Children’s Camp

We are at Windermere on the Lake of the Ozarks with Hopedale Baptist Church and Church at Finley Crossings Kids Camp.? I really love hanging out with these little guys, but they wear me out with all of their stories about everything under the sun.? And the funny thing is like at dinner, they all want to tell their stories to me at the same time and step all over one another!? I remember a young youth pastor appeasing me the same way while I was at a friend’s house for a DiscipleNOW weekend, so I believe turnabout is fair play!!

The thing that breaks my heart is really that these children, really they are just babies, don’t live in a vacuum. They live, some of them, in jacked up homes, living jacked up lives, because of jacked up parents.? One of the guys at my table at dinner opened the dinner conversation with “I wish my parents would not be split up.? It really feels like it is my fault sometimes.? I just want our family to be together.”? You’ve got to love a kid to not sugar coat anything!!? Let’s not “ease” into the conversation by talking about sports, move to my dad played sports, my dad coaches my team, my mom doesn’t come to many of my games anymore because they are split up, etc.? This dude cuts to the heart of the matter–I am hurting for my parents and because of my parents.? Unbelievable.

It really seems to put in perspective quite a bit what I do for a living, I think.? I almost feel like it is my job to not only make fully devoted followers of Christ, but to help teach this generation how to actually LIVE OUT that salvation–IN EVERY PART OF THEIR LIVES . . . ESPECIALLY THEIR FAMILIES!!? My heart breaks for all of these families that are having such difficult times right now.? It seems there is so much struggle going on . . . that no one talks about–until it is too late.? There are several marriages in the Forest Park family that are in a very similar situation as this kid tonight at dinner.? So much hurt, so much blame.? So much nonsense, honestly.

Here is the amazing thing.? God’s Word never returns void!? Our theme this camp is “God is Our Rock” based on Psalm 18.? Try a little on for size here from the Message:

I love you, God? you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God?the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout.

3 I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.

4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat;
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.

6 A hostile world! I call to God,
I cry to God to help me.
From his palace he hears my call;
my cry brings me right into his presence?
a private audience!

I just got done with a little “devotional” with 5 little boys that are beginning to understand that they have a Heavenly Father that is a strong fortress and a deliverer and a refuge.? I love the fact that they are “getting it” for the first time (I have the littlest guys at camp–they are still in the children’s Bibles and stuff).? But they are taking notes, and sitting on the top bunk thinking of “ways we can worship God.”? “Thinking of things we can talk to God about.”? Amazing!? Jesus said it best in Matthew, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Pray for God to move in the hearts of boys and girls at camp this weekend.? Pray that God would change our hearts as adults as well!