A view from our balcony. Praise the Creator!

This is our morning talk show.

The girls

Yes, you let him lead your children... ha!

Day 1 Pics #1

Playing cards during a break.

John Wall??

Twins! Ha!

Throwin' down a beat before worship- yep we are from the Grove and we rap...??

Day 1 Recap!

Good Morning! We have finished our first full day of camp. Yesterday, Justin, Dustin & I headed out at 7:45am to go to Sheldon's graduation. Tammy and Jack graciously left the Grove at 5am to come and watch the youth for the day! Again, thanks guys! It ended up storming in the afternoon, so most of the kids did not get to do their first "POI" (afternoon activities). That was kinda a bummer. But they got to hang at the lake, they spent the morning with their bible studies, and we had an awesome night of worship. Overall, it was a great day.

The theme this year is "Adopted" and focused on Romans 8:15-16. Each day has a focus:

• Day 1- Father
• Day 2- Family
• Day 3- Heir
• Day 4- Future

Last night we learned that God longs to be our Father. He loves us as a Father. He disciplines us as a Father. We looked at the story of the Prodigal Son (which our Camp Pastor calls the Prodigal Father), which is neat for us bc Casey just preached on this text recently. The Father lavished His love on the Son, and accepted him while he was a long way off. The Camp Pastor reminded us that we have to acknowledge that God accepts us. He loves us. And because of that, we need to accept His love and walk with Him. One of our students accepted Christ last night, and a few others admitted they needed to turn from the paths they were on and recommit to walk towards the Lord. It was a great night. (We also had a few dance parties!)

Today the students are learning that we belong to a family, the family of God, if we have accepted Christ. We are created to be in a Church family. We are a reflection of the Father.  More on this later.

A few reminders for you:

• the @ Camp website: View and order pictures from camp (they will be up later today), send the students emails, and see videos of whats going on. You can even check out the weather here
• Missions Offering: This year the missions offering is going to India. They are challenging the students to give sacrificially, whatever that means for each of them. $20 will sponsor one child at the orphanage for quite awhile. If you want to give money for this, contact me or Justin. We have challenged our students not to call home and ask you for more money, but maybe to not buy snacks at the Shack one night in order to give. We want them to actually give their money, not just ask you for more.
• If you need us for any reason, you can call the church and get Justin's, Dustin's or my cell phone numbers. 
• The Beyond Effect: Your students will hear about this all week, and may come home talking about it. I really encourage you to go to the www.thebeyondeffect.org and find out more about it. 

Pics to come! 

Love,

sabrina

Opening Day Pics #3

A view of the rooms.

Playing some corn hole- it is sooo hot!

Our Worship Pastor for the week.

Opening Day Pics #2

Hanging in the room!

At our Opening Worship Service!

Dustin, Sarah & Randa get into worship!

Opening Day Pics #1

We made it!!

We made it! As I hope you know by now, we made it to camp safe and sound. Your students have gotten all settled into their homes for the next week. The girls have named their 2 adjoining rooms “Billy” & “Bob”.  And Dustin has been almost knocked out cold by a bunk bed rail in the boy’s room… so we have started out with a bang! Ha! The students have been placed into their bible study groups and are meeting their leaders now. I wanted to pass on some info you may want and then share a few photos from today.

• Make sure to check out the crossings @ camp website (You can find it on http://www.crossingsministries.org/atcamp/) each day. Crossings will have photos their staff takes of your kids there for purchase.
• You can send any of the kids emails through the Crossings website. They will pass them out each morning to the kids. 
• This year our missions offering here will be going to India to help orphans. We will take this up on Saturday night. If you want to give to this, please call me or Justin to discuss it. 
• The blog will be really quiet tomorrow bc the Pate’s will be heading to Louisville for Sheldon’s (the younger brother) graduation. Please come on back on Thursday for updates!! Tammy Stone and Jack Estes will be here watching over the youth! 

Their internet is acting pretty slow, so I am going to upload some of today's photos in several posts. Just so you know! Hope you are having a great night!