A small view into the window of short term missions and camp experiences
We have pulled out of Amarillo stopping for a quick breakfast. We will be stopping for a late lunch and are still hoping for about a 7pm arrival
2:25pm- we just departed from lunch in Lamesa. Still expecting a 7:00-7:30 arrival.
6:10pm- passed through Junction and looking at a 7:30-7:40 arrival. We’ll have students call when we get to Kerrville. Sorry for the confusion on the info sheet. That was a time that was not corrected from last year. Our apologies. Be home soon!
We are on the road and pulled out of camp at 11:20 mountain time. We’ll keep you updated as we travel as to where we are. My guess right now is 7pm. Turning in for the night! Goodnight Colorado.
This morning we woke up to a brisk cool morning and got to eat pancakes and sausage outside on the grounds. I definitely wish I could experience that more than once a year.
In our large group session we spent the morning in 1 Kings 2 and talked about Biblical Manhood. We went this direction because in our culture we have such a warped view of manhood that does not match up with the Scriptures. It is just as important for our girls to better understand what a real man looks like so that they don’t settle for anything less than a Biblical man. These are the points we looked at this morning.
Point 1: Men have character. That means we submit to authority. If we can’t submit to the authority of those closest to us that we know through tangible acts love us, then how can we submit to God’s authority. The one thing that girls should look for in a man is someone who is teachable and humble.
Point 2: Men protect. They protect the innocent, weak , defenseless, poor, and needy. They protect people who can’t protect themselves. Men protect and love the women around them. 1 Tim. 5:2.
Point 3: Men provide. Men serve those around them and serve their church. They take responsibility, and it starts with the small things.
Point 4: It’s not easy to live out authentic manhood. It’s a life long journey
Point 5: Manhood was intended to be passed down from father to son. And though we don’t have perfect fathers, we learn from the mature father figures around us.
After a good light lunch (turkey croissants), we met briefly with those who wanted to take next steps in something God had done in their life this week. There were many who accepted Christ for the first time, and others who were returning to the Father’s house (prodigal son reference).
We have been having a stomach bug spreading around camp over the past 2 days. There are more students and leaders who are catching it, and if your student does catch it, we will notify you and talk to you about the steps you’d like for us to take. For the most part after taking some over the counter meds (pepto, Imodium…) they feel better. We are having them sleep as much as possible before we get on the bus in hopes that their bodies recover before a long bus ride. We are also asking students to wash hands A LOT and spraying cabins with Lysol. Please pray for our trip home that God will protect those who haven’t gotten sick and that He would heal those that are.
Our plan for tonight (I’m writing during free time so I can give you as much info as possible) is to have our large group session together, which includes Blake’s last teaching, worship in song, communion and encouragement for what’s next. Blake will be taking us through our last arrow, God’s movement. God’s movement through us includes evangelism, discipleship, and service. We are called to Christ to do works of service that God would receive much glory through our works.
After large group we will spend one last hour with our family groups here at camp, before we head to our cabins to pack, clean, and load the busses. Our goal is to be pulling out of camp before 11pm (mountain time) and get on the road. I’ll update once I have cell service as well as throughout our travels to let you know where we are. Please continue to pray for us and thank you so much for your prayers this week! God has truly been at work and we are praying for continued revelation and movement!
So if you haven’t been up here with us before, you need to get on the bus next year. It a beautiful thing to wake up on a cool Colorado morning and see students excited to have God do something great today! At breakfast we had a couple more birthdays celebrated and then dug into our biscuits and gravy, fruit, cereal…
Camp News was a blast this morning and if your student tells you that Danny and Shaun said they could go 3 step Nik Knocking, just tell them that Doug and Murray told them it was okay, but Danny and Shaun did not (and then use your own judgment to see if you want to go with them…).
This morning we were in Ephesians 2:1-10, and Blake took us through verse by verse. We talked about the external influences/forces that attack believers and non-believers. The external forces are the world, the devil and the flesh. There are also internal forces (passions/desires of our flesh). However, you have been given the Spirit to resist temptation, because sin is no longer their master (Rom.6:6-14).
We read that God saves us from these external forces, but why would God do this?
1) He has a covenant love that is full of mercy
2) He has a great love for us
3) He has great grace
4) He has great kindness towards us.
Note that none of these four have something to do with what we brought to the table. For ages and ages to come, He will point to the great work that He has done in us as trophies of grace. We come into this work in faith alone. Faith is a response to what has already been done for us, which is not of our own doing or works, but only through what God has done. Quit worshipping yourself or something else, worship God, because He has done the work. And out of your salvation that has been brought to you by God, then you respond with good works.
Today was our last day of “regular” rec because tomorrow we have a great race. We had 22 high schoolers head over with Noah’s Ark and rock climb and rappelling, and they had a great time! The rest of us played some intense fun games.
Tonight we spent time in John 4, as we began our discussion on identity. We worked our way through the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. We asked questions about where our greatest allegiance lies, which is so often to the physical. Our identity has to rest in being God-worshippers.
