.....some of what happens at Beach Camp, stays at Beach Camp.

After last weeks post, I left Wednesday and joined the middle school crowd at Ft. Caswell for Beach Camp. My official job was Boat Driver for the Tubing activities in the afternoons. That and everything else was a blast. Words don't do justice to the homemade Slip'n Slide we had on Thursday, and the Mountain Dew slam competition was priceless. Don and his Interns and High School helpers did a great job.

This week was another example of God providing the food and using us to prepare a table where it was needed. Amy Long gave us 220 "Sliders" (Mini-Burgers) to use, which is what we served at the first stop. Vick and Denise Griffin gave us enough Barbecue and fixin's to cover the second stop. We had enough Ice Cream left over from Youth Group on Sunday night to serve also.

The Menu

Sliders Barbecue Sandwiches Potato Salad Corn Baked Beans Green Beans Watermelon Banana Pudding Ice Cream

A quick word about the Helpers this week:

We had over 30.

Are you kidding me? How great is that! We had several of the rising 7th graders that were at Beach camp come, we had several folks from the Sunday School class that's helping while Twig and I are gone this summer there tonight, and lots of our regulars. The kicker is, even with a slew of people, we had all of them doing stuff the whole time. Nobody really got off easy. That's a good night. Here's who was helping tonight:

Ellen Jennifer John Henry Twig Butch King Elaine King Maggie Merritt Peyson Cameron Hampton Zach Danielle Mitch Cook Tracy Trina Theresa Bryan Pruden Craig Tim Tom Liz Anna Steve Leger Mark Connor Sean Grizek Jim Ashley Edwards me ...and it's possible I forgot somebody. I apologize if I did.

Like I mentioned earlier, several of the youth that helped tonight were rising 7 th graders that are new to Youth Group. One of the cool things about Youth Group is every year new kids come in, and sad as you are to see the seniors leave, it's fun to get the rising 7th graders involved. One of the best ideas Don has ever had (and he's had a lot of great ones) is Beach Camp. Basically, it takes the Middle School kids and makes them the focus of a week of fun and Bible Study, and incorporates them into the Youth Group at the beginning of Summer, so that by the time the school year starts, they're already involved and ready to go.

We used to rent a house at Wrightsville Beach and do all the programming but the numbers got too big so now Don plugs them into a Youth Week at Caswell. The great thing is we do all the Caswell stuff and do our own things ,too. Like lining up boats to go tubing every afternoon from 1 - 5:30. Like Team competitions every afternoon from 12:30 to 1:00, including the Mountain Dew Slam, the Slip'n Slide Competition, and everybody's favorite- The Toothpick and LifeSaver relay.

In the middle of all this, God finds ways to reach these kids and pull at their hearts. I saw it this year in alot of the 7th graders. Each night the speaker brings a message and offers a chance at the end for them to come make a decision for Christ or to talk to a counselor about questions they might have or anything else they want to talk about. On Wednesday, some of the 7th grade guys went up and went out back to pray with someone. Chris and I went back with them and it touched me the way they opened up. They spoke alot about their baptisms and how they understood more about it now than they did when it occurred. One of them asked me if I would help learn how to read his Bible ( All of our kids get a new Bible the 1st day of Beach Camp. Another one of Don's really great ideas and one that works on several levels. Look around church sometime at some of our Young Adults who still carry around and use their Beach Camp Bibles.) I said sure and told him that the Gospel of John was a good place to start. I told him we could do it later that night.

As I was leaving the auditorium and heading back to the house, he came up and asked if I would go to the Snack Bar and read the Bible with him and the other guys in his room. Like I could say no.

So we did. Me and seven 7th graders reading the Bible out loud in the middle of the room, answering their questions and just talking about what we'd read. And they asked if we could do it Thursday night.

And on Thursday they asked if we could do it Friday night.

And on Friday we talked about doing it once a week for the summer and beyond.

So tomorrow night at 7:00 we'll be at the center continuing to read the Gospel of John. There are several things that lay the groundwork for things like that to happen........Godly parents, who bring their kids to church and see the importance of things like Beach Camp........A Youth Leader like Don, who continues to get get better and better at loving kids and giving his life away to them.......and a God who thinks Middle School kids are just as important as anyone else and loves them enough to work in their hearts with the Holy Spirit.

And I won't tell you everything we did last week, because, like Vegas,........