Winter Camp 2011 Overview

Winter Camp 2011 has come and gone; at least the "date" has but I think year has had a residual effect on students lives.

This year we held our winter camp in Brian Head Utah, the same place we have done it for the last five years. The last five years of doing camp on our own has taught us some good ministry lessons (and made us very thankful for summer camp at Hume Lake). This year there was something different about winter camp though; something smooth, something bigger than us. The theme we went for was growth and challenging students to grow in their walk with Christ.

We left Friday afternoon and were about 75 minutes out of Vegas when the tire blew on our trailer. I stayed back with another leader while our Executive Pastor came and brought us two new tires. This was really the only "speed bump" we hit along the way (no pun intended).

Chase Fiendel was our speaker this year and he brought it! He is our Middle School Pastor and it was so rad to have him with us because many of the students already know Chase and he was able to just jump in and start working with students. He spoke very honestly about his life on Friday night and how he needs people in his life to help him grow. He also talked about living for Eternity and making sure that we are focusing our life on God things. I wish we could have recorded the messages!

Our Adult Leaders are a key part of this event. We ask ALOT of them on this trip. They drive up vans, trucks and tow trailers. We have two leaders go up a day early with the Costco run (about $1600) and then Friday morning divi it up in the homes. The leaders are there getting students to chapel, helping to cook, clean the homes, snowboard, sled, and minister to students. This year I walked away knowing that without that exact team camp would not have been what it was. I am so thankful for the leadership team I get to work with. I constantly tell them they are a huge part of what keeps me here, with the passion I have, working with students.

One aspect I love is bringing students who graduated from our ministry and now come back to serve. Kurt Johnson was in my small group for a few years and I just love what God is doing in his life. He is a Junior at Azusa Pacific University and loves Jesus! Kurt ran recreation for us on Saturday. Kyle Rock just graduated from UNLV and has been faithful in helping us with media. Kyle came and filmed the weekend so we could capture the event on film. Marianna McComb graduated a fear years ago and is attending BIOLA University down in So Cal. She came up and lead worship for us and helped ushered students into worship with Jesus.

To be honest I thought this would have been our last time in Brian Head because it had become so much work but this year gave me hope that we are on the right track and can do this again!

Check out the video recap of the weekend