Stop the BB’s!

No, this is not a rant against BB guns. I was reading in Colossians 1 this morning, and I learned something that was a blessing to me, and since the point of this blog is to share what I’m learning (manthano - i am learning) I thought I would share it.

In one of my undergrad classes, an adjunct teacher (who happens to be a pastor), challenged us that our prayers for others should be more than “BB” prayers. What’s a “BB” prayer, you ask? You know, “bless ‘em, be with ‘em.”¹ So if we aren’t to pray “BB” prayers, how should we pray for other believers? In Colossians 1 where I was reading this morning, Paul recounts how he prayed for the Colossians. So let’s look at his prayer, and perhaps use it as a model to frame our prayers for brothers and sisters in Christ. [Ok, so maybe I've lapsed into preaching.. too bad, Bible majors are prone to do that ] There are a lot of references in the rest of this post, but you should just be able to hover over them and they should show up in a little box.

Paul tells the Colossians that he began his prayer with thanksgiving for two specific things about the Colossians (Col. 1:3). In Col. 1:4-6, he tells them that he is thankful for their faith in Christ, that is, their salvation, and also for the evidence of that salvation. The primary evidence is their love to all the saints or other believers, but it also shows itself in their hope of heaven (Col. 1:5) and the work of the gospel in their lives in bearing fruit. So in applying Paul’s prayer, when we pray for other believers we should thank God for their salvation and the evidence we see of that salvation, again, primarily love toward other believers (John 13:35; 1 John 4:7-8, etc.). But also their expectancy of heaven, or as it’s often put, their “living in light of eternity” and the fruit that has appeared in their lives through the power of the gospel.

Col. 1:7-8 are kind of a parenthesis while Paul expresses his appreciation for the ministry of Epaphras in presenting the gospel to them originally. (Remember, Paul has never visited the Colossian church.) He only knows about them through their pastor Epaphras whom he’s met there in prison.

Paul continues the recounting of His prayer in Col. 1:9, this time focusing on the requests he has made to God for them. In Col. 1:9-14 there appear to be four primary requests. The first request is that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, or in other words that they might know God’s will. This is not necessarily talking about what might be called the future will of God (things like who am I going to marry, where will I go to college, what ministry does God want me to have, etc.) although it certainly applies, but I believe Paul is more specifically referring to the present will of God. He’s referring to things like abstinence from immorality (1 Thess. 4:13), refusing to conform to the world (Rom. 12:2), serving God wholeheartedly (Eph. 6:6), counseling believers, not taking vengeance, following what is good, always rejoicing, always praying, giving thanks for everything, being sensitive to the Spirit, having a good attitude toward preaching, being discerning, not doing anything that might look like evil (1 Thess. 5:14-22), submitting to every ordinance of man (1 Pet. 2:13-15), possibly enduring suffering (1 Pet. 3:17; 1 Pet. 4:19), and not living to please self (1 Pet. 4:2). And this list isn’t exhaustive by any means.

Paul’s second request is not only that they would know God’s will but also that they would obey it, or “walk worthy of the Lord” (Col. 1:10). He gives three ways they can do that. One, do what fully pleases God. What is pleasing to God? A couple quick examples are obeying parents (Col. 3:20) and sacrificial giving (Phil. 4:18), but there are many more. Two, bear fruit through good works. We know what fruit is. The Bible tells us of the Spirit in Gal. 5:22-23 and the essential virtues of the Christ-centered life in 2 Peter 1:5-8 (hmm… somebody ought to write a book about that…). And it’s through their works that they demonstrate that fruit. Three, increase in their knowledge of God, or as I often put it, grow in their relationship with God.

But how are they or anyone else going to do all this? Paul’s third request — that they might be strengthened with His glorious power. Obviously they can’t obey God’s will, do what pleases Him on their own (Phil. 2:13). And this glorious power has some side benefits, you might say. It results in joyful patience and endurance. When they know that it’s God doing it, and not them, they don’t have to worry about it, which bring joy rather than frustration. They can patiently endure because they know He is in control and will accomplish His will in His time.

Paul’s final request is that the Colossians might also give thanks to the Father for what He has done in their lives. Paul mentions 3 specific things that they should give thanks for: their eternal inheritance (Col 1:12), their deliverance from the realm of darkness and deliverance to the realm of the Son (Col. 1:13), and their redemption and forgiveness (Col. 1:14). We are to pray that other believers would be thankful that God has given them a home in heaven, that He has delivered them from Satan and delivered them to His Son, and that through His Son He has redeemed and forgiven them.

A lot better than “bless ‘em and be with ‘em.” Here’s a brief outline of Paul’s prayer.

Thank You for… (Col. 1:4-6)
saving them (v. 4a)
the evidence I see of Your saving them (v. 4b-6)
love for others (v. 4b)
hope of heaven (v. 5a)
the gospel bearing fruit (v. 5b-6)
Help them to… (Col. 1:9-14)
Know Your will (Col. 1:9)
Obey Your will (Col. 1:10)
by doing what pleases You
by bearing fruit
by growing in their relationship with You
Depend on your strength that produces joyful patience and endurance (Col. 1:11)
Thank You (Col. 1:12-14)
for their home in heaven (Col. 1:12)
for their deliverance from Satan and deliverance to Your Son (Col. 1:13)
for their redemption and forgiveness (Col. 1:14)

Week 10: COR… Counselors Occupied Rigorously

Yes, as you can probably tell by the title, this was a busy week. We often joke about COR (Counselor on Rotation) standing for Counselor on Relaxation, but that was not the case this week. We did the most varied jobs that i’ve ever done while on COR. Here’s a partial list of what we did: sorted soda/pop/coke can from the trash, security, supervised the boat docks, moved picnic tables, restocked soda machines, inventoried air conditioner filters, scrubbed algae off of 25 boats, deep-cleaned the guys floor of the JBC dorm , cleaned trash cans, set up for games, set up water for after the games, prevented guy/girl mingling in the dark after evening games, deep-cleaned Willie & Sarah’s new house, and helped Willie and Sarah move to their new house.

