What a great opportunity & blessing to be asked to speak at the Pastor's Kids retreat at the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp. This is a three day retreat, which actually runs from Monday afternoon through Wednesday noon. We had a total of only 18 kids from the Junior High and High School age group but everyone really seemed to have fun.
I was given the task to speak three times, once each day. Monday evening I challenged these young people with four foundational principles for the Christian life, 1. Please God - 2 Cor. 5:9; 2. Be Christlike - Rom. 8:28-29; 3. Glorify God - 1 Cor. 10:31 and 4. Diligently Seek God - Hebrews 11:6. This really set the pace for the rest of our time together. Tuesday evening we walked through a Bible study on the life and Asa, a Godly king of Judah. This was a long Bible Study but it was productive. Wednesday morning I used the text from John 21 where Jesus is speaking with Peter and concludes by telling Peter "YOU follow me!" Don't worry about anyone else just focus on walking with in the Will of God.
At the conclusion of the Bible study on Tuesday evening, I gave the challenge that we must not only start out well but we must finish strong. I asked these teen if there were thing in their lives that they knew did not honor God. Were there things in their lives that had replaced God as their hearts as the most important thing in their lives? To drive this point home, I used an exercise I call "a letter to God". The students write a letter to God confessing the change in love and loyalty and whatever else they deem necessary to include. The letter are folded and placed in self-addressed envelopes, SEALED and given to me. In about 8 to 10 weeks, I will begin to drop a couple of letter into the mail per week and the students will receive these letters that they have written to God. The point is that often we make commitments and promises to really change but so often we just forget and life goes on, this exercise is a simple reminder of decisions made & an opportunity to do a self check!
Well, as always, when we talk about Camp we need to mention the great food. The ladies at the camp just out did themselves with wonderful meals. That includes a meal Tuesday evening that I got to help with! As we were planning the event and desiring to do something "different", I came up with the idea of a cookout; and that is exactly what I got to do. Tuesday evening we enjoyed marinated chicken breast cooked on the charcoal grill! It was a lot of fun and I really like getting to help in this way!
Other activities included sledding, snowmobiling, floor hockey, basketball, Rook, Skip-bo, board games and large group games. One of the coolest things I noticed is how the young people are able to make their own fun and games. You don't need to schedule every minute, these kids will just start a game of Rook or Mafia, without being told to do so! This is a great group of young people and it was truly a blessing to get to hang out with them for this retreat.
That's The Way I See It!
Pastor Steve
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