Vision Camp

I spent last week in the Julian Mountains, attending and staffing our Vision Camp, a summer missions camp for teens. It lasted from Sunday afternoon to the following Saturday! There is no possible way that I can tell you about all that happened. We were honored to have in our care almost 60 students from the ages of 12-18. We partnered with Youth for Truth, which is a discipleship program that also send short term teams in the summer to South America. I was a member of a Jr.High team and .....well shall I say, it's been way too long since I had Jr.High experience! whew! The girl in the picture was one of our team members. Each team was named after a language group that just recently completed a translation of the New Testament into their language. Our teams names was Aukan. Our week consisted of 3 meetings a day, of which I taught two sessions on Tuesday and two on Thursday, and games and team/tribal times squished in between! We got to know each other throughout the week and by the end of the week God had done some tremendous things in the lives of the students. We experienced some deep worship times, and watched as kids eyes were open to the reality of the Christian experience. Some received Christ as their own and some decided to spend time this year under the care of Christians in order to find out what Christianity really is all about.
I was personally going through a tough time emotionally, because of stuff the weekend before, but God was also talking to me and revealing some necessarily character growth. He gave me Colossians 3:12-17 and I am still thinking on all that He has for my growth based on that. I needed the camp experience just as much as the kids. God knows all we need. He knows just what to allow in our lives.
I will be going to Wisconsin next week to visit with my students there and church family and friends. I am really looking forward to it. But before that, I am holding a sleepover tomorrow night for some of my small group girls from my youth group! We'll be together that night and I am waiting to see what God will do using that time. Our plan is to continue our time together on Saturday and go to Oceanside for the day at the beach. These "hang-out" times are usually the times that deepen my relationship with my girls in ways that Wednesday youth nights just don't do. So I am praying for these fun times too!