Most of those things are normal COR responsibilities, with the exception of the cleaning the Partin’s house and helping them move, but they don’t normally all happen in the same week. But as it was the last week, they wanted to get as much done as possible. Normally there is some time set aside for us to sleep on COR, but there wasn’t any of that this week. So why was i helping Willie and Sarah move? Well, one of the families at the camp, the Del Porto’s, are moving to Arizona to help with a camp out there. Also, Willie and Sarah are starting to outgrow the trailer they are living in right now. So it was decided that they should move into the house where the Del Porto’s were living. They moved out in the first half of the week, so on Thursday after supper we went over and deep cleaned what was the Del Porto’s house (vacuumed, scrubbed floors, washed windows, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, etc). We actually ended working through the service, as we have an early service on Thursday. Then on Friday after supper with a couple of the full time guys (Rand, Ranger Rick, Matt Herbster, Matt Tracy, etc) we moved almost everything from their trailer to their new house. I must say about 10 guys with about 5 pickup trucks is an exciting way to move. So Willie and Sarah are moved into a larger house now, which is good as i believe Sarah is expecting again (i forget exactly when). I believe the Taylors are moving into the trailer that Willie and Sarah were in. They just had their first little guy, Braden, a couple weeks ago.

As I didn’t have campers this week, i got to be a prayer partner for one of the other counselors on my team. It was neat to see God work in the life of one his campers in particular. On Thursday night he came out and got a lot of things right (music, friends, attitude, etc) and then on Friday I got to counsel him after the service and he surrendered to full time Christian service. That was pretty neat.

When I was a camper, one of my favorite things about camp was Christian Life Seminar. Christian Life Seminar (CLS) is service where one of the camp staff (Rand, Matt, Willie, or Scott this year) preaches/teaches on an area that teens particularly struggle with. It’s a very practical session. During CLS the counselors have off for choir practice or personal time and sometimes required nap time depending on the day, so CLS is also know as Counselors Like Singing, Sleeping, Socializing, Surfing (the net) etc. On Tuesday Rand preaches a message to the Sr. High called “Global Warming, Aliens, and Dinosaurs.” The point of the message is that just as God’s Word has answers about these seemingly difficult questions, It has the answer to other questions teens face like Why don’t adults like my music? Why do I have to be careful how I dress? Why is there so much suffering in the world?, and etc. The Junior High get to hear Willie’s message called “Is God Pleased with What I Play?” talking about video games. On Wednesday CLS is combined and Rand preaches a message called “Pet Sins That Become Killer Monsters.” Just as our pets beg for attention and don’t stay small and cute, the same thing happens with “little” sin habits. It could also be subtitled, Just one Puff, Just one Sip, Just one Kiss as the “pet sins” that Rand deals with are smoking, drinking, and immorality. Thursday there is no CLS as the church groups get together for their family reunion time of testimony and snacks. On Friday, Matt Herbster preaches to the senior high on “Why You Should Go to a Christian College” and Scott preaches to the junior high on “The Truth about God, Tragedies, and Natural Disasters.” Just as I always did, many of the teens seem to enjoy these services and they provide great material for counselors to ask questions about later (since we weren’t there and they don’t know we’ve already heard them).

Well, as I write this final note for this summer, I’m back at BJU. My GAship resumes Monday morning, and my boss has already communicated to us that she is looking forward to seeing us at 8:30 tomorrow. And so another semester begins. I’ll be taking Hebrew and New Testament Introduction this semester, both of which are known as difficult classes, as well as a preacher boys class. I would appreciate your prayers, especially in regards to Hebrew. I’m looking forward to learning it, but dreading the process at the same time :). Thank you so much for your prayers for me at camp this summer. It has been so amazing to see God work in my life and in the lives of my campers for yet another summer.

Week 9: More energy than a hyperactive kid

Thank you very much for your prayers this week. The Lord was very good this last week of JBC. I could tell people were praying and my energy level was was amazing for week 9. Normally by this time you can tell the counselors’ wagons are draggin’, but I had as much energy as I’ve had all summer. Which was good, as I did have a very hyperactive camper this week. He was diagnosed with ADHD, and although I don’t agree with the vast majority of behavioral diagnoses (in my opinion, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is better understood as Adults Don’t Discipline)), i could at least see why he would have been labeled as such. He had a lot of energy! But God gave me more, and it was me who was running down the hill while he dragged behind rather than the other way around.

The speaker this week at JBC was Mike Wessburg, he travels as a team with Rich Tozour who was preaching for the teen camp. The juniors enjoyed his magic tricks and dummy Stanley. None of my guys made decisions in the services, but as we talked one on one with several of them decided to get serious about their devotions and other things. I talked with the hyperactive kid after lights out one night (he wasn’t going to sleep anyway ) and he was able to nail down the assurance of his salvation. All the guys pictured above are my ROBOTS, the one in the picture on the left playing tube tug is the same guy that is on the left in the picture on the right. He, the hyperactive kid, and the hyperactive kid’s older brother (center guy, center picture) were all from Wilson, NC, where I used to live, but they go to a different church than we did. Three of my other campers were from the Brevard area, and I actually saw two of them at church this morning.

Well, only one more week of camp, and as I will be on COR (counselor on rotation), this last week was my last set of campers. That’s kind of sad as they may have been my last campers ever, depending on what I do next year. So what is COR, you ask? Well, see my explanation from last year, week 3. Yes, all these notes are posted on my blog for your perusal and enjoyment. So rather than repeat that from last year, I will give you a different “in depth” look of one of the favorite activities from JBC, the game show…. “Spin That Wheel!” Rather than have an elaborate funtime in JBC like we do in teen camp, we have what is known as the JBC game show. It combines elements of several game shows, largely Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right (and maybe some older ones I’m not familiar with). The standard teams of Red vs Blue are laid aside, and the classic battle of Boys vs. Girls is taken up. The announcer, Abe Abey (dressed to the “kilt” as a Scotsman - ha, ha, sorry bad pun - complete with accent) comes to the platform and introduces the host of the show, Big Bob “Woofer.” One final character is probably the kid’s favorite, Leonard (he’s a goofy brainless character that acts as the stagehand for the game show) Kids are called at random from the audience, introduced as holding the record of shopping for 27 straight hours (girls) or the largest booger collection (guys) and are invited to “Spin That Wheel!” On the wheel are different slices, such as various numbers of points, Song, Spar, and Skit. The kids continue spinning the wheel and collecting points until they land on a song, spar, or skit slice. (yes, the game is completely rigged, but the kids don’t seem to know or care). When they land on the song slice we all sing a crazy song together like…

Oh let me tell you a story about a computer named Charlie,
A computer i used to use
Until one day I fed him too much knowledge,
And he nearly blew a fuse.