As Jesus addressed the woman, he addressed her sin. He exposes her in her sin and she has to face it. You can’t hate sin in others until you hate sin in your own life. Jesus hated sin so much that he fought it to the death and then defeated it. In doing so there will be a unity towards Christ and Christ alone. AS the woman discovers that Jesus is indeed the Christ, she runs into town to tell others. The very people she was hiding from and the reason she went to the well at noon, she went in search of those people. The town came out to see Jesus and many Samaritans believed in Jesus that day, because that woman’s identity had changed and the people saw it! What are you known as? I pray that you are primarily known as a Christ follower!
Tonight at late night we had a redneck wedding. We “married” our “couple of the day”, Paul Burns and Hannah Green. They were great sports and our former couples were the bridesmaids and groomsmen. We followed this up with just a good ol fashioned ho-down. It was interesting getting everyone calmed down and headed to their cabins, but we are down for the night and ready for our last day tomorrow.
This morning didn’t start quite as lively as yesterday with students up with the sun, though some still did. We did have a good breakfast of French toast, sausage, yogurt, and cereals.
Blake started this morning in Ephesians 1:12-23, and went through some of the practices that we talked about yesterday morning. We started with observations of the text which students shared some great things that are seen repeatedly in the text. He encouraged students to use cross references in order to see if this observation is seen in other parts of Scripture.
We see that Paul prays specifics for the church in Ephesus, namely for their head (knowledge, cognitive understanding, wisdom) and for their heart (eyes of your heart enlightened, 2 Cor. 4:6). God reveals all things to us, and so our prayer should constantly be, “God reveal yourself to us.” Because if God doesn’t reveal himself to us, we won’t get anything. John 14:26 tells us that Jesus will send the Helper that will teach/remind of these things.
God has invited us to be on mission with Him that we might join in Kingdom building work, and we are led in this by God giving us a spirit of wisdom.
This is the systematic approach that Paul given in having the eyes of your heart enlightened:
God has chosen us from the foundation of the world. The things that we go through can either define us, or God can use them to refine those who have the hope of Christ to which he has called us.
We are God’s inheritance.
God is all powerful and it is revealed in the fullness of Jesus (Ephesians 3:20; 6:10). And the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and set him in the heavenly places has been placed on the believer.
Rec was great again today as family groups continued to grow closer together and encouraged. We did have a couple injuries and some students get sick today during rec and free time. If we have not called you, then it is not your student. Nurse Linda has done a fabulous job of caring for them, and we are praying that those students to experience healing.
One of the neat things that took place today was the recent graduates wanted to meet with the going to be seniors, and simply wanted to encourage and challenge them to step out and lead in some big ways in this upcoming school years. It was a great time of transfer of leadership and the grads encouraging their peers.
Tonight in our large group session we started by talking about love by looking at Eph.2:1-10 . Love is meeting someone’s need. We have a hard time understanding essential basic needs until they are not there. We have been deceived though and thinking that the physical need is the only need we have, and we have missed the fact that we are spiritual people. So when our soul is groaning, we cover it with a physical thing (ie. food, shopping…). We mask spiritual needs with material things. It might fill the hurt or desire for a time, but it will not last. Physically speaking, we can meet our own needs at this age, but spiritually speaking, we cannot meet our own needs, because we are dead spiritually (before Christ). God came in the flesh to meet our deepest need, as Jesus came to lay down his life for our sin.
For late night tonight, we had a little Christmas in July. The spirit of Christmas was certainly in the house, complete with Santa and some elves. Each family group did a white elephant gift exchange and some actually had some good gifts, while others got rocks (literally someone brought a rock).
All in all a good day. Please continue to pray for the rest of our week. God is doing some incredible things that we can’t wait to share with you in more detail. Hope your week is going great!
This morning we had quite a few students that were either super excited, or still stuck on Texas time, but they were up early running, hanging out, and ready for the day. Well the day did not disappoint. After a healthy breakfast of eggs, scones, some kind of cinnamon goodness, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and hash browns. Seriously some good stuff.
In their personal devo time, students were all walked through a greater understanding of the beginning of our story. Not an individual story per se, but God’s story which we are all a part of. It is the story of creation, and speaks to the purpose of creation, and hence the purpose God has for each person on this earth.
During Camp News we had some visitors from 1150AM radio, named Doug and Murray, along with their “Jinters” (Jingle Interns). They helped break the ice and taught us some high five etiquette and talked to some students who have 2 first names which apparently is a fascinating phenomenon.
Blake began talking through Ephesians 1:1-11, and helped us understand the truth that we are loved by God. That we have blessings that do not wear out, fade or perish, which come from the Creator of the universe. The beginning of the blessing began with our spiritual adoption as sons and daughters through the cross of Jesus Christ. God knew everything past and future and chose to adopt us into His kingdom. You who put your full weight and trust in Christ are adopted sons and daughters of the Most High, and you ARE loved!
We have also been redeemed. We have been bought back from death in grace, or unmerited favor, and as a result we receive a great inheritance from our Heavenly Father. As a reminder of what is coming, the Holy Spirit is given and He is moving and working to build a kingdom that reflects His kingdom here on earth.
