It was not a spiritual high by Mark Wopata

As I look around this room of people sharing their testimonies of what God has been doing in their lives this week, I can’t help but to think of what God did in me at this week one year ago. Before I came to camp last year, I can’t tell you that I was sure that I was going to heaven, and I know I definitely wasn’t living like I should have been. God really changed my heart that week, and I really wanted to change the way I was living, and really live for him. At the camp that year, the speaker really emphasized that a lot of us are just going to have this spiritual high for a week or maybe even a couple of months, but eventually we would just go back to the way we were living before. When I heard that, I really was hoping that that was not going to be me. Along with praying that I would just give my whole life to Him, my prayers and thoughts were really focused on not allowing this experience to be just a spiritual high, but really just a complete life change. Either God answered my prayers, and He completely changed my heart, or I have just been on this spiritual high for an entire year. I’ll tell you for a fact that it was not a spiritual high, and my life has been completely changed.

As I see all the commitments and promises to God that have been made this week, and just the way that everyone has been worshiping God and been captured by Him, I am reminded of what the speaker at camp last year spoke on the entire week. He talked about the transfiguration in Matthew 17. I really feel that at camp, we are on the mountain top. Just like Peter, James and John, God has made Himself known to us this week, and we have just been completely engulfed in Him. The thing about the mountain is that we can’t stay there forever. When the experience had ended for the three disciples, and they were face down because of the awesomeness of God, it says in Matthew 17:8 “When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus”. My prayer for everyone who has made a commitment to Christ is that when they return to their regular lives, that they will see no one except Jesus. When the overwhelming presence of God, the great worship music, and just the whole camp environment is gone, I pray that they will see no one except Jesus.

My other thing about this whole experience is that if you really want to have a life change, you have to change your life style. If you go back to the way you were living before camp, with the same friends, with the same habits, and put yourself in the same environment, (I’m sorry but) you are not going to make it. It doesn’t matter how much you praised God this week, or how much you cried, or even how many commitments you make, if you do not make the effort to change things in your life that make you fall then this is just going to be another camp experience. Yeah, you’re going to mess up, but how you deal with it is going to be one of the deciding factors as to whether this whole week was real, or whether it is just emotion. Get involved at your school with the Christians clubs there like FCA and ELEVATE. Make the effort and don’t hang out with the friends you know you shouldn’t be seeing. Stay in God’s word daily and find someone to hold you accountable. This camp could be the start of something bigger than we could ever imagine. It was for me. What are you going to do about it? The mountaintop experience is over, and now it’s time to decide whether you are really ready to abandon your life of the world and give it God.

Matthew 10:22 “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

Day 4/5 – Pictures

Here are some final pictures from camp!! I will be posting some testimonies from students and a final word to students and parents from me later this week. We made it back safely at 3:30pm. Thanks for your prayers! They made a difference.

Hearing their stories

Tuesday morning began with scrambled eggs and biscuits/gravy, as it has for the last two mornings! After a hearty breakfast and some quiet time we headed up to “Celebration”. Our team, the Yellow Swarm, won the spirit stick for the third day in a row. Hopefully all that screaming, chanting, and cheering will wear out the students’ voices before they get back home!!

The theme of our recreation time was team building and leadership. We played a number of games that required the students to communicate and assist each other to complete a task. One of the favorite games involved pairs of students holding 2×4 boards at waist height in a line. One student had to jump up onto the first board and step from board to board, using the wood sections as a bridge to cross the field. The students were united in encouraging their peers as they successfully worked through 8 different team building stations.

During family group Bible study we have been learning about life as followers of Christ along the way. Today we focused on the role of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. We read in John 14, 15, and 16 about the various attributes of the Spirit. He is counselor, teacher, the spirit of truth, guide, brings conviction of sin, and is our witness. What a comforting thought to know we not only have a BIG God to turn to, but a helper that lives inside us too! He has blessed each of us with spiritual gifts to use to glorify God. The students took a spiritual gifts inventory and many were surprised to see what their areas of strength were. Encourage your student to flesh these gifts out at home by serving others as well as their church body (1 Cor. 12:4-7).

