The Beginning of Jr. High Camp has been awesome...

We have arrived. Technically we have been here. We arrived at Jr. High Camp today around 11.30 a.m. A quick bite of lunch and a short meeting and we were doing camp.


The bus trip was pretty long, but went along without incident. Everyone came out on the other side of it no worse off than it was in the beginning. I was on bus 5, along side some of the finest men that you will ever come into contact with (Josh Woodard and Zach Force). The kids weren't too bad either. We had to make a couple unscheduled potty breaks and took the long way around Colorado Springs, but we still arrived at the Church while the Pizza was hot.

Like I said earlier, we got to camp just before noon. On the menu was chicken fingers. They were alright. My free time was spent setting up the stage stuff; however, most of our kids took the opportunity to throw around the Frisbee on the disc golf course. Jordan won amongst the kids with an 8 over par. I think Nate put a whoopin' on most of them and taught them a thing or two. I realized today that if the kids ever figured out that they out number us adults, the inevitable end result will equal that of "Lord of the Flies." That is really what we brought Nate for: intimidation and power.

Tonight's main session was powerful...

John Nunnally and the band led a great set of worship. Cody spoke on Identity. Earlier in the day the kids were asked to make a mask that represented who they were. Some of the kids put feathers, flower stickers, glitter, and other symbols that was a representation of their personality and character. I am talking to Hope right now: she put on the multicolored feathers cause "she always wanted multi colored hair." They brought these masks to worship.

Cody spoke about the tendency that we have (especially Jr. highers) in putting on masks around certain people. For some the mask has become permanent and begins to take over their lives (like it did in the Mask a Jim Carrey film). Cody asked them to bring their masks forward and put them on the ground in front of the stage. He then opened the word for them to Matthew 16 and had them answer the question that Peter did: Who do you say I am?

The main thought of Cody's talk was: You will never know who you are until you know who Jesus is. We find our identity in what he did for us on the cross. After he said this, Zach Force came forward and begin to staple the masks on the black plywood on stage. After a couple minutes it began to take the shape of a hand. He then painted a giant red dot in the middle of the hand print...then he wrote identity in the red paint. Cody did phenomenal and so did the band.

There were few dry eyes amongst the girls.

Right now we are at the rec messing around...I got to go help the staff basketball team dominate.