(chorus)
He went Beep - O - Beep Beep
Rattle, Rattle Bing-Bang
Bing Bang Boing B-Boing

Then we do sound effect of lighting a match, setting off a fuse, and exploding… something like…

Fwshhhhhhhht!
Fsssssssssssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
BANG!

If they land on a skit slice, the team leaders come out and do skit like the wagon ride one they do at teen camp, or a classic, “The King and I” If you don’t know what that one is, ask my dad And if they land on a spar slice, the boys and girls have a little mini-game competition like a relay race to complete a giant board puzzle or a rearrange letters to spell certain words or put the shapes in a skill ball. Throughout the game there are various interruptions such as someone running in wanting to be on the game show because he can do a really good imitation of the chicken (stick a rubber glove on his head and blow is up until it pops), a policeman coming in and calling up one of the guy counselors to give him an “Ugly Violation,” etc. There are also breaks for a message from the sponsor, Jacques and Johnk’s Magic Shop. The great magician, Jacques, comes up to do a magic trick for the kids but messes it up and his lowly assistant Johnk ends up doing it instead. Also something that is said randomly reminds Abe Abey of his homeland of Scotland and he goes into a soliloquy of how great Scotland is and how they were never conquered, etc until he realizes where he is and abruptly stops. It’s a lot of fun! So know you know about America’s most under-watched, overrated game show, “Spin That Wheel!”

This coming week is half teen camp, half family camp. Rusty Smith will the speaker for the teens and Jim Binney will be the speaker for their parents. The younger kids will either be with their parents or have a special service with some of the Wilds staff preaching/teaching. It’s much smaller week than the rest of the summer and about 30 of the counselors leave to go home after the last required service and Staff Appreciation Banquet tonight. Oh yes, we have more special eating tonight! Yum, yum, yum! For the Staff Appreciation Banquet the dining hall goes under a major transformation with tablecloths, candles, placemats, etc. At the end of the banquet the Spark Plug awards will be given out as well as the best cabin cheer award. Spark Plug awards are given to the most servant-minded, encouraging op staff guy and girl and counselor guy and girl.

Well, as usual, my laundry is about done, so I’ll end this brief, err…. maybe not so brief note. Thanks so much for your prayers. Next week at this time I’ll be in Greenville, preparing to start another semester.

Week 8: ROBOTS?

Hello all! Wow, i can’t believe there are only two weeks left! What was that about time flying when you are having fun? Well I have certainly been having lots of fun and it does seem that time has just flown right by without even waving!

Ok, so I’m sure you’re wondering what ROBOTS has to do with my week. Well, it certainly doesn’t describe the mechanical obedience of my campers, although they weren’t too bad. Nor does it have to do with any of the skits or other crazy things going on a JBC (other than crazy me ). In JBC, we don’t have cabin names like at teen camp (Varmint, Monsoona, Misery, Toad Island, etc). Instead we just have Barracks numbers (mine is 114). But when you want your campers (and in JBC they have to be with you almost all the time except for when you’re at the GHQ (General Head Quarters - where all the services, store (PX), Canteen, etc are)) (how many nested parentheticals was that?) it doesn’t sound cool to call out “Barracks 114!” so the counselors come up with their own terms to call their troops. So we were the ROBOTS. To everybody else, they thought we were just using the term in its normal robotic fashion - mechanical robots that are really cool. But we knew that ROBOTS was a secret acronym… Royal Order Bearers Of The Savior (which, btw, is not original with me, it come from the BJ film Treasure Map). At the beginning of the week, they didn’t understand what that phrase meant, it just sounded cool, but each night in cabin devotions I explained a little bit more of the phrase and how we are ROBOTS, not just at camp, but that we need to go home and act like royal children of the King, declaring His message to others because of what our Savior has done for us in not only saving us from sin but from self as well. So, now that you know what ROBOTS are, you can put your mind at ease and continue reading the rest of this epistle

As you can probably tell, I had a great week up at JBC. I always enjoy hearing Big Bob Roberts and the Lord used him to work in the hearts of my guys in various ways. Several made decisions regarding their personal devotions and really had a desire to get more out of God’s Word. Several others made decisions regarding their TV and video game habits as well.

One of the things that the WILDS has in place to help us summer staff is a program called PDA (no, they don’t give us palm pilots ) PDA instead stands for Personal Discipleship and Accountability. We are given a notebook at the beginning of the semester that has a bible study for each week we are here this summer. Then on Monday morning after choir practice we meet in small groups to discuss what we learned. This summer we are studying through on how to be a Useful Tool. This past week’s study was entitled “run away” and focused on . We studied how we need to be cleansed from youthful lusts or passions in order to be the right kind of vessels or tools for God to use to impact the lives of our campers. And not only do we need to cleansed of that which is impure, but we need to pursue that which is godly and be set apart and ready for God to use. I don’t have my book right here with me or I would give some more details, as it has personally been a very spiritually challenging study, helping me re-evaluate how earnestly I’m pursuing being a useful tool that God can use.

