Like this:

For the past couple of weeks I have been out at Camp Wyldewood volunteering as a Group Preacher. Over the past 16 years I have been doing volunteer work out there. Seems like my life has been lived through that place. I came to Christ out there back in 1991, took my first group of youth group students out there in 1998, baptized someone for the first time there, met most of my spiritual mentors out there, gave my first devotional there, first time to ever speak at a retreat was there, got married there this past Oct., and now my wife is as active out there as I am.

This year the focus was on the theme “Rise & Walk”. We had some amazing curriculum!!! It was such a blessing to get to be apart of this summer and get to take that curriculum and bring it to life for students from age 9-18. We baptized several! I lost count, but there was 20+.
This year was also really special for me because one of my good friends sent there 3 daughters out there for the first time and they didn’t want to leave they enjoyed it so much. Getting to see students you really care about just growing spiritually before your very eyes is such a blessing!
Also this year we have 4 of our college students working out there as counselors. I had several adults come to me throughout my time there to give strong compliments on how well these guys are going out there.
One of the strongest impacting things of the session was getting to study a mission statement of Jesus out of Isaiah 61:1-4, and deliver it as a commanding officer would deliver our a mission statement for a mission in Iraq. This was my send off to all the students as they packed up and headed home until next summer.

While there this year I did receive some extremely sad news. A lady that has been out there for the past 14 years as full time Kitchen Manager is handing off the spatula and retiring. She has been such a strong Christian woman example to me. You can not spend time with her and not know that she loves the Lord and is strong in her faith. She was the cook for Jenny and my wedding, and refused pay for the tremendous amount of work she did that weekend. Her hot rolls, biscuits and gravy, and well…every meal, will be deeply missed, but most of all her smiling face and beautiful spirit!

So…now it is back to the grindstone getting prepped for all of these college students coming back to me the 16th of this month!!!

However, I have been working on a few things that are really close to being finished and posted, so stay tuned! They are some really great things that have been on my heart for a little while now, but I’ve just been out at camp and unable to get on here and post.

Be blessed!

Advertisement