We ended the day with corporate worship. It was amazing to see the student’s outward expressions of worship as they sang. The message was from 2 Timothy 3:10-17. We talked about the persecution that we as believers face for being followers of the way. This persecution comes in the form of being laughed at or teased by friends who think your life choices are crazy. The students were challenged to continue serving God. Sometimes this is shown by the things we choose not to do, instead of the things we do. For example, the choice to make church and youth events a priority above other extra-curricular activities.

After tonight’s worship service, we gathered all of the students from our church together for a time of testimonies and prayer. It was awesome to hear how some of the student’s lives have been transformed this week at camp. We closed the night in prayer as each student lifted up their concerns and praises to the Lord.

Jamie and Tara

Day 3 – Pictures

Prayer focus today: Pray that our students will understand that the Holy Spirit is literally God living in them, they will depend more on the Holy Spirit and embrace a life of Spirit-empowered living.

Enjoy the pictures!!!!

Sunburned and loving Him….

Who says Monday’s are bad?  Okay, so maybe having your luggage hidden in an attic, your clothes mysteriously exiting your suitcase on to the floor and seeing time fly when your alarm clock is mysteriously missing from your bedside could be the start of a bad Monday but not at camp! Not when God has big plans!

After a filling breakfast and our quiet time, we headed to Celebration.  We spend time praising God in song, enjoying fun skits and actually trying to help Ben Crain find his future wife.  A few of the particulars on his list (thanks to the freshmen guys) are the following:  must love KU, must have at least two teeth, enjoy wearing a mullet, be able to fry up catfish whiskers and you can tell where that was going.  The focus this morning by our speaker,  Wade Morris, was on I John 2:3-7.  His challenge for us was in order to walk in the Way we must:  know how we live; how we love and how we are supposed to obey.  We obey not because you have to do it; but because it is who you are.

Following Celebration we enjoyed Recreation with our team the Yellow Swarm.  Adrenaline rushed today as we raced each other to piece together a wooden puzzle (shout out to the ladies who beat the guys),  threw frisbees at our teammates in a circle as they tried to keep each other from catching them and a good old fashion game of tag.  There were 8 games in total.

Pastor  Bob and Judy joined us after lunch and we all headed down to the lake for some fun at the Inflatables.  Strap on a life vest and jump from water trampoline to water trampoline and attempt to catapult your favorite student through the air and into the water.  You could also try to run across the balance beam which is floating on top of the water.  Way to go Pastor Bob you made it across, okay, you almost made it across.

Family group time is always a neat time in the day for us to connect in a smaller group size and really see the hearts of the students.  Our focus today was Ephesians 5:1-21.  We spent time breaking down the verses and really seeing how our lives are truly to be lived for Christ and that a true heart change will reflect in a life change.  Our conversation, our friend choices, and our relationships should all be to bring glory to God.  We make decisions based on love and wisdom knowing that this is what God desires in our life.

As the day draws into night, we again spent time in corporate worship with the band, Spur 58, who truly helped us forget about our busy day and focus on God through songs which point us to Christ.  Wade spoke on John 21: 3-19 and challenges us to be like Peter as he recognized that even though following Christ would be hard it was and is  worth it.  He wanted and longed to be more like Christ even though it eventually wound up costing him his life.  His challenge was to love God with all of our lives.  To repent from sin that was keeping us from totally giving our life to him.

Following the service our students met together and spent time describing the attributes of God and sharing scriptures to reinforce the thought that our lives and focus should be never on on us but on God.  It is not our story that matters.  Only the one God has written.  It was a unique time of sharing.

The sun is gone now and we are headed for another restful (hopefully?!) evening of sleep so we can be ready to start another day here at Windermere.   Monday’s truly can be a good thing!

-Doug and Annissa