Cedarmore 2009

It's Wednesday morning and I wanted to share with those back home what's been happening at Cedarmore. First, your sons and daughters are truly awesome young people made in our Creator's image and I have seen them reflect God's humor, courage, compassion and love. You might be surprised at how quickly your teenager has made new friends, tried new foods, or risen to meet new challenges. Some have even found Scripture to share with the group that is impacting them. Our daily schedule with 600 other campers is something like this:

We are in the Green Camp (with three other color camps rotating with us):

8:00 am Breakfast
8:50 am Morning Celebration
9:35 am -11:30 Rotation of large group bible study, small group bible study and Break Thru (a time of intentional relationship building with a small group)
12:15 pm Lunch
1:15 pm Connect (a time of intentional relationship building with our youth group)
2:45 pm C4 (Explosive competition within our color group)
4:15 pm Point of Impact (you know, the list of activities they wanted)
6:25 pm Dinner
8:25 pm Worship
9:30 Checkpoint (an intimate time of listening and processing what God has been teaching us as a youth group)
11:30 pm Girl TIme and Dude Sessions (a time where the guys and girls in our youth group to know and love each other and it may be humorous fun or words of healing and help)
Midnight - Bedtime???

I did bring a package of tissues with me and they are already gone - your teenagers have cried tears of joy and sorrow. I have watched them minister to each other, whether it was encouraging a younger student to get on the enormous zip line or playing a hot game and keeping a positive attitude. There has been lots of laughter and down time and times where students have really opened up about their curiosity about God, his presence in their lives, or why he might feel so absent. Our speaker, Allen Jackson (not the singer) challenged them last night with the formula that Curiosity leads to Connection with God. Many are curious what God has for them this week and it has already being revealed first through time alone in God's word and prayer, bible study, committed staffers here at the camp, times of musical worship, and in our times as a youth group. We are praying God's Holy Spirit to reign and his grace to be sweet to our teens.

Be sure and check out the camp website where you can email your camper, see pics, meet the staff and more. To see the photos we taken, we post them so only our friends on Facebook can view them. We do not post photos of your teenager unless there is filtered access. We'll update as we can. Thank you for entrusting your teenager to the Lord and the amazing job you do as parents and family to introduce them to our Savior. Your prayers are making a difference and they do hear that you love them.