Yesterday we had our staff parties. Each staff group (counselors, lifeguards, waitresses, landscape, etc) gets together and has a time of eating, relaxation, entertainment, and did I mention eating? As counselors we had steaks on the grill served alongside Owl’s Frothy Limeade (scrabble scramble allusion, maybe the teens will get it). Then the lead counselors did some skits about being a counselor or lead counselor such as reactions to medical slips, giving an honor camper presentation, etc. and we played some games and watched a slideshow of the counselors and ate brownies and ice cream! Afterwards several of the guys got together and began sharing stories of childhood injuries which was humorous as well, complete with Brian Regan imitations (Get some leaves! - and if you have no idea what i’m talking about by that, don’t worry about it ) Basically we just enjoyed some goof off time

Next week we will have Michael Wessburg as our speaker at JBC. I’ve never heard him before so I’m looking forward to what he will bring. That will be my last week in JBC, as there isn’t JBC week 10. I’ll probably be on COR, since I haven’t done that yet, and then it will be back to BJU to get back to work at the Media Center before the semester starts. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Week 7: Prayer partners and answered prayer

Thanks once again for your prayers. I can’t believe there are only 3 more weeks of camp. Aaaaah! That’s too soon to go back to school!

The Lord was very good this week as He continued to show me that He doesn’t need me to work in the lives of my campers. I had a couple challenging campers this week who would not open up to me and let me help them with the needs in their lives. Of two campers I was particularly burdened for, one was unsaved and the other was a very bitter pastor’s kid. In fact it was the supposedly saved pastor’s kid that acted the worst most of the time. And the other guy, despite admitting to me that he was unsaved, he refused both after the services and during freetime to let me share the gospel with him and get that taken care of. Wednesday and Thursday I spent almost the entire God and I time as well as some of CLS pleading with God to change them. They had both come to camp several times before and left unchanged. On Thursday night my prayer partner gave his testimony during cabin devotions. He had basically run from the Lord all through high school until his senior year when during a football game his leg snapped as the result of a tackle. As his football scholarships no longer did any good, he headed to a Christian college where he got involved in the wrong crowd and for a while was kind of their leader. But God in his grace began to cause him to get caught in the wrong things he was doing, to the point that he almost shipped and was given an hour and a half to get off the campus. But some additional details came up, and he was given a second chance. His life made a drastic turnaround. As he shared this with my guys, they began to open up and for no apparent reason (apart from the working of God) began to publicly admit being involved in numerous sins that they had hidden from their parents and youth pastors - bitterness, drinking, immorality, etc. Several of them came outside the cabin with my prayer partner and me to talk about these things, and several talked to my prayer partner on Friday during freetime as well. Although I did not see everything change that I would liked to (the one guy did not get saved for example), and some of the guys may have just been wanting to relieve themselves of the guilt they felt by telling us about their sin, rather than repenting of it, they at least were able to get some biblical principles of how to deal with their specific sins and were encouraged to let their parents know what was going on too. I found their youth pastor later in the week and shared with him what they had told us as well, so he could follow up with them when they got home. Please continue to pray for the two guys i mentioned specifically as well as two other guys that are dealing with similar issues.

Saturday I got a rare opportunity to go see 3rd falls. If you’ve been to the Wilds for any length of time, you’ve probably seen 1st, 2nd, and 4th falls, and maybe even Stairstep falls, as pretty much anybody can go to them. But as trips to 3rd falls have to be led by a full time staff member and in groups of 12 or less, they are a lot less frequent. In fact, even though I’ve worked here 3 years now, this is the first time i’ve been. The hike isn’t too difficult (about how 2nd falls used to be before they put in all the stairs), but there’s not a whole lot of room to stand and look at the falls and it’s pretty much right at the top of 4th falls, so any slip into the water could be pretty deadly… If you’ve been to 4th falls, you’ve passed the trail to 3rd on the way back, but unless you know it’s there you wouldn’t see it. So anyway, i was very glad to get the opportunity to see that.

Since my prayer partner factored in to my week so significantly, let me take a few moments to talk about prayer partners. Each week the counselors are paired with someone on op staff as a prayer partner. Every morning during counselor meeting (that is if their lead remembers) each counselor is given a list of their campers names that they write different initials after something like this…

….
Joe Camper A, Bit, D, Dr, M, Dev, Fr
Jim Teenager Pr, Par, TV, R/V
….

and etc. Each set of initials stands for a different area of concern in that campers life. The ones listed above would be… Assurance, Bitterness, Dedication, Dress, Music, Devotions, Friends, Pride, Parent/Authority, TV, Reading/Viewing (i.e. pornography). Yep, we kinda have our own secret code Anyway, these slips are given to the prayer partners so they can pray about these different issues. Sponsors are also given an opportunity to provides areas of concern about their teens as well, and ones that sponsors provide are underlined. If the campers make a decision about one of the areas, we draw a circle around the initials. Prayer partners also typically sit with your cabin during the evening services, try to get together and do things with the cabin during free-time if they aren’t working, and give cabin devotions one night. It’s a great program as it allows the op staff to have a more intimate connection with the campers and, of course, increases the prayer for those campers.

Well, the week I have been waiting for all summer has arrived! I’m finally in JBC (Junior Boot Camp). As there are only two teams in JBC, red and blue, I won’t be on the white team, this week. Instead I will be the RED team! The theme in JBC is Sky Wars so my team mascot will be the Falcons (F-16), while the blue team’s mascot is the Hornets (F-18). The speaker in JBC this week will be my good friend Bob Roberts, who, in my opinion, is the best preacher to junior age young people I know. He’s also the founder and director of Kids for Truth (www.kids4truth.com). I’m looking forward to hearing from him this week. Well, my laundry is about done, so it’s time to sign off. Thanks again for your prayers!

Week 6: Trust…

Wow! Only four weeks of camp left. What’s the saying about time flies…? Anyway, it was great to see our youth group and my family down this week. Keep praying not only for me, but also for our teens as they made some great decisions this week. Pray that they would remain faithful to God’s Word for that is the only way that will be able to keep those decisions. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from the Herbster brothers this week - Mark and Matt. They preached a great set of messages. To be honest, I wish I could have heard from Matt as much as I did from Mark, but there’s an odd number of days in the week, so that’s impossible to work out.

The Lord gave me a more challenging cabin this week, which was good for me, as I need to be stretched less I think I can counsel in my own strength. Keep praying for the teens in my cabin too, they have rough road ahead of them unless they make some significant changes in their relationship with the Lord. I did have one guy surrender to full-time ministry which was encouraging, but the majority of my guys had little or no heart for God and no desire to change. One of them was the cousin of one of the counselors and he did make a decision with regards to friends and authority, but it didn’t affect his behavior the rest of the week. I’ll just keep trusting God that he will change them. (thus the title this week). He doesn’t need me. There was another reason for the title this week, but as this note is going to be really long, you can ask me later for that explanation.

