Grace Week: Day 1

Today a group from Tyler, TX came in. There are around 80 eighth graders plus about 8 sponsors. Grace has been coming to Redcloud faithfully for something like 20 years I'm told. The teachers and other sponsors that come are great, and you never know exactly what kind of kids you will "get." I'm blessed to be a group leader this week which means I go with the kids to all of their activities and lead "cabin" discussions after worship/speaking time.

Today they got here around noon, and let me tell ya, these kids brought the luggage! I thought they'd never get done unloading it all. Mass chaos is always a good way to start off the week. It kind of gets you in gear if you let it...makes you focus on the task at hand. The kids had been riding in a bus for about 22 hours, gone through a snowstorm at one point, were now at 9,200 feet and in the snow. Some kids (and adults) had on shorts and crocs and sandals. I can sympathize with these poor people being a Mississipian. You just don't typically know about things like snow and mountains growing up in the South.

They finally got moved into the cabins, ate lunch, went through orientation and broke up into their activity groups. Okay, there was this one kid who stood out among the crowd...literally. He's like 6'2." Call it a premonition or whatever, but I just kind of knew that the tallest "kid" here would be in my group. As Becca is calling out the names of my group, the tall guy is first ont the list! All of the kids in my group are just pretty much amazing!

We only had one activity today: Broomball. For those of you who have never experienced this game, you are definitely missing out! It's like hockey: 2 teams, 2 goals, helmets, a ball and broomsticks, played on a frozen pond (fondly called Scum Pond). I think we had a pretty good time of it. I haven't played all year so I was pretty pumped about it. My team, The Squirrels, won by 1 point at the very end. Fun times indeed. It did start to get kind of cold as the sun went down on top of it being cloudy and a bit windy at times. I think the kids really liked it too.

We had a bit of time before supper so I tried to initiate some conversation and get to know the kids a bit better by suggesting we all tell one interesting fact about ourselves. The girls, 5 in all, we of course a bit more interested than the majority of the guys, 7 in all. So we did that, and then they went up to their cabins to change clothes before supper.

After supper, we had worship and speaking time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The speaker, our Equestrian manager's husband who works in law enforcement, was the speaker. Justin is great! He's intersting, tells from personal experience, is easy to understand and Spirit led. The main point of the "sermon" was about faith. What exactly is faith? What are we putting our faith in? Who exactly is Jesus? Who does the world tell us to trust in? Great questions along with wonderful Scripture stories from the New Testament to proke you to think about what you are putting your faith in. The discussions afterward went pretty well for the most part. The kids were pretty tired. John Michael just wanted to go to bed and kept bringing up whenever he would open his mouth. Another boy who is a little too cool for school, interjected when one of the girls was making a valid comment. His comment to her was that he didn't want her holding us back when we went to power pole. He didn't want to be late for the meal, and he wanted some free time. Oh, 14 year old boys! I think he has a bit of an attitude. I know that some of the kids were intersted in talking about spiritual things, but it's kind of hard when there are those two who just don't care about it at the moment. All they're thinking about is themselves and what they want. I cut them some slack tonight because they were pretty worn out from traveling and the effects of coming up to such a high altitude.

I have to remember that I'm not the Holy Spirit. Oh, yeah! Good to know! It's not about me and what I'm doing "right." It's about being obedient to Christ. I can plant and water the seed, but only God makes it grow. May I be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading and know when to talk and when to listen and what He would have me to do in every situation. I need more of Him and less of me. There is nothing in me that does not come from Christ.

Faith = Hope and Assurance
Sometimes it's not more faith that we need. It's that we need to know more of Jesus, of who He is. What is God using in my life to get my attention? What does God want my life to look like? Is there something in my life that I need to trust God with? How can I grow in my relationship with Christ? All of these things were drawn from tonight's message. Food for thought. This is a little bit about what the kids heard tonight. It was definitely good for me to hear as well, convicting even. God's been teaching me these lessons for such a long time it seems, and I just never fully learn.

We had 3 more staff to down with the stomach bug tonight. 2 of them were group leaders. Please continue to pray for us. We are trying to find people to jump in for tomorrow and possibly the rest of the week. We don't want anyone else to get sick, and we certainly don't want to spread it to the group!

We shall see what the LORD has in store for tommorrow. God is faithful. Thanks for all your prayers and support. It was a great day overall.Right now I'm worn out and am going to bed!

All glory be to my God!