Night Three Worship

Last nights worship focused on the truth that following Jesus is both a great joy and a great cost. 

If all we do is focus on the joy of following Jesus (think: oh Jesus will make all your life better, you will prosper, there will be ow sadness etc) then the first time we face trials we will doubt and potentially give up. Jesus never claimed following Him would be easy. Joyful- yes, easy- no. 

If all we focus on is the cost of following Jesus (think: oh you must submit and have no fun and be solomn, and work hard at this) then we will struggle to understand why we are following. And we will have hard hearts that are obeying out of duty alone and not love. 

We read Matt 13:44 where the man finds a treasure in a field and sells all he has to own the field . He was greatly joyed by the treasure, but he paid a great price. It's both a great joy and cost to follow Jesus. And ultimately Jesus is the one who sold all He had (equality with God) to buy a field (the whole planet) for the treasure (us!). 

He also challenged our students to understand that all they own is God's. "We are owners of nothing and stewards of everything." 

All this centered around Matt 22:34-40, where Jesus gave the greatest commandments. If we were to obey these two, we would obey the whole bible. 

The challenge was for our students to not feel like every time they struggle or drift from their faith that they need to commit their lives to Christ again. But instead to encourage them to remember their commitment to Christ anew, and repent of any living that has been in contrast to it. 

Day Three oh me

MUGGY. That's how we are gonna describe that one. Ha! Yesterday was a sticky one outside, but we still had a great time. 

Justin and Dustin decided to have a blob-a-thon during lake time, so we had some awesome blobs! 

**a bunch of these photos are me taking a pic of the good camera pic with my phone. I will upload the good ones once back to the land of good internet :-) 

Morgan...

McKenna...

Jackson...

Victoria... 

Mackenzie... 

Zip lines! 

We had 8 students do climbing yesterday. This new "aerial adventure" thing is pretty neat and pretty scary. I was super proud of our kiddos for doing it! 

Katie was scared but did great and encouraged the other scared ones too... 

Jackson and Gregg were like monkeys running around up there! No fear whatsoever! 

Paige went to the very top! 

Gracie got out at the top too, but struggled to get across some things... 

Beca got out a little ways... 

And Mackenzie got all the way out in the middle and got a little stuck ;-)

We had some zip liners too... 

There was an 80s dance party last night... 

It was a fun filled and hot day :-) I'll post about our worship night in just a bit. Today is our last full day! 

Day Two up in here!

It was an even hotter one! Temps in the 90's people!! Good thing we have a pool and lake☺️. 

The kids had a blast yesterday at the lake. We had lots of blobbing, with Scot and Dustin working hard blobbing everyone. I have some amazing pictures on my camera, but I took a few pics of those pics with my phone to tide you over, ha! 

Brett blobbed so hard at the end that he completely blew out his shorts, from leg to leg! The whole crotch is ripped in two. It was hilarious! Sorry Beth! 

We had 6 zip line yesterday (Gracie, Paige, Victoria, Mackenzie,  Jackson and Gregg). Jackson screamed the whole way down, ha! They had a blast.

And some blob pics: 

Brett going super high. 

Paige had an epic blob. She flipped backwards and smacked the water face first. She even has a bruised eye to show for it :-( 

Morgan went straight up super high, and ended up going straight back down on to the blob! They didn't have her sitting far enough out on the blob. 

Last night the ladies decided to go with dresses for the evening, they clean up so nicely! 

Kenna being a rock star... 

And some silly selfies of course... 

I'll post about the theme of the day and worship in just a moment. For now, know that we had a jam packed day and are dragging today to prove it. Ha! Pray for energy!!! 

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone 

Night two worship- Gre>ter Proof

Night two was focused on understanding that good works are a MARK of salvation, not a MEANS of salvation. We cannot earn salvation, and salvation is not about being a "good person". Too often, we accept Christ and then burden ourselves trying to be "good" on our own for Christ, instead of abiding in Christ and allowing His goodness to live through us. 

We looked at Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus tells all who are weary to come find rest in him. To take his yoke upon us, because his yoke is lite and his burden is gentle. This isn't a picture of taking a single yoke and pulling the work ourselves (think a single ox plowing all by himself), but it's a picture of us being yoked to Christ and allowing him to pull us and the plow in his strength. He showed this picture to give us an example: 

Something he continually drove home was that our job is to abide in my Jesus. That's all. Our job is not to be a missionary, pastor, servant, great at our job, successful or anything else. The job is to abide in Jesus. When we abide, Jesus will lead us in HIS PLAN for us. It may include one of those things listed, but it may be something completely different. 

He showed the kids a picture of a text message between a kid and God. The kid was praying for a good grade on an exam. God's response was, ok and then what? So the kid continued to ask for all the normal things, a job, benefits, retirement etc. After each, God simply said "ok then what"? Finally the kid said, well then I will be secure. God responds "LOL"... Child you are secure right now with none of those things. 

We ask and ask for things we think will bring us freedom and security. Only God brings freedom and security. Are we seeking what cannot provide, or are we seeking the only ONE that provides for all we need? 

Our kids also really seemed to be moved by the worship songs we sang as well. Especially "Oceans" by Hillsong last night. What a challenging song! Let these lyrics challenge you today as well... 

"You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep

My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand

Will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

[6x]

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

I will call upon Your name

Keep my eyes above the waves

My soul will rest in Your embrace

I am Yours and You are mine"

Day One is in the books!

Day One is in the books folks! It was a super hot day, but we still had a blast. 

I have all the action shots on my real phone, so those will be posted when we get back. The internet is way too slow here :-) 

After the lake we had our Connect time, which is a time for your youth group to have quiet time and talk thru what we are learning etc. We actually were placed in the JCafe for our spot this year! Score! 

And some strange illustration Justin was doing to show that when we make God increase, we have to decrease and vice versa... 

The theme this year is all about Us learning to make God greater in our lives and our earthly issues lesser. During worship last night, we focused on the Gospel and making sure we knew the good news- and that it was indeed good news to us. He spoke about how when we are really aware of our sin- that we have an issue- then the good news sounds like great news to us each time. The reason we find the gospel boring or Unappealing too often is because we are not convinced of our sin. 

In our church checkpoint afterwards, we also challenged the youth to really engage in worship and singing each night. We will see how that goes :-) 

And a recap of some of the things I didn't post pics of yet. We had lots of kids do Bazooka Ball, two zip lined, three climbed and two did kayaking yesterday. We also had some pool games and diggin deeper, and one lone tuber. They updated the climb tower this year and know it's a climbing adventure where they can all climb at once and for the whole time. So much cooler. 

Now we got a little sleep and it's time to do it all over again!! Here we come Day Two! 

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone 

Opening Day!

We made to camp safe and sound yesterday!



Waiting in a very hot room waiting for opening celebration...








We are Chaco fans :-)


And a few of us (Justin and Brett) have really bad taste and wear socks with sandals, ick!


We are just beginning today, so be in prayer for our first day. It is already super hot and humid, so pray for energy and safety. Also first bible study and full on worship tonight.

This summer theme is "Gre>ter", looking at John 3:30 about us decreasing and Jesus increasing in our lives.

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone