Since I Still Haven't Written About it: Camp!

Okay, I know what you're going to say. "It's about time!" But I really want to write about Student Life Camp and I really have been meaning to, but I haven't yet. But now I am...
Just a little background information: I had been feeling pretty discouraged about our youth group. I mean, it seemed as if most people didn't care about the relationship part of being a Christian and that our group, in general, was going downhill. I came to camp not expecting for much to change, because I thought that everyone was so far gone that they wouldn't care. Our youth group lacked leadership and we weren't growing. I think you can see why I was discouraged.
Camp started and I was worried that our family group wasn't going to get along. We had an interesting mix of people, but Calyn and I were determined to make it work. As the week went on, our family group started to mesh. Recreation really helped us to bond. We became the Funky Chickens and had an awesome cheer. We even won family group of the day. Around me, I saw people began to change, and God was working in me too. Us leaders felt so burdened for the people around us that we began to meet when we had a chance to pray for them. During the last two church group times, I couldn't help but to cry when different people shared what God was doing in their lives. I had doubted God's power to work in the lives of the people in our youth group. We had been learning about how big (haha, hugeous) God is and how He's made these amazing things that are like 31 billion lightyears away and yet I was doubting that he could speak to the hearts of the people around me. What was I thinking? So many people made decisions and shared about changes they needed to make in their lives. God showed me that I need to worship him with all that I am, because he's worthy of it (and we all know he sooooo is).
So now, I'm pretty pumped about how God is working in our youth group. I'm looking forward to the year ahead and I'm excited about what's going to take place. Todd took the youth leaders for next year (that's me and that's weird) and some youth that have shown leadership potential to Laguna last week and we spent time planning out the year. We decided to make some changes in the way we were running things, and we planned some awesome outreach opportunities. I am so excited to see what God's gonna do in our youth group this year. It was awesome to see students and leaders so on fire for God. Please pray for our youth group that these changes could be a step, well more like a leap, in the right direction and not just a "camp experience." Also pray for the coming year and for everyone who made a change in their lifestyle, that they would have the strength to keep it.
I'm so glad that I got to and get to be a part of the amazing things happening in the Northwoods Youth Ministry. This was the best Student Life Camp that I have ever been to. I must say that for not coming to camp with very high expectations, I sure left being blown away by all that was happening. This summer has been full of amazing experiences and I hope that there are more to come.