ELEVATE :: DAY 4

All the days are starting to run together as camp is winding down. I had hoped to post late last night, but after talking with student after student, I didn't get back to my room until about 12:45 am.

It was a very full day, but also a restful Sabbath. We intentionally cut back the schedule to allow for some down time. So after our morning worship time, we took the time to meet as a whole student ministry and not break up into our family groups. This was a great chance for our students to just be with each other, share what God had been teaching them and to encourage each other. I've been amazed at what God has been doing in our student's hearts this week. Amazing. More on that in a bit.

Lunch finished and took us into free time where they had the opportunity to hang out at the pool, play paintball, tennis, soccer, ultimate frisbee and basketball. No sports competitions, so we could bring home another trophy (not that we would have).

After dinner we moved into our evening worship. I don't think I could really put into words what that time was like. It was a powerful time of worship as we lifted our voices in praise, but Tim, again, brought a powerful message from God's Word about our Father and the price His Son paid for our sin. He also presented a very clear, candid look at the enormity of our sin problem. After chapel, we went to our family group times, but I decided to keep our whole group together again. I felt that God had started something powerful in chapel that needed to continue. So I had some time to share my heart a bit and then moved into some individual time. Our staff was available and we were able to do alot of one-on-one talking, but it was exciting to see our students move toward each other for prayer and encouragement.

Alot of tough issues were confronted last night. God's Spirit was definitely at work convicting our hearts about our sin and need for Him. Like I mentioned earlier, this continued until the early hours of the morning. But our students were free to move from that into the evening activity which included DDR, Guitar Hero, Halo and Singstar competitions as well as some cool inflatable games.

It was an awesome day and finished in a powerful way. I'm not sure how it will finish on Monday night, but I'm anxious for God to meet us again up here on the mountain.