Well, as has become my custom, now that our teens have been to camp, I can tell you about one of my favorite parts of the week - Funtime! The theme this year is “Campaign for Sheriff” set in the Old West. The two candidates are Lefty, a notorious outlaw that’s trying to take over the town but has put on a “new face” in order to win the election - played by Rand Hummel (think Patch the Pirate’s Tumbleweed Opera - same character he does for the voice for in that, Wyatt Burp?) The other candidate is Willie the Kid who grew up in the town and know what it stands for. Willie the Kid, of course is played by Willie Partin. The program opens with several political ads by Lefty and Willie in which Lefty tries to show he can be gentle (playing dollies with some little girls, giving horsie rides, etc.), etc. When the commercials end the Fajito Bandito interrupts bearing “geefts” (water balloons) which he throws into the crowd. He reappears randomly throughout the program interacting both with the audience the guys on stage eventually getting a come-uppance at the end. He goes to take a siesta and two cowboys (Scott Ashmore and Matt Taylor) are interrupted in their singing around the campfire by a jail break (complete with flour bomb) by “Boss” (Matt Herbster) and “Squeaky” (Steve Endres). They hop on a wagon with Fajito to make their escape, but the wagon ends up just being an amusement ride (one of those kind that are outside of stores and cost a quarter). Willie appears on the scene and orders them to back in jail but they ignore him because he’s just a deputy and not the sheriff. Willie states that he’s going to be the sheriff which brings Lefty onto the scene, who challenges him to a duel. The shyster quack Dr. Vortex (Ken Collier) and his assistant “Smiley” (Scott Ashmore) break up the duel and sell Willie the Old West Edition of Scrabble for “24 easy payments of $19.95″ which is guaranteed to settle any argument. So Lefty declares that whoever wins the Scrabble game will be the next sheriff of the town. He then plays words like “Zepolay” (a polish poptart), “Qzizcle” (lithuanian nosehair trimmer), and Qiznart (hungarian vegetable) which totals 374 points with all the double and triple letter and word scores to Willie’s “Rue” - 3 points. Just as all hope seems lost, Willie realizes that each word Lefty has played has had at least 1 “Z,” and as everybody knows, “there’s only 1 ‘Z’ in a Scrabble bank!” Foiled in his cheating a name-calling contest begins in which Lefty calls Willie every name he can think of from “A-Z… Airhead, Buffoon, Clown, Dingbat… Upchuck, Varmint, Weasel, X, Yahoo, and Zero!” Willie is at loss but then begins reading the ingredients off his Frosted Flakes box - “You’re nothin’ but milk, corn, sugar,… riboflavin, vitamin B, and preservatives, you big frosted flake!” Lefty gives and rides off with his gang on their stick horses promising to be back. Meanwhile “Boss” and “Squeaky” break out of jail again and go over the details of “The Plan” - which is basically an elaborate method of walking into the Emporium and buying a watch. But “Squeaky” is thinking and asks, “Uh, Boss, how come is doesn’t sound like we’re doing anything illegal?” “Boss” blows up at “Squeaky” forwanting to jeopardize the whole “Plan” which he has spent months working on for the sake of stealing the watch. Willie appears again and unsuccessfully attempts to get the crooks back in jail. Doc Vortex pops up and convinces Willie he needs to take classes in Tai-Kwan-Leap. The lessons begin, but Willie is impatient with all the philosophizing and wants the instructor to teach him “some nifty moves so he can start trashin’ some bozos.” The instructor then painfully introduces Willie to the “Boot to the Head” maneuver, and Willie collapses on the floor. “Squeaky” tries the maneuver on the instructor and also ends up on the floor. Then the entire class gangs up on the instructors and they all end up on the floor while the instructor (”Smiley”) takes their money. Doc Vortex comes out again and peddles his amazing new product - “The Vortex Safety Top Easy-Opening Medicine Bottle” which keeps dangerous medication away from little children (”and also older adults who need it to survive, but we’re working on that”). However the despite the use of a hammer, grinder, chainsaw, and pistol, the top fails to come off the bottle, and Doc Vortex flees amidst a throng of angry would-be investors who have been swindled. Lefty makes another appearance and Willie tells him he doesn’t want to be a lawman anymore. Instead he wants to be a cattle-punchin’ driver (Moooo! *punch*) after singing a song about eatin’ up rawhide, Willie decides he doesn’t want to be a cattle driver either, instead he wants to do “somethin’ different” like be a big game hunter. he pulls out his six-shooter and proceeds to shoot up “Monopoly” and “Old Maid” Lefty explains that a big game hunter doesn’t hunt those things, he hunts “vicious, wild animals.” Willie then explains he wants to hunt the fearsome “gnu” of the wilds of Austrailia. Lefty informs him that there aren’t any left. Willie responds, “Oh well, you know what they say… ‘no gnus is good gnus!’” He then reveals his real wish is to be a classical yodeling cowboy. Lefty doesn’t believe Willie can yodel (because the bylaws of the town state that the next sheriff has to know how to yodel) so Willie begins a classical performance of yodeling which convinces Lefty that he really can yodel. So Lefty gives up and declares Willie the next Sheriff. As sheriff, Willie declares that his first act will be to announce a pizza party for the whole town! But he doesn’t stop there, he announces that the campers can sleep in, there will be no cabin cleanup, and that they will be served breakfast in bed! As the campers head out for the pizza party a “blooper” reel plays on the screens. During the pizza party, “The Wilds Bunch” plays a bunch of western and other silly songs. One of my favorites is called foolish questions. It goes something like this…

Now you’ve all heard foolish questions, and no doubt you’ve wondered why
the person who always asks them expects a sensible reply.
Have you ever taken your girl a box of candy, say right after tea?
Have you noticed how she’ll grab it then say… “Is this for…. me?”
Foolish Questions..
Well you answer if you can,
uh.. no. It’s for your father, or John the hired hand.
I just wanted you to see it, now i’ll take it away.
Now wasn’t that a foolish question, you’ll hear ‘em every day.

