Crossroads Worldwide Summer Camp

We made it back from Summer Camp last night around 9:00. It was so good to be home after a busy fun filled week at camp. We left last Sunday morning at 8:30 heading to Boiling Springs, NC to Crossroads Worldwide Summer Camp. We arrived at 6:30 p.m.Sunday evening. After getting checked in we went out to dinner and then headed to the our dorm room on the campus of Gardner-Webb. On Monday morning we went down to the Broad River and floated down the river. Never in my life have I seen such a beautiful river. There were rocks there that you could walk on and even some small rapids that pushed you a little quicker down the river. You could actually walk from one side of the river to the other, the water was fairly clear so that you could see where you were stepping. I do believe that if I lived in that area I would visit the Broad River as often a possible. After going down the river a couple of times and swimming around, we had a picnic lunch. Then back to camp to get ready for the evening service, which started the actual camp time.

Clayton King, (the camp founder) preached an amazing message Sunday night, his message was taken from Luke 15:11-32. The title to this message was "God is our Father." One thing that Clayton said that really stood out to me was that God is merciful, He takes you as you are. (1 John 1:9). We had an evening worship service every night with Clayton preaching each night with the exception of Thursday night and the message was given by Matt Orth. Matt talked about sincere and surface love, the glory of God versus the glory of man. One question that he asked us was "When you die, will you have testimonies or titles?". You were called to live for testimonies not titles.

Carl Cartee and his band led the music for our worship service. As usual Carl did an outstanding job. He writes his own music and is a very talented man.

On Tuesday my son Tyler played "earth ball" at the Quad. Earth ball is this really big ball that you push around to different people. Tyler had heard about this from other people who had been to camp in years past, and had looked forward to being able to play. This was Tyler's first year going to camp and he had a great time. He said he is ready to go back, (we've only been home for one day). There were so many activities for the students to do after the workshops. Some of the things that Tyler did (I didn't go with him to all of the activities, so I don't have pictures:{ ) climbing tower, outdoor adventure games, this was a survivor type obstacle course, Tyler and his dad went to this together and got very dirty. There was actually a mud pit that you had to crawl through on your belly (thanks guys for the muddy clothes). He also played some basketball and was in a dodge ball tournament with Nick, Lee and Sam (the other guys from our youth group that went to camp).

Tyler playing "Earth ball"

There were great workshops during the day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They had the workshops split up into two sections, one for High School and the other for Middle School. I went in with the High School on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our workshop on Tuesday was Ezra: "No Standing without Understanding." then on Wednesday we learned about Hannah: "Being Faithful when things aren't Fruitful". Thursday I went with the Middle School and learned about Timothy: "Going from ME to WE because of THEE". Matt Orth, taught the Ezra study, which was about how we will never be able to stand in our spiritual lives unless we truly grasp and understand the truths that come with our faith. Charie King (Clayton's wife) taught on Hannah and how she trusted God and kept her word, even when it was tough. We saw how her faith was tried by persecution. Then Brian Burgess did the study on Timothy. We looked in Philippians, where Paul gave a great testimony about Timothy, that because of Christ, Timothy now cares more about others than he does his own interests. Every workshop that I went to was excellent. This is a summer camp that gets in God's word and speaks the truth. I highly recommend this camp to all youth groups.

Something that they did different this year, was to separate the guys and girls for one of the evening services. Charie taught the session for the girls. I have to say that Charie is an excellent teacher, she is very passionate about God and teaching to others what she has learned through her study of God's word. I would like to share with you some of the notes that I took during this session. Charie talked about Redefining Love. She first talked about "No one loves me" she went to a passage in Ezekiel 16:4-14. God noticed you, picked you up and clothed you, fed you and gave you an identity. "Love is Hopeless", here she said that "Love becomes distorted when we define it apart from the creator and try to find it in the world around us." We were reminded that God loves us forever, Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

One more thing before I end this post. For all you coffee drinkers, there is this neat little coffee shop across the street from the Gardner-Webb campus that we visited a couple of times while we were there. It is the Broad River Coffee Company, they have some of the best coffee and they also have a pretty good strawberry smoothie.

Jamie, Robin, Kelby & Kristina

Sunny & Jesse