CAMP 101
Well I thought that after about 20 church camps in the last 8 years, I would know everything to know about the camp thang. However, one thing that continually baffles my mind is how, incredibly, God seems to make each new camp better than the last. Every year God builds my faith to remember that he truly does answer prayer, and that he does do “exceedingly and abundantly beyond what I could ever ask or think.”
God did a ton of amazing things, but probably what I was most encouraged by was how he uses discipleship "life on life" to bring people closer to him, and to actually save souls. For me, one of the blessings of students ministries is discipling students to maturity in Christ. I wanted you to take part in my joy, that true discipleship is happeing, and that people are being conformed more to Christ. Thus, here is an email I just received from one of my students attesting to this truth. I will leave it anonymous, but I had to let you read it because it was so incredibly encouraging to me. This student said,
“Hey, man I just wanted to tell you that i had a grate time at camp. Thank you so much for talking to me on wnedsay you were so helpfull to me all the time. I also wanted to let you know that your finger prints are all over me as tim was talking about. you have contributed to my spitual grouth so much. Thank you so much. Love in CHRIST, Anonymous”
This to me is just a beautiful picture of what God has done up at camp, and the spiritual growth that God is producing through means of discipleship. This young man that wrote this email is such a huge encouragement to me, and he really convicted me with his passionate heart for sincere worship, his genuine hatred of sin, and his desire to be more like Christ. There was also at least one of my guys that wasn’t sure if he was a Christian or not, and I had the opportunity to share the simple truth of the gospel with him and the rest of the group. There were a few that were dealing with un-confessed sin, some that were losing passion, and others that just needed to build relationships . God has been so gracious to have given me so many opportunities in the last couple of weeks to share the gospel with students and just encourage them in their walk. Have I told you all how much I love student ministries and discipleship in general? Anyway, I am so blessed to be able to serve them and be a discipleship leader for them. I am so grateful that God is allowing me to be used in something that I love doing so much, and what is cool is that they teach me probably more than I teach them.
One other thing that also needs to be mentioned about camp is this: We had the coolest pine cone war (slash) capture the flag game that I have ever played! This was the 2nd annual pine cone war that I helped establish last year, and I think this year we had about 30 junior high guys participating. My discipleship group challenged Jon Schultz’s group to a war to see which team could capture the flag three times. We had an amazing time, and it was so cool to see relationships being formed. After we played the game for about an hour and a half, we had a time of prayer praising God that we could have so much fun playing a mere game that involves throwing pine cones at each other and capturing a flag; we then asked God to give us as much passion and energy in sharing the gospel when we got home as we had in playing the game. I can hardly wait for next year’s competition!
Thank you all for your prayers, and I can’t wait to see the fruit that continues as a result of God working through the last week.
In love with Jesus, and passionate for student ministries,
Brent
God did a ton of amazing things, but probably what I was most encouraged by was how he uses discipleship "life on life" to bring people closer to him, and to actually save souls. For me, one of the blessings of students ministries is discipling students to maturity in Christ. I wanted you to take part in my joy, that true discipleship is happeing, and that people are being conformed more to Christ. Thus, here is an email I just received from one of my students attesting to this truth. I will leave it anonymous, but I had to let you read it because it was so incredibly encouraging to me. This student said,
“Hey, man I just wanted to tell you that i had a grate time at camp. Thank you so much for talking to me on wnedsay you were so helpfull to me all the time. I also wanted to let you know that your finger prints are all over me as tim was talking about. you have contributed to my spitual grouth so much. Thank you so much. Love in CHRIST, Anonymous”
This to me is just a beautiful picture of what God has done up at camp, and the spiritual growth that God is producing through means of discipleship. This young man that wrote this email is such a huge encouragement to me, and he really convicted me with his passionate heart for sincere worship, his genuine hatred of sin, and his desire to be more like Christ. There was also at least one of my guys that wasn’t sure if he was a Christian or not, and I had the opportunity to share the simple truth of the gospel with him and the rest of the group. There were a few that were dealing with un-confessed sin, some that were losing passion, and others that just needed to build relationships . God has been so gracious to have given me so many opportunities in the last couple of weeks to share the gospel with students and just encourage them in their walk. Have I told you all how much I love student ministries and discipleship in general? Anyway, I am so blessed to be able to serve them and be a discipleship leader for them. I am so grateful that God is allowing me to be used in something that I love doing so much, and what is cool is that they teach me probably more than I teach them.
One other thing that also needs to be mentioned about camp is this: We had the coolest pine cone war (slash) capture the flag game that I have ever played! This was the 2nd annual pine cone war that I helped establish last year, and I think this year we had about 30 junior high guys participating. My discipleship group challenged Jon Schultz’s group to a war to see which team could capture the flag three times. We had an amazing time, and it was so cool to see relationships being formed. After we played the game for about an hour and a half, we had a time of prayer praising God that we could have so much fun playing a mere game that involves throwing pine cones at each other and capturing a flag; we then asked God to give us as much passion and energy in sharing the gospel when we got home as we had in playing the game. I can hardly wait for next year’s competition!
Thank you all for your prayers, and I can’t wait to see the fruit that continues as a result of God working through the last week.
In love with Jesus, and passionate for student ministries,
Brent
posted by Brent Klontz at 10:36 PM
3 Comments:
What an encouraging email Brent! Isn't it exciting to see young believers mature in the faith? Especially those that you've poured yourself into. Paul wrote in 2 Cor 3:2-3: "You are our letter, written in our hearts, know and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (NASB)
Capture the flag is da bomb. Junior highers keep me fun; I'm sure you can say the same =)
hey man i had such a great time at camp. God tuched my heart in so many ways. This and yesterday moring on the way to school and i was admiring Gods great sunrise it looked so perfect. Thanks for being a great ecuagement
love in CHRIST andrew
Brent, I'm so glad to hear that your second camp in a week (!) went well. I know that your work with your boys is not in vain - in fact, you're getting to see the fruit of it! That's awesome. :) All praise be to God.
See you tonight!!! :)
~ Hannah
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