Camp, Continued

Us before worship

Us at the work site

We are back from camp and have stories to tell!

First, the boys were treated to an exciting welcome, no AC! That's right, San Angelo in June with no air conditioning. The dorm that our boys were in was under construction (they were refurbishing the dorm) and the AC had set off the fire alarm because of the dust it stirred up. So the school administrators had turned off the AC until about 4 PM (we arrived at 11:50 AM). The good news is that our guys took it in stride kept their positive attitudes intact, thanks guys! Our room on the 10th floor did cool down and by Tuesday night we were doing okay.

Second, our camp this year included work at a mission site. We spent 5 hours every day outdoors painting the San Angelo Women's Shelter. The parking lot and play ground area are enclosed by a six foot wall and it was a bland sand color. We spent the week painting and coloring the wall, giving the children something new and fun to look at while they played. During this time we work with the youth from Brook Hollow Christian Church in Abilene, Texas. They helped to inspire some of the great designs we used on the wall!

Third, our camp featured the Student Life drama team All Things 2 All People. Not only did they provide great entertainment the dramas they used during worship really impacted me and our students. They used the drama to set up the sermon and to address the issue of the day. Through the drama the message was given a "real life" impact.

There is more to tell about camp but I want to allow our youth to tell you about it in their words, so I hope that they will stop by and add their comments. Be sure to ask them about camp and what it meant to them!

CAMP!!!!!!

Next week we will leave for a new youth camp. For as long as I have been at Meadow Lane we have attended Riverbend, so I know that this may be an anxiety building moment for some of us. To help with that I wanted to share one of my camp experiences from when I was a teenager.

My senior year at camp was at Highland Lakes Baptist Encampment around Lake Travis in Central Texas. On the first night one of the younger campers from another Church thought he would play a prank on me. While I was asleep this young man began to paint my fingernails. Unfortunately for him I awoke part way through the process and instinctively rolled to grab whatever had my hand. Even more unfortunately I was on the top bunk, and fell on top of this young man. If you do not know me this may sound less frightening then it was. A 90+ lbs. Junior High boy was landed on by a 250+ lbs. High School senior. We were both lucky he was not seriously hurt.

But the story does not end there. I was embarrassed and took it out on that young man. I yelled and sent him out to find nail polish remover after I had made a good attempt to remove his dignity. Most of those around me laughed and enjoyed my ridicule of him and it made me feel better, until I noticed the look one of the youth from our Church was giving me. Mark was holding a bottle of rubbing alcohol and looking at me with a mixture of pity and disgust that shocked me into stopping in mid-sentence. I knew that the look was for me. It took a second for me to understand why he was looking at me that way, after all, I was the victim! As Mark walked over and handed me the rubbing alcohol to clean my painted nails he never took his eyes from mine and I knew that I had failed him. The amazing thing was that we were not very close, neither one of us really looked up to the other and we only spent time in the other's presence at Church. There was no reason for him to see my reaction as a personal failure against some ideal he had created for me and there was no reason for me to take that look so personally. Yet, I still had failed him. For the rest of the week I sought out this young man who painted my nails and tried to befriend him and be nice to him. He never really changed. The whole week he was still that annoying little boy that he began the week as, but the way Mark looked at me changed.

The last night of camp our Youth Minister asked us to share about the week. Mark raised his hand. He shared that he was disappointed with how I had handled a prank being played on me. But, he also shared that how I had behaved since then had shown him real growth and he was impressed with how I had changed. I was relieved! I had risen to the standard Mark had for me!

It was not until after camp that the whole situation began to really hit me. I had spent the week trying to live up to a standard that Mark had set for me (a good and right standard). But who was Mark? He was just another teenager. Did I work that hard to live up to the standard that Jesus Christ had set for me? How often did I spend time in prayer asking him to look at me and tell me what he saw? Had I ever looked into my Saviors eyes and seen pity and disgust at the sins I had committed and been compelled to change so that I would win his approval?

