I went to VBS at Corinth Church of Christ in Portland today. Everyone seemed to enjoy the camp video that I brought, however it lasted a little too long…or else people’s attention spans aren’t that long.
I did ask Phil about doing camp with the Portland churches. He said that he’d rather have Mt. Juliet to do camp by themselves. I can understand this point of view. Then again, if MJ were to go to TCC with Portland, the camp would pretty much be filled up. Somehow I’d like to get all the people who I became friends with over the summer at various youth camps…to one camp by themselves. But I know this can never happen.
I’ve come to realize that while we have some campers who are very spiritually motivated, we do have a set of young people at camp who are very exclusive toward other people outside of their group. It is a real shame. I have heard from multiple sources that these people are snobs toward others in the youth group.
When did I feel closest to God this past week? On the last night of camp, parents of the younger kids tend to show up for skit night and then take their kids home. This left about 20 or so campers left (mostly high schoolers). After a late night baptism we came back to camp and went to the air conditioned chapel. During this time we went around the room and each told what we enjoyed about camp and what we were taking back from camp. I said I enjoyed the late night cabin devotionals and that I was taking back friendships with me. Afterwards we turned off the lights and sang several songs. My voice was wearing thin, so for a large portion of it I just listened. For the last song and prayer we got into a circle, put our arms on the shoulder of the person next to us. Somehow all barriers had been broken down. This was true worship.
I should have some more pictures of camp up by tomorrow. All of my other pictures are on Kevin’s computer. Kevin should have a picture CD burned for me by tomorrow.
At church we have an automatic phone tree which dials the number of members to play a recorded message. The message can be anything from announcing a gospel meeting or a reminder to bring a potluck dinner for some special event. The problem is that sometimes it is utilized too much. We’ve gotten phone tree announcements for youth group activities and other events that just don’t pertain to us. This past week while I was at camp, several members got phone calls from the phone tree at weird hours of the night. We got one at 4AM Thursday morning. I’m not sure if those operating the phone tree really know how to use it. I feel as though there should be a phone tree policy…i.e. what events should be announced on it and when it can be used.