Sunday evening around 11:30pm a charter bus pulled into the parking lot at FBC thus ending much anxiety of a repeat of last year's events. We traveled through the night, or morning as it were and arrived in Estes Park safely.
The first afternoon was spent getting familiar with what the week was going to look like. After supper we dove right into an incredible time of worship, drama, and a unique message from Camp Pastor Sam Bhatt. The theme for this week is Audacious, based on 1 Corinthians 16:13. Sam challenged us to "be on guard for our King, because He was on guard for us." He also challenged us with a question of how ready are we to defend our faith in Christ, and pointed to the example of Stephen when confronted about his beliefs. After worship, we spent some time together as a church group to reflect on the day. This is one of my favorite times because I get to hear about what God is up to in the lives of our students and leaders. Our kids shared their excitement and remarked on how powerful the time of worship had been. Perhaps my favorite insight of the night was in reference to our location here. Estes Park is absolutely gorgeous. Ilan Tena said "Scripture says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. We are surrounded by the beauty of God's creation, and yet if we are a new creation we are even more beautiful than that."
These kids get it. They respond to a God who is worthy of their very best response. I'm proud to be their youth pastor and love watching them worship and talk about our great God. It wasn't hard convincing them to go to their rooms and go to bed after our meeting, and I think most of us slept rather well after our long overnight trip. This morning has brought another beautiful day, and our students actually seem to be refreshed and ready to go. We spent some time together having quiet time before going to Celebration - a shorter time of worship, videos, skits, and a message. Sam introduced today's topic of standing firm in the faith by pointing to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abdnego. Our students are now in their small group bible studies and will go to lunch after they finish there. This afternoon we have planned a photo scavenger hunt. Our students had a blast doing this last year and are looking forward to it again.
We are having a great time and God has blessed us so much so far. Please continue to pray for us and trust that greater things are yet to come. Be Audacious!
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