The Happiest Place on earth...it's not Disneyland

“They say the happiest place on earth is Disneyland. They’re wrong, it’s camp.”

  As difficult as it is to believe, summer is a few weeks away. Summer break will be here soon. So what are your children doing this summer?

  Hopefully, you have some vacation time planned with the whole family. As the nice weather arrives, I hope you’re trimming the schedule to the essentials, making room and planning quality and quantity family time.

  If you’re a grandparent, I hope you use this time while school is out to spend chunks of time with your grandchildren. It’s an excuse to give their parents a break and a great opportunity for you to invest in their lives. Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of staying with my grandparents in South Georgia. So have you considered Christian camp this coming summer? A week at a Christian camp can be life changing for a young person. I hope you’ll seriously consider sending your child off to a good one for a week or two.

  After graduating from high school, I worked at a Christian camp as a counselor and lifeguard in upstate New York. It was a great opportunity to invest in the lives of young people, most of them from the sin-saturated world around New York City. Some of them made decisions for Christ that week, whether for salvation or committing their life to Him. When I get Home, I hope to meet a few of those campers and learn that the summer of 1977 at Camp Robin Hood was when they came to know Jesus.

  For most parents, there are more options than funds. Yet, investing in a week of Christian camp can help set the trajectory of your child’s life for a godly outcome which can carry them through adulthood. It can be one of the best investments you’ll ever make in the lives of your children. Why?

  Long time friendships. Your children are going to have friends. The key question is: What kind of friends? Will they be Christian friends with a biblical worldview? Christian camps are staffed by college age young people committed to Christ who love the Lord. Your child is going to have someone besides you sharing a biblical worldview. Your child will potentially ask questions, share fears and hopes with these godly leaders they might never share with you. They’re going to be given responses which line up with what Scripture teaches. With technology they potentially will remain friends with these leaders and other campers for years to come. They’ll hear Bible teaching from someone who knows how to relate to them. They’re going to have the same biblical truth we teach at Grace affirmed. It will give it more credibility in their skeptical world.  

  They are going to experience God’s glorious creation. A week at camp will give them a much needed break from technology so they can experience God’s handiwork and really listen to the Lord. Camp will keep them so busy having fun and building relationships, that after a few hours they’ll forget they don’t have their phone, aren’t watching TV or playing video games. They won’t care about texting because they’re talking to real people. A technology fast helps them learn technology isn’t crucial and they can actually survive without it. They’ll learn how to build relationships and how much fun, not to mention, how fulfilling life is without it. Most importantly, they have an easier time focusing on what really matters – eternal matters, because they’re not so distracted.

  Quality spiritual nourishment. For a week, they have the opportunity to saturate their minds and hearts with God’s Word. Many young people come back from camp on a “spiritual high” because they’ve actually tasted the greatness of God and His Word. Spending time each day studying God’s word, hearing Bible lessons, praying together and singing praises to God will do that to you! Afterwards, it’s an opportunity for your home to take some new spiritual directions because your child is on your team, rather than opposing what you want to do as a family spiritually.

  But Christian camp isn’t only for kids. All of us, even sophisticated adults, need times like this too. Most of us would do well to take a page from the Christian camp handbook. We can make our homes a place where our kids hang out with Christian friends, have limited technological distractions, spend time studying the Bible, singing praises to God and enjoying His creation. This summer why not determine to make your home a place where your kids are spiritually charged up all year long?

  At Grace Church we are a family…and family takes care of family! A constant theme of Scripture is of those in the family with more financial resources helping those who don’t have them. With our commitment to a new building, we rarely challenge you with other financial needs. Our new building is merely a tool to help us see lives changed. We are committed to investing generationally! Young people are our greatest hope to impact our world in the years to come.

  We have some families at Grace who can’t afford to send their child to camp. Or, they have several children and can’t afford to send all of them. We have families where going out to eat is big treat. For a few, they may need help with all of the costs. For most, they just need a little help.

  Because we believe this is so important, we’re asking those who can to please give to a Christian camp scholarship fund, along with their regular giving. We’ll then use this fund to assist families who wouldn’t be able to send their child to camp. Please understand, too, we’ll only be collecting these funds for scholarships this week and next Sunday. 

  Perhaps your own children are grown or you just feel passionate about investing in the next generation. Please pray about it and if the Lord lays it on your heart to help a child go to a Christian camp, then give accordingly. 

Looking for quality used Christian books and other types of books at prices lower than even Amazon. Check out our family's online used bookstore at resurrectedreads.com or visit our store at the Waterford Unique Antique Market at 209 North Milwaukee Street in Waterford, WI --  262.534.3500. 

Kids are some of the best teachers!

"Adults are just outdated children" Dr. Seuss

  Okay, I’ll confess. I’m a “kid’s guy.” There’s something about working with kids that I find so fulfilling. Fortunately, I married a “kid’s gal.” My wife, Jane, loves working with kids, too. You’ll rarely see either of us so animated and full of energy than when we’re working with kids. Kids have taught me so many lessons over the years, lessons I hope I never forget.