We started off Rec by taking 24 of our Middle School students rock climbing with Noah’s Ark River Rafting Company.
For the rest of the crew, we had our first day of rec, which consisted of some team building, Ga-Ga pit (not named after Lady), Gauntlet (sounds intimidating…), and for our HS family groups some Kajabi.
After an afternoon of free time, and dinner we launched into our evening sessions. Tonight we started the first of a series of four talks that resolves around four arrows. Tonight’s arrow was an arrow up which reminds us of God’s supremacy. God has put a desire in each of us to be worshippers. We are worshippers of power, possession and beauty. However, this becomes distorted when we worship someone/thing that is not the MOST powerful, doesn’t possess the most, and the most beautiful. God has created everything around us to point to the fact that He is the most powerful, the One who holds everything else, and is the most beautiful. We settle for things that are less than awe inspiring.
Romans 1:18-25 was our text tonight. All man is without excuse and we so often exchange the truth of God for a lie and we worship images resembling mortal man. We place all kinds of things (sports teams, celebrity, friends, kids, jobs…) and worship them as God as though they can provide something that only God can. The wrath of God is that He turns us over to those things, and there is a complete failure of that thing to come through as God because they were never created to be God. These three things are seen in Jesus that demonstrate God’s supremacy:
Power- healing diseases, blindness, forgive sin. Mark 1:21-2:12. Do we REALY believe that God is still this powerful?
Wealth- God owns everything and meets everything need. Do we put ourselves out there to the point that if God doesn’t provide we’ll fall flat on our face? So many of us live such comfortable lives that we don’t need to rely on God.
Beauty- God’s beauty is seen in all of creation, in our daily lives and on the cross where sin is paid for and forgiven.
Your view of God will be seen in your life of worship. How big your worship is shows how big your view of God is.
Tonight for late night we had Wild West Night and it was quite wild! We did relay races in our family groups. From the bull ride to the tumbleweed, I laughed so hard tonight watching everyone fly across the gym and we had a great time!
Monday update…
We got in around noon and had some down time around camp. We were able to unpack bags, take showers/jump in the pool, and some even took a nap. Many explored the campus and got the lay of the land. More than anything it was nice to get to relax for just a bit and get ready for the night ahead.
Like I posted earlier, we had an intro session at 4pm where we introduced to the Chi-Rho Band, Blake Chilton, and our family groups. After some short introductions in our family groups, we got our grub on!
Blake began by talking about the escape and how sometimes it is a good thing to be able to be removed from circumstances to withdraw. But there can also be problems in our escape when we don’t run to the right one. We struggle with being honest about who we really are and who/what we are really running to.
We opened up to Mark 3.
Jesus was angry and grieved at the hardness of heart of the religious leaders. When Jesus was pressed and people were seeking to kill him, where did he run to?
Do you run to anger, gossip, other control issues? Or you do you run to the run who heals and restores.
After Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees he withdraws with the disciples and spends some time in solitude. When was the last time YOU withdrew and spent some time just with the Father?
Even with being at camp, the enemy is still desiring to press in and crush us. Satan would like nothing more than to distract us from God’s design and purpose for us. In the midst of all this, where and who are you going to run to?
Jesus then appointed the 12, that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach. God is calling us first and foremost to be WITH Him. It is a lot easier to do the things for God when we have been with Him. So often we get caught in the cycle of simply adding to a list of things we are supposed to do. Jesus primarily calls us to be with him. The more we are with him, the more we want to be with him, please him, and love him.
Our hope and our prayer for students this week is that they will simply be with the Lord! Please join us in this prayer
Late night tonight was spent in all black and camo. We had some of our counselor hiding around campus and family groups went on the hunt. Some counselors were worth more than others. The family groups that got the most points from counselors were, Cheguin, Rhinohuahua, and Platawolf (for more info on the names ask a student.) The winners for the counselors (those not found), were, Blake, Shaun, Mike, Megan and Eric. Great job tonight! It was a quick fun way to end a great past 2 days.
Sorry, I thought I sent a post at noon telling everyone we were here. Well, we did make it and had a great travel time on the busses! We had our first intro session at 4pm that led to our first interaction in family groups, and then into dinner.
We are about to be in our cabins just taking some time for heart prep before our evening worship time together. I’ll update later on with more details, but rest assured, we are here and having a blast!
It is currently 2:50am and we are pulling out of Amarillo. Had a pretty quick stop (quick is relative with 200+) and we are on our way! Pray for our drivers through the night and fir a couple hours of sleep for our students and adults.
Welcome to Camp Chi-Rho 2011. We are looking forward to an incredible week and asking God to do some big things. Join us in prayer in these last days before we head out. Please be in prayer for our staff as we continue to prep on the administrative side, putting groups together and lead out. Pray for other leadership and the Lords preparation, including; family group leaders, Chi-Rho Band, Blake Chilton, and many others that are leading through the week. Pray for students hearts to be transformed and this truly would be a week they look back on as a huge marker in their journey.
We’ll keep this blog updated throughout the week, with updates coming in the very early morning hours. Check back to stay updated and please continue to pray!
