SNOW CAMP 2015

Snow Camp 2015 Recap

What is the best way to start a new year? Filling a 55 passenger bus, driving to New York and spending the weekend with a bunch of Middle School students! Snow Camp 2015 was an amazing weekend for both students and adults. During the course of the weekend 7 students prayed to accept Jesus and over 30 students made commitments to give the Lord certain areas of their lives that they felt conviction about. The leaders and students spent time together making plans and praying about these new commitments which ranged from reading the Bible more and breaking bad habits, to changing their friend groups. I encourage you to pray for the kids as they are trying to take their next steps with Christ by looking up and following Jesus and leaning into real relationships; and pray for the Adult leaders to know the best way to help the kids as they journey together.

Friday night at snow camp is a wild time! After unloading the bus and surviving the hike up the icy hill with our luggage, we pick a team name and start the first round of weekend competitions. This year our team name was Second Hand Bandaids...no specific significance…just a name that everyone seemed to like. The Friday night competitions consisted of sumo suits, bungee cords, and inflatables…These competitions are a great way for the kids to start working together and becoming a team.

On Saturday we had 3 Chapel Services where we had the opportunity to spend time in worship and reflection. The speakers focus on having the kids think about where they are with the Lord and where they want to be. During one chapel service there were 4 chairs on the stage and the speaker explained that each chair represented a different response to God: Commitment, Compromise, Convenience, or Conflict. The kids were challenged to be honest with themselves and to figure out what chair they were “sitting” in and what was in their lives to keep them from being in the first chair. Our time ended with many kids responding to this and spending time in prayer with leaders and peers. Seeing groups of teens praying with each other and broken before the Lord is something that I wish everyone could experience!
On Sunday our chapel time was focused on looking beyond ourselves. We were given 20 minutes to spend reading the word, praying, and writing letters to Christians in need all around the world. Many of these letters will go to family members of people who were killed for their Christian beliefs. 
The snow camp competitions culminated in the infamous Donut relay. It’s quite a sight to see teams of kids sprinting across ice and snow covered ground, being pulled in kayaks, tubing down a hill all while holding a tray of donuts; and finally launching the frosted donuts from a slingshot to their teammates who had to then eat the donuts as fast as they could. I am very excited to say that our team won the donut relay!!!

All in all the weekend was amazing, God was glorified, and lives were changed!