  Stephen. I think that was his name. I’m not sure but I can still see him in my mind’s eye some forty years later. He was about eight. It was the summer of 1977. I was a counselor at a Camp in New York, in the Tri-State area where New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania come together. The Camp was called, (no, I’m not making this up) Camp Robin Hood. It focused on ministering to kids from the New York City area. Many of whom had no church background and had never been in the great outdoors.  

  The camp was very rustic. It was built during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. None of the cabins had electricity or plumbing. The bathroom was up a fairly steep hill, some two hundred feet away from the cabins. Camp lasted for twelve days, so you really got to know your campers. Each cabin had seven or eight kids per counselor and Stephen was horrible. Whatever I asked him to do, he did the opposite. If I was sharing devotions, he was horsing around. If I told the kids to go one place, he started heading the other. I was one of the lifeguards. Yet, even around the water, Stephen didn’t listen and it really scared me. I was only seventeen. It was my first ministry and my first camp experience – and I yelled, all the time. I found myself yelling and yelling at Stephen but it didn’t do any good. I was walking by the Camp Director’s cabin one night. I’d just been yelling at Stephen again and Tim, the Camp Director, gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever heard for working with kids. He gently told me, “Scott, these kids tuned out yelling when they were about two years old. They’re always being yelled at. They’ve been yelled at so much, they don’t hear it anymore.” Right there, I stopped yelling. It’s rare for me to raise my voice. In a loud world, a quiet approach goes a lot further, especially with kids.

  Leroy. Leroy taught me about how bad a bad family can be on a child. Leroy was also in that first group of boys I had in my cabin. He was nearly angelic. I never had a problem with him. He was quiet, non-assuming, though he always looked just a little sad. Until about the last day or so before the kids were to go home, Leroy was nearly perfect but then he became one of my worst campers. I couldn’t believe it. I finally asked him what was going on and he said, “I don’t want to go home.” Later, I found out Leroy had four or five siblings, all with a different Dad. Home life was so horrible that he’d rather stay at a camp with “camp food,” no electricity or indoor plumbing than go “home.”

  Hanna and Joey. Those two taught me how resilient kids are. This was back when many church’s had bus routes and would go out to pick up kids, and bring them to Sunday School. Our church bus picked them up every week. In the winter, their coats were threadbare and Mom sent them out in a t-shirt or with a light dress. It was her chance to sleep in from a night of partying. Lots of different men moved in and out of their apartment in the two years I was in charge of having them picked up on my bus. Looking back, it must have been pretty horrible, yet they were two of the sweetest kids. Mom shoved them out the door and went back to bed. They probably were abused, yet other than the signs of poverty, you never would have known it. In spite of all that was wrong, they both loved their Mom. 

  Marty Wright. I’ll never forget Marty and probably neither will any of the other kids in his youth group. Yet, I really didn’t know Marty. We were on a winter retreat, playing Capture the Flag in the snow and thirteen year-old Marty had a heart attack and died. My first real encounter with Marty was bending over him in the snow, trying to remember how to give CPR. There had been no heart history. It just happened and Marty was gone. It took me a long time to get over it. There’s something about someone’s life, particularly someone so young, seeping out right in front of you. Marty taught me the unforgettable lesson about the fragility of life.

  Lisa, Jeff, Tammy, Tina, Paul, Camille, Darlene and Diane. There were others in that youth group in Detroit, those eight though, will always stick out in my mind. They taught me a powerful lesson – never underestimate teenagers. We worked through the book of Philippians. I was about as green as freshly mowed grass. But they dug in. They wanted to grow. They loved the Lord and wanted to really know Him. Amazingly, over three decades later, though their lives haven’t been a cake walk, though some of them have gone through some very deep waters, seven of them today are still seeking to serve the Lord. They still love Him and want to do the right thing. Tina though had another appointment, one Thanksgiving weekend. None of us saw it coming. Her car slid out of control on an icy road, and that young mother of four went Home to be with Jesus. She was so vibrant, full of life, truly one of a kind, faithful to Christ. We still dearly miss her.

  There have been so many others. Many of them right here at Grace. I love to hear that they still love Jesus, that they’re still growing in grace. It’s exciting to watch them become parents, even grandparents.

  But there’s one more that was like an adopted son to Jane and I, Rick. This young man lived with his Mom and two sisters. He didn’t have a Dad in his life or really any masculine influence. Those of you who know how unhandy I am will probably find this funny. Because even with my limited resources, I taught Rick how to mow a lawn and how to fish. The reality of being a positive influence is that you don’t have to know a lot, you just maybe have to know a little more than the person you’re mentoring. Thirty years later, the kid who should have been a statistic is now a man who loves Jesus and is still serving Him. They love him at his church in Danville. It’s so fulfilling for Jane and I to see how God is using Rick all these years later.

  I don’t know about you but I’m a kid person. There’s just something about shaping a life for the Lord, working with wet cement. Many of you are doing the same. For some, it’s your children. For others, it’s your grandchildren. For many, it’s just because you care about young lives and see ministering to them as your way to honor the Lord! Only eternity will fully reveal the difference you’ve made and all of the lives you’ve touched! “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 19:14).

Looking for quality used Christian books and other types of books at prices lower than even Amazon. Check out our family's online used bookstore at resurrectedreads.com.