There are four verses, here’s another, probably my favorite….

Now you’ve all met the man, who’ll meet you on your way
He’ll ask you where you’re going, and then listen while you say:
“Oh I’m going to the funeral, poor old Uncle Ned…”
Just as soon as you’ve told ‘em this, he’ll say… “Oh? Is Ned dead?”
Foolish Questions…
Well you might as well reply…
Uh… no. He just thought he’d have his funeral now, then later on he’d die
Old Ned was so original, just wanted things that way
Now wasn’t that a foolish question, you’ll hear ‘em every day.

Yes… I have memorized almost all of the funny songs. Still working on a couple, but I should have them before the end of the summer. They end with a few patriotic songs and send the camper off to bed, while i try to convince them that they weren’t serious about the sleeping in and breakfast in bed and such It normally works

I guess I should also say that is a normal funtime. Last week, as most of you know, was not normal as Willie had his appendix taken out Wednesday morning, and thus was unable to play his part in funtime. Instead Matt played the role as “Herbie the Kid” with a slightly different slant. It was still very good. In fact, i’m going to go watch a repeat of it in about 20 mins, since our videographer recorded the whole thing.

Well, last night was our SPP (Summer Prayer Partner) banquet at BJ so all the staff loaded up and traveled down to Greenville for that. It was a great time of testimony, music, fellowship… and food! Then tonight we had a required service. Matt Tracy, one of the head cooks gave a shorter devotional type message on identification in Christ. Then several more of the counselors and op staff shared testimonies. Then as usual after a required service we had a special meal in the dining hall. This time it was pizza. But it wasn’t the common Dominos that we get at the pizza party every week. It was specialty pizza, stuff like supreme, BBQ Chicken, deep-dish bacon, etc. All very yummy.

Well, i think this is the longest one of these notes I’ve written yet. Next week good ‘ole Tom “Double Barrel” Farrell will be back for round three. I’ll still be on Senate shift, and hopefully I’ll actually get a sr. high cabin this week. (Although I was on Senate (sr. high) shift this last week I had all 9th graders except for one 11th grader.) Thanks for your prayers.

Week 5: More fun with junior high

Well, it’s hard to believe the summer is half over already, or maybe i should be optimistic say it’s only half begun Can’t wait to see those of you that are coming this week! I had another great group of guys this week. One of them was the younger brother of a camper i had back in ‘05, the first year I counseled. The interesting thing about that is that last year i had the younger brother of the other camper in my cabin from that church in ‘05. I guess they like putting that youth group in my cabin. (both of these older brothers that I had in ‘05 go to BJ and ride our bus to and from for Thanksgiving and Christmas). This week I also had two guys each from two other churches that i know about from school (Dr. Chuck Phelps former church in NH and Gordon Dickson’s church in Findlay, OH). And to top it off i had a camper whose parents are missionaries to Austria. They all made good decisions and desired to continue to grow spiritually.

This weekend (yesterday) I volunteered to help out with the CIT activity. I was assigned to help out the cook, so I helped get the food ready and run it out the picnic area then assisted him as he grilled the burgers. When the food part was over and followed everybody up in the woods and helped out with the CIT game (capture the flag with flour bombs). My job was to pick up any flour bombs that were thrown but didn’t explode (duds) so that the CIT’ers couldn’t pick them up and “re-use” them. It was a lot of fun and we had some great food! Next weekend is the WILDS Summer Prayer Partner banquet at BJ, so I’ll be headed down to Greenville for that on Saturday, and hopefully pick up a copy of Dr. Berg’s new book which comes out tomorrow (Monday).

Well, i keep talking about the games so I guess I’d better explain them The first game we always play on Monday night is a WILDS classic: Big Ball! In Big Ball the object to to hit, push, propel, pummel, etc a 3′ (girls) or 4′ (guys) ball across your team’s line on one side of the field. If you hit between the flags in the center of your team’s line you get 5 points and anywhere across the line is 2 points. Tuesday morning we play two games, Circle Soccer and Clean Sweep. In Circle Soccer, a brand new game this year, one team stands around 1 half of the circumference of a circle, and another teams stands around the other half. In the middle are three offensive and two defensive players for each team. The guys standing around the edge are goalies. A point is scored when the soccer ball gets past the goalies without going over their heads. If it goes over their heads then the scoring team loses a point. Clean Sweep is a relay race. There are 7 lanes of runner for each team, and when the whistle sounds the first guy in each lane runs to the middle of a the field to retrieve an item. The items they can retrieve are footballs (5 pts) black bands (3 pts) frisbees (2 pts) and tennis balls (1 pt). They can only retrieve one item at a time. Tuesday night we play another brand new game called Scrabble Scramble. In Scrabble Scramble a random sentence is read out from the sound car (like “Owl sips frothy limeade” or “His seal ate my wildflowers”) The campers are separated into 6 different fields that play simultaneously. At each field, the first three campers in line for each team are quickly assigned a letter to retrieve, (like O - W - L). When the whistle blows the campers that make up the first word run out to the middle of the field where there is a pile of tennis balls with letters written on them. When all the campers in the first word have found their letter and showed it to the ref, they sit down and the campers that make up the next word go (S - I - P - S). Whatever team finishes the sentence first wins and gets a point. We play 6 or 7 rounds and which ever team has the most points wins. Wednesday we only play one game, the classic WILDS game, Cat-In-The-Hat. In this game, each camper is seated in a circle of buckets by cabin (one cabin from each team comprises a circle). There are about 30 circles. The campers are assigned the character of either Mother, Sally, or Fish. Rand then reads the story, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Whenever he says one of those three characters those campers have to jump up and change buckets with another person who has that character. If Rand reads the whole phrase “the Cat in the Hat” everybody has to get up and change buckets. But since there is one less bucket than there are campers in the circle, one guy is always left in the middle. If you’re stuck in the middle, your team gets a point and the team with the least points wins. Thursday morning we play a game called Tally-Rally Baseball, also known as 3-Ball Baseball or Run for Your Life. In this game three guys get up to bat at once and they throw, kick, or otherwise propel out into the field the following three items: a football (guys) or a kickball (girls), a frisbee, and a tennis ball. Once they throw their item they start running around the bases. 1st base is 0 points, 2nd base is 1 points, 3rd base is 3 points, and if they get all the way home they get 5 points. But if they are in between bases when the balls make it back to the bucket at home plate they don’t score any points. Thursday night we play a game a night after the service called Big Ball Volleyball. We play with 3 nets kinda positioned like a “Y” and 3 big balls. Each team is in one segment of the “Y” There are no out-of-bounds as long as the ball crosses the net inside the poles at the end of the net. If the ball touches the ground you get a point, and just like in regular volleyball, points are bad. Team with lowest score wins. Tired yet? Don’t worry, there’s only one more game. On Friday morning we play Tag-a-lot, another WILDS classic. This is another multiple field game. On each field there is a row of buckets spaced like this (pretend the o’s of the 8’s are buckets)
____________________________

