Memory Verse Mayhem

Two individuals surprised me by their memory verse knowledge one day in the middle of the summer.

Each week at camp we give a Memory Verse for the campers and staff to memorize.  We normally have a "Memory Verse Challenge" towards the end of the week to encourage everyone in their Scripture memory.  (And by 'encourage' I mean that we get staff members messy if they don't know their memory verses.)

• A camper who is usually not the best at paying attention recited Joshua 1:8 in its entirety and nearly perfectly.  Check out the verse... because I was blown away.
• Male junior counselors are normally not known for their ability to memorize verses.  (In fact, they are usually the ones to get messy... I mean 'encouraged'... )  But on this day I watched a male JC recite nearly all of our memory verses word-perfect.

God's word memorized!  Super!

Stories and Reading

Last week we challenged our East Peoria Campers to retell the Bible story they heard at camp (from the life of Joseph).  Combined together, the campers told 86 individuals outside of camp!  I love to see God's word spreading past Camp of Champions.

The Junior High volunteer I mentioned here started reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  One of our directors lent him the book.  It's awesome to see God using relationships to draw a young student to himself.

2011 Week 3 Stories

Sorry for the lack of a creative title.  I've just got a couple of cool God-stories that I've sen happen recently.

1)  There was a good number of East Peoria Campers that stayed for the Oak Grove VBS each evening last week.  We found out that on Sunday one of the families attended the Sunday morning service. We're praying that they can get connected to the body of Christ at Oak Grove!

2)  Our East Peoria site director recently told me of a great conversation with one of our junior high volunteers.  God used that conversation to help this junior high kid understand he should be selective about choosing his friends.  He was realizing that some of his current friends are poor influences on him.  Please pray for this junior high student.

Pray-Car

One of our summer site directors started the summer without a car.  He made it to staff training each day via a patch-work of getting rides and borrowing vehicles.  You could tell it wasn't the ideal situation.  One of his borrowed vehicles had a broken gas gauge and he ran out of fuel on his way to the first day of staff training.

During the first week of camp I told him: "I'm going to pray you get a car to drive."  I encouraged a few other staff members to do the same.

The first day of the second week (less than seven days later) this site director says "Guess what?  I got a car!  Someone from my church called me up and asked if I need a car!"

News Flash: God Answers Prayer.

Week One: The Gospel trumps Dodgeball

Midway through the first week of camp a boy's grandfather was relating the story of his son coming home from camp on the first day.

The grandfather expected the boy to be super excited about all the activities at camp.  Mostly he was expecting to hear about dodgeball.

But instead, this young boy came home sharing about the Good News!  That was his highlight from the first day of camp!

Fasting for Staff

In mid-April I had five staff members join me in fasting and praying for the upcoming summer.  One of the prayer focuses we had for the day was a need for more male counselors.  At the time it looked like we could use another 4 (or more) guy staff members. 

During the day I had the "random" idea to contact a staff member from two summers ago.  (I say "random" because I'm sure God was leading my steps.)  I asked him to pray about being a counselor at camp this summer.


To my surprise, he said he would consider it.  To my even greater surprise... about a week later he agreed to work for COCUSA, even though it meant turning down a better paying job at a construction site for the summer.

Go figure. Prayer works! 

Maybe we should all do it a little more.

Kingdom Connections

Hiring staff is both a terrifying and thrilling time.

Terrifying because we have over 100 staff positions to fill (with the looming deadline of summer camp).

But thrilling because you get to hear about God working in a potential staff member's life: It's very humbling to see God at work when you have nothing to do with it.

• During one interview session I conducted the interviews for four girls who were all from the same youth group.  I left those interviews amazed at how great of a work God had done in those girls through their youth pastor.  Each one of them pointed to this youth pastor and his wife as having a huge positive influence on their spiritual life.  
• One of our returning summer staff members recently shared that he accepted Christ in high school while on a high school retreat at Camp Timber-lee in Wisconsin.  This staff member has had a visible impact on the lives of kids at Camp of Champions, but it wouldn't be possible without the staff from Timber-lee setting up a high school retreat.  Equally important are the volunteers from his local church investing in him.

We're deeply indebted to so many other people and ministries for the work of God that will go on at Camp of Champions this summer.  I'm excited and prayerful that the kingdom connections will continue to grow as the word of God works in hearts.