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Another month has passed...another Youth Camp in the bag. The Rec. Field battle cries of camp have silenced. The clapping during praise and worship time from The Access Band has ceased. Amy's screams from on top of the Ropes Course, can no longer be heard...(thankfully). But what about the "message", preached and taught the whole week by James Tealy and color group leaders? The message, "GO tell"? Has that message found a resting place in memory? Has it been put out and quenched like so many other Youth Camp themes? Or did it by chance....jus by chance take hold of some of you students? Nothing is by chance, not when it comes to God and furthering His kingdom. God anointed those students whom were in attendance, as well as adults, to fit His plan. I wish I could take credit for what happened while there.....but I can't. I'm a nobody...a "zero" in need of a hero. Which can only be found in His Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior. I would love to pat myself on the back and take credit for all the brokenness, that was displayed. The students that cried out, during our church time, and said, "enough is enough". If only every member of our church could be in attendance during those times....and every parent whose son or daughter that attended could be present...at that moment. The prayers that were voiced by each student, for students that weren't there..... As Youth Leader, I am humbled by these displays of compassion, selfless acts, and total surrender to the Holy Spirit. I'm blessed to be a part of something that is much bigger than ME, or anyone that is reading this. The message today is the same message that was preached by Christ and His followers. It hasn't changed. Hello? When we hear, Go and Tell...we think about some far off land, in some country infested by fly's, mosquitoes, snakes....and people that want to kill us for being Christians. (That’s great......God bless mission work, it's needed.)But if we actually read and understand Jesus' instruction in Matthew 10.....that "Go and Tell" starts from the inside, out!!!!! We have people in need of the Gospel in our communities, schools, FAMILIES, and work environments. How are we going to venture out in other countries and parts of the world, if we can't take care of the people in our own zip-code first? Here's a statistic we learned, while we sit here and cry over feeble matters and "he said", "she said" stuff. "57.2 %" of the world's population has never heard of Jesus. Not that they've rejected the "message". But rather, they've never heard of Christ...ever. Pretty sad.....yet we find time to blab on social network sites....text our buddies about ridiculous subjects, and throw our hands in the air, when someone hurts our feelings. Sad.......if we would only realize what's at "stake". We will resume skit practice on Sunday nights. We have a lot of work to do. I would like to see this completed, filmed and performed by the month of October. We are going to perform it again, during the Camp Reunion in November. The message is CLEAR and on target with the camp theme.Paul is going to get the last word, as he does in the book I've read now 3 times in as many weeks. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31...Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you were called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebody’s"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have-right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start-comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God." (The Message)
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