together. I have already picked the stories that we will do, which all deal with the life of Christ, but now i am going back through and refining the stories. I am adding pictures for the stories and more information for the directors. Its a long process but i have found that i enjoy it and and i am learning a lot from it. Now something humors, I was at PCS today with Brad and we are doing the grade school life change week. While we were there Brad told all the kids my nickname, Bacon. Then at the end as the children were leaving one of kids walked by and said, "Your name, Bacon, makes me so hungry." It may not be the funniest thing but it made me laugh when she said it. Kids can say some of the funniest things and at the same time understand, with simple faith, the message of the cross. It is because of this that i have invested my time into developing stories of Jesus Christ for children at Camp of Champions this summer.

Prayer Request:
1. God's guidance in developing the curriculum.
2. Wisdom in seeking out and selecting staff for the Summer of 2009.