Bay Shore

(There’s no wireless here at the Central Indiana Family Camp in Frankfort so this blog is being posted from a coffee shop in town.)

Bay shore was an amazing camp to be a part of. The counselors that work there are all volunteers and work for the one purpose of reaching young kids with the love of Christ. We truly saw that this week as we were placed on the staff with the counselors as full out counselors ourselves. Denny and I were completely in charge of the senior guys cabin and the other guys worked with two other returning staff in the other cabins. Chris K. counseled in a cabin for a football camp this week and did a fantastic job. We began the week with staff orientation and were privileged to see a video by Bob Ditter about good touch and bad touch, which was stimulating to say the least. Our speaker this week was Kent Fischel who has been coming to speak at Bay Shore for 35 years plus. Kent was incredible and we are excited to work with him again next week at our FCA camp at IWU. He has spoken all over the world at camps, conferences and events, as well as traveled with several professional sports teams doing ministry and getting a chance to work with the athletes.

This week we had many opportunities to work with the kids. The camp had 2 days of skills classes with multiple topics like worship arts, basic car mechanics, soccer, drama, service projects etc. to choose from. I lead the drama skills class this week and Seth led the worship team. Denny helped both of us out, floating between the two. The rest of the guys got to help lead things like soccer and cross-country. It was a ton of fun for me to get to teach the kids some drama and use the concepts that I had learned in high school about staging, acting, auditioning and how God is glorified through the excellence and opportunity of drama. Honey I love you but I just can’t smile, Mrs. Mumbles, and emotional party quirks were some of the skits we did. At the end of the week we got to perform our emotional party quirks skit for the camp and the worship team played How great is Our God for the camp.

Every morning we had discovery time and every evening was celebration time. Discovery time centered on the movie “To Save a Life”, an excellent movie about the struggles of living out your faith in high school (released August 3rd – GO RENT IT). We broke off into discussion groups and talked with the kids about issues like struggles with parents, abortion, teen suicide, depression, authenticity etc. One of most eye opening things we did during that time was crossing the “River of Life”. A piece of duct tape was laid across the floor representing the river of life. When Kent called out different things such as “my parents are divorced”, kids and counselors would walk across the river if that applied. Other statements like “I have felt unwanted and alone”, “I am stressed out”, “I have contemplated suicide”, “I have known someone that has committed suicide” etc., were truly heartbreaking to see how many kids and counselors had experienced those things. No one was even close to alone on these issues; typically at least half of the group crossed over. As one of the kids said later in the week during Afterglow (testimony time), it is just easier to put on a happy face and pretend like nothings wrong when you’re around people – when inside and at home, things are broken. The kids really opened up this week and we heard testimonies from 30 or 40 kids of how God had changed them during camp and was giving them a new way to work through pain and depression. God did some awesome things with the kids this week – and again, many raised their hands and prayed to accept Christ for the first time. Praise God!!! The altars were full almost every night. The night chapels were Celebration Time, where Kent had a lesson and our team opened and closed with music. We also played for at the end of discovery time every day. The kids had so much energy and desire to sing and dance for the Lord it made it easy for us to worship.

There were so many cool things about this camp. One of my favorite games was after a downpour that morning which turned the afternoon game into a slip and slide in the grass. I also enjoyed the day Denny and I worked the canoes and we turned canoeing into pirating. We waited until the other canoes splashed us, giving us the liberty to splash back and eventually flip them. Chris K joined later and the fun was amplified to the next level. The kids started out firmly stating they didn’t want to get wet… by the end they were the ones doing most of the splashing ☺ Worship at the outdoor chapel was awesome as well as worship at the Afterglow where three of the girl counselors joined our team. Elizabeth, Kelly and Jess played guitar, violin, and sang – we had a blast together. “Puttin on the Hits” involved each of the eight teams putting together a lip sync dance to a song. Seth’s team won the competition but the teams all had fun working together throughout the week to put the songs together.

I can’t describe how awesome it was getting to be a part of Bay Shore camp. The counselors alone made the week incredible, getting to see their hearts as they served and prayed with the kids with sincere hearts. The campers impressed me with their transparency and honesty by the end of the week. It was so awesome to see God transform lives before our eyes. We left Friday night after tearing down and grabbing ice cream with the staff. We drove back to IWU and got there at about 3 a.m. We slept in.
Saturday was the first day off we’ve had in a long time. We hit up Sweet Water music store in Fort Wayne for needed supplies and went “out to eat” for the first time this summer at Olive Garden. Kent, who lives in Fort Wayne had dinner with us and invited us back to his home to beat us in Connect Four and hang out for a bit. I was surprised to find out that Kent knows Gary Grey and has spoken at the CFC and Hot Rock in past years. Small world. We get to work with Kent again next week at FCA camp.

God is good. We had some low times this current week and last week at Bay Shore being tired and drained. However, by God’s great grace we were and are able to enjoy the blessing of seeing His hand at work in kids lives. We are half way through our camp in Frankfort now so you can expect a report of this week to come soonish. Thanks for reading. We realized once again last night that we can do nothing without God’s power. We are tired. We are spent. But we are not defeated because the power of the Holy Spirit will never is always available. We have been encouraged by God’s word this week and pray that we finish out the summer with even more energy than we had at the beginning. Please keep the kids and our team in your prayers. God bless you! Thanks for reading.

Ps. You may be interested in watching a video of Denny on a tire swing from Bay Shore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP-70Lp-khQ