Move

I said in my last post that I would be leaving for Camp in a couple of days. I just got back yesterday afternoon but since I was so tired, I couldn't really articulate very well what happened. I still may not be able to put into words everything that happened at camp, so I will just give an overview and hope that it gives you a small picture of what happened from June 21-June 29th.

The theme of our camp as you may see from the image on your right was a faith to Move. We focused on having a faith to let go, the faith to go into the unknown, a faith to wait, and having faith to its fullest. We focused on the story of Moses from the time God appeared to him through the burning bush that wasn't consumed until Moses presented the Israelite people with the Ten Commandments. We did a lot of the in depth Bible study in our small groups. For High School it was Coed and combined people from different cabins, and for Middle School it was whoever was in your cabin. We had worship in the morning and night led by Michael Boggs, and the message was by Chris Brooks. We also had a rec time everyday, three hours of free time where they could ride jet skis and Pontoon Boats (with an adult leader), go on aquacycles at the beach/lake (That's were I was most of the time...making sure kids weren't doing anything stupid), go to the pool, play on the rec field, go horseback riding (only available one day for each camp), or just relax and hang out with people near their cabin.

My experience was very good. For High School, I was paired up with a friend of mine named Troy. We joked around about this because our personalities are almost exact opposite. The High School camp can be best described by one of our leaders. "They came together in groups, but they left as one." There was great unity in this camp like I haven't seen before. There were some great and honest conversations, and it went very well.

I have been looking forward to Middle School camp because that is where my guys are right now from my Lifegroup. Want to know something cool? I had the same cabin I had last year! It was great to continue to build those relationships. The Bible Studies for me I felt were more in depth and personal than those of the past. There was more intention for prayer as well as practicle hands-on activities toward learning the concept than before. If nothing else, it forced them to think about some things that they believed. The greatest part of this group at camp was how honest they were about where they were. I had a conversation with practically all of the guys in that cabin about where they were in their faith. The openness of them and their willingness to take a deeper look led God to do some great things inside of them. I can say with confidence that the question has been answered about what they believe, now it's a question of will they take the next step in developing what they believe into a relationship.

For me, I knew coming into this that I really had to prepare myself or I would get burned out very easy. So I was very intentional with making sure that didn't happen. Because of that, camp was a lot easier than it was the year before. You can ask any High School or Adult leader that was there...it was pretty exhausting, but it was worth it.

I'll leave you with a couple of illustrations that I liked from Chris Brooks about faith.

1. Do you have a sneaker faith or a suit faith? (i.e. do you bring it out on special occasions, or wear it all the time)
2. When you think about yourself as being the light, do you imagine yourself as one of those lights you have to crank to power up (which is from your own power, only lights up a little bit, and is misused)? What about the flashlight you only use for emergencies? Or are you plugged into a power source?
3. Are you a God Wrestler? Or are you a Poser?

Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of the day!

The Autobiography of George Mϋller

I just got done reading this book. I ordered this book near the end of May from Amazon. I have been looking to purchase this book for a while ever since I saw it in Lifeway. This book is a great testimony to what God can do through a person who completely relies on God. George Mϋller starts off his story with blatant honesty in showing us his sinful past. He then goes on to tell about how he encountered God (through a small group bible study/prayer group) and from there it talks about his ministry. He becomes a pastor of a church for a while, then God calls him to become part of the work in Bristol, England. God then shows him that he wants him to help with his work with the Orphans and help disciple/inform believers and non-believers through the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution which is a school for the study of scriptures for children and adults. The book focuses on those ministries as well as the means to support those ministries.

The cool part about this is that George Mϋller refused to take a salary after he was convicted by how the money was used in the church. From that moment on, he depended on the Lord to provide all the money and resources needed for his everyday physical needs and the ministry. The book goes on to discuss his prayers and God's answer to his prayers. God always provided what he NEEDED when he needed it. Through this ministry, thousands of people knew about the bible, and tens of thousands of Orphans needs were met. During his time it was a little more than a thousand, but the orphanages survived past his death.

This book was kind of tough to get into, but it was well worth the read. It was a great example of what God can do through someone who truly has faith. George was humble about everything, boasting only in God, and he remained faithful through his life. He said in his book that on his own strength, he could maybe do a tenth of the work that was entrusted with him but because God was helping him, he could do all of it. He was devoted to prayer and mediation of scripture, and he had a heart of telling others about God. The ministry even included supporting over 80 missionaries on top of the institution and the orphanages. George said that he felt this ministry existed to prove to people what God can do through those who put their trust in him.

I am going to camp this week, and our themes have to do with Faith. I think I got done with this book just in time :-)

Can Coldplay? We'll see in this update.

Look at me doing a play on words! I originally was going to list all the things I was going to talk about in the title, but that would just have been way too many commas. Plus it would be like, "Why read the blog? It tells us everything in the title!"

Anyway, things have been going well. The past two weeks have been fun. I visited my sister a week ago in Selmer. We basically watched movies all weekend (four from Blockbuster and we went to Corinth, Mississippi to see "Up"), but it was fun. I really enjoyed going to the Baptist Church there. The people were very friendly, the sermon was good (the analogy of the windshield and the rear-view mirror was great), and it was fun to sing in the choir. The drive was about two and half hours, but It was very scenic and pretty so I just listened to my IPod and the trip went by fast.

Work is going well. I like to give my "C" personality what it enjoys while getting paid to do it.

I'm also getting ready for Hong Kong and doing a Bible Study with a couple of my friends on Packer's, "Knowing God." Tonight was our first night, and we had some good discussion. I'm looking forward to reading and discussing the next chapters.

Now...for Coldplay! My friend asked me a couple nights before if I wanted to go and I was like, "Sure...I know a couple of their songs. It should be fun." I have to say that of these guys put on a show! It was entertaining from start to finish and it was unlike anything I have ever experienced. They also played well live. That was something I was worried about because you know those bands that sound good on the radio but are horrible live. Overall it was a great experience, and I think Coldplay is pretty awesome.

I best be going now. Have a great rest of the day!