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

____________________________

(basically sets of two buckets placed back to back with a little space in between each set). One team is seated on the buckets and the other team is lined up at one end of the field, ready to run. The team that is seated on the buckets (team A) wants to tag the runner from the other team (team B). Team A starts with one runner that has a baton, he is the tagger. You can only tag a runner from team B with a baton. When the music starts, team B sends out one runner. His object is to keep from being tagged and he can run anywhere on the field he wants except around the ends of line of buckets. The tagger (team A) has to stay on the side of the buckets that he starts on. If the runner (team B) is on the other side of the buckets the tagger (team A) has to pass the baton to someone seated on a bucket on the other side. When that person gets the baton they stand up and become the tagger, and the former tagger sits on the bucket where that person got up from. Of course, if the runner (team B) is smart, he’s run back through the buckets to the other side, and then tagger has to pass the baton back across and so forth. Each time the runner (team B) is tagged by the tagger (team A) then team B gets a point and the lowest score wins. When the song ends team A and B switch places and the game continues. It’s kind of complicated to explain but it’s a lot of fun to play. So in case any of you teens see this before you guys leave, that’s what you have to look forward to.

I’m on the Sr. high shift next week, so I may have some of you in my cabin. We’ll see. As you know, the speakers this week are the brother combo of Matt and Mark Herbster. I’m looking forward to it! Thanks for your prayers!

Week 4: Love those junior highers!

Thanks for your prayers once again. The Lord gave me another great group of campers. I’m starting to get apprehensive though that after all these good campers, i’m going to have a really challenging cabin soon. That’s ok, the Lord knows what I need and every cabin is appointed by him. Tom Farrell’s messages were challenging once again. Even though this is the second time I’ve heard his messages this summer, I still learn alot from them. In fact I like the second dose because i end up with a lot fuller set of notes. It’s hard to get everything the first time as he preaches at “90 MPH with gusts up to 120″

It was also encouraging to see the Lord work in the lives of my campers this week. Several made decisions about witnessing and bitterness, and one surrendered his life to full time service. Another camper that I was really burdened about responded after the Friday night service very broken about his sin and how he was trying to live the Christian life in his own strength. It was very encouraging to see his brokenness and desire to serve God wholeheartedly and get in the Word.

I think i mentioned this is one of my notes last year, but one of my favorite parts about working at the WILDS all summer has got to be the music. The counselor choir sings Monday, Wednesday, Thursday night and the combines with the Op staff choir on Friday night. The Op staff choir sings Tuesday night and a volunteer camper choir sings Thursday night as well. All of the songs that are sung during the week are available on the WILDS’ newest recording “God Meant It for Good.” Here is a list of the songs and when and/or who sings them.
Give Glory - counselor choir - Monday night
Am I Greater Than My Master? - Scott Ashmore - Monday night
Blessed Be the Lord - Op staff choir - Tuesday night
His Wondrous Love - Matt Herbster - Tuesday night
Deliverance Will Come - Men’s ensemble - Tuesday night
Amazing Grace - camper choir - Thursday night
Christ, Thine All in All - mixed ensemble - chapel
Teach Me Your Way, O Lord - Mrs. Craven - chapel
Come, Look Upon the Savior - men’s quartet - Wed night
Jesus, I Come - counselor choir - Wed night
The Sacrifice - Matt Taylor - Wed night
Wonderful Words of Life - counselor choir - SPP banquet (haven’t sung yet)
Thanksgiving in My Heart - counselor choir - Thursday night
Break Forth and Sing - men’s ensemble - Friday night
Peace, Be Still - Ladies’ ensemble - Thursday night
One With Christ - men’s quartet - Monday night?
I Will Never Leave You - Mac Lynch - chapel
God Meant It for Good - combined counselor and op staff choir with campers on final chorus - Friday night

As you might be able to tell, the chorus of God Meant It for Good is the theme song for the week. The words are below:

O I will serve the Lord my God, serve Him all my days.
I will serve the Lord my God, offer Him my praise.
O I will seek his plan for me, trust Him as I should.
O I will serve the Lord my God, for He is always good!

Well, I just finished (most of this was written on the way back from G’ville) a wonderful meal of BLT’s (or BL’s for me cuz i’m not crazy about tomatoes) and heard an excellent message on approaching God reverently by John Bott at our required service. I’ll have junior highers again next week and the speaker will be Will Galkin. He’s a younger guy and full of energy. I’m looking forward to hearing him. Thanks for your prayers!

Week 3… junior highers… need i say more?

Hello once again! Thanks so much for your prayers; I had a great week. Here at the WILDS we have a term we use to refer to jr. highers that was coined by Rand Hummel. That term is “pre-people,” but we love junior highers none the less. We love their excitement. Rand does this thing where he imitates the greeting he receives from the various grade levels. At 7th grade they’re jumping off the bus all excited jumping up and down and yelling, “Brother Rand! Brother Rand! Brother Rand!” 8th grade: “Brother Rand! Brother Rand!” 9th grade: “Brother Rand!” 10th: “Brother Rand” 11th: “Rand” 12th: *nod head*

I had a great week with my junior highers. We toasted our sister cabin again in Scripture memory with one of my guys having said all 5 passages by supper Monday night and all of them with at least one passage before team meeting. My campers made several spiritual decisions as well, the most notable being one of them getting rid of the pornography in his life. Dr. Goetch did an excellent job, and his Friday night message on surrender was phenomenal. It included his own dramatic testimony of his surrender to God. Ask me about it sometime, it’s too long to include here.

