statement Cody began his lesson on the last night of Jr. High Camp.The whole day was centered around Influence.
The morning started off with a great pancake breakfast.
For wake up this morning, Alex our bass player showed the boys how to sing a Disney princess song. "A Whole New World" has never sounded sweeter in my ears. After his musical ability was on display, I decided once again to show off mine. I sang the Sea Gull song for the kids.
Encounter time this morning was over Psalm 145. This is a Psalm that took a great deal of time to write. The writer has obviously had such good things happen that he just cant hold it in. That is what our challenge for the day was: How can you influence those around you?
D group time didn't go real well. The lesson started off with a look at peer pressure. How are you affected by those around you. Three kids were in on the plan. The group would look at a set of 4 lines. They were supposed to pick out the longest line; however, the three amigos would argue that the shortest line was actually the longest. It was an experiment to see if the one person would stand up to the peer pressure and pick the correct line, or allow the mob rule on the incorrect one. This was my D-Group.
The overall lesson was short this day because we took a hike up the mountain that started in the morning. As a whole group, we carried our sack lunches up the mountain trail. We expected to hike for an hour or so and then turn around and come back. But even the best laid plans can go faulty. We did stop for lunch, but realized that we could go a little farther to a really cool meadow. We hiked on but never found the meadow. After 2 hours of hiking up, we turned around to come back. The legs were weary and the palate was dry, but all kids made it.
When we returned back to camp, my number one goal was to have a mountain dew slushy and nachos. Goal was achieved.
During the night session; John and the band once again threw down. My
hope is to be able to implement some of their songs into the Jr. High worship set. Cody, as usual, brought an excellent message that began just as this article did. "Every day you are influenced by someone, and you influence someone."In the midst of the message, there was a time for communion. Communion is another way that we have community with God. So it is how he influences us. After the kids took communion, they were asked to pray for different pictures around the room. Each picture had instructions on the bottom. Each time they were asked to pray by themselves, or with one or two friends. They prayed for their (pictures are in this order) youth group, school, church, family, and friends.
For youth group time that night, CPCC decided to head up to the tubing hill. As a youth group we watched the stars come out and talked about the week. This group really grew together. Near as I can tell, we went to camp with about 6 different groups of people. I saw in Sunday school yesterday not groups of students, but one group of students. Though some of the week was rough, I believe that the call to community was heard and believed by these kids.
We finished the night off with a bon fire, where kids were able to share their challenges from this week and their decisions that they made. It was cool to see the different emotions that they had throughout the week.
On a side note...the kids were allowed to get their cell phones back this night. It was like a mad dash to get a fix. Kids were hanging from the ceiling and elbowing each other. It was mayhem. Perhaps a call to unplug or a mandate to hang up should come more often. If nothing else it proved our isolation lesson well. Some kids even made that challenge for themselves. Jordan said he was going to "take some time off of electronics, but not his guitar cause he worships with that."
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