He’s Alive *clap clap clapclapclap clapclapclapclap CLAP CLAP!!!*

So I went to one of my favorite places in the whole world this past week. BROWN CITY FAMILY CAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!! EH! I had so much fun, and I just wish that more people who read my blog could have been there to experience it with me.

So I was there for 5 days, but it seemed to be so much longer in many ways, and yet so short. I made some great new friends, wish I had made more of them though…. and I even found a bunch of kids who will be attending Lake Orion next year, so that made me happy. I can relive the glory days with some BCC buds at school, finally! So, during youth chapel every morning at 10, we learned about so much. It all had to deal with our personal rythmns and how we deal with things that happen in our lives that may hurt/change our rythmn. Our speaker Chris Garner was AMAZING!! He is so awesome! I wish that I had been there for the whole time. Anyways, on Tuesday he talked aobut things that “throw you off your rythmn”. This included noise. This one hit me hard because I never seem to be quiet towards the Lord. I am always running around, listening to music, watching movies or tv, or hanging with my friends. And all of that stuff is good, but I need to have some time set aside for the Lord everyday. This may mean that I may have to drop something extra-curricular. THat was something else that he hit on. He asked everyone if their schedule looked like a schedule of someone who wanted to worship the Lord, and personally, it doesn’t. That part will be hard for me, because I will feel horrible about dropping anything out of my schedule since I have already signed up for so much. I dont know what to drop though. I will have to pray on that one. Then we learned about our choices and how they affected our lives. I learned that My choices will either lead me closer to God or away from him, and there is no in between. I also learned to dream. Not in the sleeping kind of dream, but of my future. Chris read us a portion of the book The Dream Giver, and it made me beleve that there is no way that God would give me the desire to sing, the desire to help and care for others, and the passion to learn new things and to pass it on. This has been especially shown to me through social studies, which has only shown up in my life recently as something that I would ever consider studying past high school. God would never have given me these desires, or these passions without having a plan for them. I believe now, more than ever, that no matter where God leads me I will be ok. It is a huge relief to finally believe that fully. Before I had only believed it partially, and it was putting huge amounts of pressure on me to do everything myself. Now I feel so much better.

John 10:10 “I’ve come to give you life and give you life to the full.”
Romans 12:2 “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Saturday was all about having others see your light. Chris painted a great picture of the light by telling us to go into our bedrooms when we all got back home, wait until dark, turn off all the lights, and sit in the dark. The longer the better. Just sit there and get used to the dark. After 5 minutes or so, light a candle. That single candle holds so much light after that long amount of dark. You will be so sensitive to the light. It is amazing how powerful that one little candle can be. The dark is what the world was like before God created the light, and it is what we were like before Christ died to save us from judgement. The bible says many times that Christ is the light of the world, but Christ said that we are to be a light unto the world, to shine out into the darkness and spread our light to others around us.

I also took a seminar about how to reach out to people. This was lead by one of my recently favorite people, Tim Patch. He is so cool. First Missionary of Clarkston people are awesome! I got first hand experience…..well kind of. I guess you cant count leading and already lead person to Christ, leading a person to Christ. But none-the-less I did it, and it was a complete stranger as well.

I am glad that I have had all of these opportunities, and I am already missing camp life. Waking up at 8 after going to sleep at 12. Going to Chapel at 10 AM, running home, eating lunch, going to small group, going to seminar, playing volleyball, eating dinner, going to chapel at 7 PM (oh I was an usher during youth service…you’ll have to ask me about that one later), eating ice cream, going to Nite Spots or playing cards, and doing everything in between. And worship is always a new experience there. They always play songs that I dont know, but I would love to remember the name of. UGH! Good Times, good times!