Some of you may be asking, so what does a counselor do all day? Glad you asked. Here’s a brief synopsis of a day in jr. high counselor’s life (schedule is different for sr. high):
6:30am - wake up, pray, meet with other guy Bull Moose counselors for strategy and prayer
7:00am - head back the cabin to get my guys out of bed and start cleaning the cabin
7:30am - shoo everybody out of the cabin so i can sweep the floor
8:00am - over half done with breakfast
8:30am - distribute camper’s money and work on Scripture memory
9:00am - Chapel, Willie preached for Jr. high this week
9:30am - Willie’s still preaching about Joseph
10:00am - God and I time, make sure campers are quietly working, spend time in prayer
10:30am - God and I time followup - discuss how to apply principles from Joseph’s life to ours
11:00am - join sr. high on the ballfield for a game
11:30am - coaching camper who returned with the wrong item for the 2nd time
12:00pm - lunchtime! my favorite, chicken sandwiches!
12:30pm - head down to the cabin to get ready for the swim test
1:00pm - swim time! (yes, you have to take the swim test)
1:30pm - following camper down tube slide
2:00pm - time to leave the lake, make sure all campers check out at the buddy board, talk to camper about family situation back home, silent prayer
2:30pm - let’s go tubing!
3:00pm - hmm, no tubes available so make that creek-stomping (upstream, of course)
3:30pm - time to fish campers out of the creek and send them to Christian Life Seminar (yes, you will be cold and wet, but i told you not to get wet before CLS)
4:00pm - ah, break time in the staff lounge while campers are at CLS
4:30pm - finish writing email in staff lounge and head to supper
5:00pm - late camper finally arrives at supper (this was a regular occurrence this week)
5:30pm - free time while sr. high eats supper (no, this is not a good time to go tubing)
6:00pm - get ready for evening game, talk to camper about his personal testimony and spiritual growth (we call this one-on-one)
6:30pm - game time!
7:00pm - “That’s an exclamation point, not an ‘i’! See the line under it?” (coaching camper again - this is a new game, i’ll describe the various games in a later note)
7:30pm - shower time! (”2 mins and we turn off the hot water!”)
8:00pm - scripture memory- “if we get all 25 passages tonight, I’ll let you sleep in tomorrow”
8:30pm - service time, walking back to seat after counselor choir number
9:00pm - Dr. Goetch still going strong
9:30pm - counseling camper about right response to authority after service
10:00pm - only 1 more passage to go! (didn’t get it til morning, but i was nice and let them sleep in anyway)
10:30pm - cabin devotions - “The most important thing in life is spending time with God”
11:00pm - Lights out! (seems the cabin across the way is having difficulty… ok, now they’re quiet)
11:30pm - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZ……

With several more quick prayers and lots of laughter sprinkled throughout.

I’ll be on jr. high again this week. Tom “Double-barrel” Farrell’s back for round two! Thanks again for your prayers!

Week 2: Ministering to girls too?

Thank you for your prayers this week. God blessed me with another great cabin. I had 9 senior high guys, 10th grade through high school grads. In fact one guy had to leave early to go take his ACT test in order to be accepted at the college he is planning to go to in the fall. I enjoyed and was challenged by brother Gleiser’s messages this week. All 9 of my campers responded positively as well. They listened well and were obedient for the most part. Several of them made good decisions about improving their devotional life, and others received assurance about their salvation.

You’re probably wondering about the title of my note this week. I’ll be honest, I normally view the girls at camp as distractions to my guys that keep them from doing what they should. And as the vast majority of guy/girl relationships between campers are immature and self-centered, i try to discourage them. Thus i normally don’t interact a whole lot with my sister cabin. We may do s’mores on Friday, but that’s about it. However this week during one of the meals my sister counselor planned some brother/sister cabin activities with the guys in my cabin (brother/sister counselors sometimes switch places for meals which is how this happened.) Her girls were supposed to tell me the plans, but evidently forgot. So i found myself and my cabin tubing, playing gazeeball, hiking to the shoals, doing s’mores, switching places for three meals, and running into them more frequently than usual around the campsite. As a result i was able to minister to them in a more personal way than normal which was a good thing. One more dramatic example was on Friday when we went to the shoals. One of the girls sprained her ankle badly and was unable to walk on it. So I, with the help of two of my older campers, ended up carrying her back to camp piggy-back. Not the most ideal situation, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances.

Well, since i’ve already mentioned a lot about the brother/sister cabin thing, i’ll make that my topic of camp life for this week. Officially the reason for brother/sister cabins is to help with cabin cheering (the girls are hard to hear just by themselves and the guys need some motivation to cheer in the first place). However several more things normally go on. You obviously sit together at meals so you can cheer together. You also sit together for all the services and other meetings in the Activity Center (orientation, final scoring, etc) except sr. high only Christian Life Seminars. Normally there is also a competition between the brother / sister cabins in Scripture Memory (so far the guys have been blowing the girls away in this). The loser of the Scripture Memory challenge may have to do any number of things such as sing a silly song in the dining hall (I’m a Little Teapot and You Are My Sunshine are favorites), roll around in the creek and/or sandlot volleyball court, have coke/shaving cream/other gunk dumped on them, or maybe if they’re lucky just pay for s’mores. Most brother/sister cabins also try to get together to do s’mores toward the end of the week which may include a hike out to a place to do the s’mores (Shoals, 1st, 2nd falls). If you have any other questions or have another area of camp life you would like to hear about please let me know either by email or posting a comment.

Next week I’ll should have jr. high campers (or as Rand Hummel calls them “pre-people” :P) Should be a lot of fun. The speaker next week is John Goetsch who was the speaker when our teens were at camp last summer, i believe. He has an amazing grasp of Scripture passages and enormous bank of, not just verses, but lengthy passages he pulls from in his messages. Thanks again for your prayers!