Mark helped me to realize that I looked at Jesus as a sort of forgiveness gumball machine, put my prayer in and out comes guilt-free forgiveness. I did not work hard at serving my Lord, I just enjoyed the benefits. I learned that if I was willing to work hard to win the approval of a man I should work even harder to show my Lord and Savior that I desire his approval as well. Mark's lesson was not on the agenda that week. It was not taught in any study or devotional time that I recall, but being at camp allowed me to gain this insight into my relationship with God. That is the amazing thing about getting away from the normal and intentionally seeking God and his wisdom, lessons can come from anywhere.

Have you had an experience like this at camp? Have you had a fun or funny experience at camp? Please share them so that we all can see how God works through camp to bring us closer to each other and to him!!!

Schools: Satan's Recruitment Center?

I just finished reading an article that indicates that the Southern Baptist Convention will once again face a debate about whether or not we should remove all of our children from public schools (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44526). First let me say a few good things about this. It is great that the official resolution includes a praise of Christian teachers in the public schools (see the whole resolution at www.getthekidsout.org) . These teachers should be supported and encouraged. It is also good that these men are concerned about the faith of our youth. I concur that there are serious issues in our public schools that must be addressed. Some of these issues revolve around the treatment of faith in the public arena. I also believe that action must be taken to help Christian young people to take their faith seriously and to find ways to encourage them to not abandon it when they leave home. But, in the end, I find their lack of faith the most disturbing issue.

Now my concerns.

These men are about running from culture instead of trying to reclaim it. Let me make it clear that I do not feel that our children should be used as pawns in a game of spiritual warfare. If there is real spiritual danger for your child in their local school then do not hesitate to remove them, simply be prayerful about this decision and make sure you are not responding to hype. However, I also think that the time, energy and resources being put into trying to remove children from schools could be spent trying to claim these schools for Christ. If Christian parents were to overwhelm the public school system with support, volunteer hours and prayer the impact would be felt by the teachers, administrators and students. If the public schools saw that Christians wanted to help them to overcome some of the struggles they have then it is likely they would be more receptive to the issues that Christians want to address. It is always a shock to us to see what can come of loving others, perhaps we should try this approach with our public schools.

Further, the dogmatic assertion that there is no possible good in public schools and that all Christianity has been driven from them is what causes teachers to fear to share their faith, they think they are alone. This sort of "the sky is falling" drama would be funny if it were not so sad. By saying "WHEREAS, the public school system in America is against Christ in that it seeks to offer a thoroughly secular education" (see the resolution) these men are not allowing for the possibility of Christian influence inside of public schools. Unfortunately this statement speaks louder then their praise for Christian teachers in the school system. Do they consider those teachers traitors to Christ? Unsuspecting fools? Or perhaps naive do-gooders who are fighting a foolish war? By making this bold and exaggerated assertion the authors of this resolution are making it clear that they see no way to reform the public school system. They hold out no hope for the improvement of the lives of those Christian students who can not afford private schools or home schooling, by abandoning those students to this "anti-Christian organization" aren't they contributing to the loss of those young people? Instead would it not be better to find a way to address these concerns that would benefit all Christian students and, perhaps, even the non-Christian ones?

It is funny to me how much influence teachers are credited with in this debate. While it is a given that every teacher does have some level of influence in their student's lives it is still only short lived. You know, I just don't believe that someone you spend four to six hours with a week or 180 days with if you are in elementary school should or can compare to the daily influence and example of your family. The fault here does not lie with the secular alone, indeed it is hard to assign blame, but if you must then why not with those who fail to prepare their children for the influence of the secular and this world. Should we always pass the blame to others? Is it even possible that the influences of daily life could ever overcome true commitment? While it is true that after graduation many "Christian" students walk away from the church and their childhood faith, we must ask if the blame for this rests squarely on the shoulders of the people who teach math, band, P.E., science, history, etc.? NO! To even suggest it in that way sounds foolish. Perhaps the church and families should take a closer look at themselves and ask what they can do to help their children take their faith seriously. Do we model the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study and time with God? Do our students see us live out our faith, making daily decisions based upon the teachings of Jesus and the Bible? If not, how can we better show them the importance of God in our own lives? Perhaps the real battle for our children is not in the public schools but in our churches and our homes.