Teen Camp 2004!!!

[Tenshi no Ai]

I just got back from camp and I've just got to say that it was a GREAT year! God did amazing things. I'll start off first by telling a little bit about the camp.

The camp, (I won't name it, but if you've heard of it or been there then you'll know what I'm talking about) has been around sicne the '70s. Apparently back then they had 4 services a day and the *best* part of the day was a hike :/ A few years later, a guy came and changed things BIG time, and introduced a world of sprots for that camp. So every year, people are drafted onto teams, named after football teams (Raiders, Lions, Redskins, etc.) and play each other in a bit of a competition. But even if you aren't athletic, everyone has fun.
The day starts out with an activity of paintball, go karts, canoeing etc, (excpet of Sunday with chapel in the morning) move onto team devotions, and then 2 sports in the afternoon. At night we have sports highlights and video clips of Christian humour (like homestarrunnner stuff) and then move right into service. *One thing I'll note quickly is that they use A LOT of music to play during clips and stuff, undoubtly downloaded because there's no way that they would have individual cds for them all.. Things like that make me think, since it's even youth pasters and leaders and stuff doing it. Not to try and get into it, but yeah even the so-called "good Christians" have that for an example. Not trying to go off topic, but to make a note of it.* Also in the week is a 6.5 km run, a banquet, sports awards, and swimming at a local pool from 1-3 in the morning.

The services there were just amazing. The worship team were just great and so many people were moved by the sounds of quality Christian rock. The actualy service were great too and kept you awake, because who better to speak than a British guy that has about a million funny/strange/interesting stories to tell? But still, the stories got to the point of the messages he would tell. We did several activites too, such as being taught how to be a proper evangelist to people who don't know God: just be a friend. As simple as that. Then we were asked to write our names down of friends to pray for which I uhh... have just remembered now^^. Although interesting thing we did was to try and have God speak to us. While our speaker told a story we sat there quietly (or in my case, shaking with excitement) and picture it in our head to see if God talks to you. It was hard though, because you'd expect to hear an actual voice, but in my friends' and I's case, were spoken to indirectly. Sort of a hard thing though, sicne sometimes you don't know if it was Him, or if it was just you thinking :/ Either way, it was a great time. People were broken that night, and it sure is something to see even the guys would embrace each other and cry during these times which is something... you don't see every day (since most guys I know have those "gay" rules), but it was great to see the friendship and love of the people there. Not to mention, that my friend officially became Christian this week at camp! She was getting into it, and then... yeah just gave her heart that week. My friend who just became Christian a few months ago had a great time there too with the music and everything. It was a great spiritual high-time. I also noticed myself that every year I go to that camp I seem to grow a bit more, spiritually. The first year was when I started reading my Bible. Second year, I started udnerstanding the concept of praise with raising hands, and this year, I was just totally into it. Not neccesarily jumping in the mosh, but still being moved and having the spirit stir inside me.

But yeah, it was an overall GREAT time! Felt like the first year I went, since some things were changed a bit last year but it was still awsome. I mean, apparently some girl from New Jersey heard that this was the best camp in Canada and came. Well, it's certainly not your avarage bombfire/canoeing camp (although we went canoeing for the first time this year), and we DO get our amount of injuries, like in handball. Although this year Ultimate ended up being a violent sport with a lot of injuries (frisebee game, mind you.) It was just... another great year.... and my team got first place overall *cough* we were nominated for lots of awards to, and so we REALLY dominated, even if we did lose to one team, we prevailed in the end!

BTW: sorry for any typos, I JUSt got home and don't feel like reading stuff over :/

[The Shadow]

hahah year camps are great ways to learn more about God
and just hang out. its good to hear u had a great time
i hope u are inspired to spread the good news and are
fired up in a new way

God bless