Let there be lights… and more lights… and more lights…

Everywhere you look… lights…and more lights…

We started off the day with spending time re-reading through Matthew 4.  There was hardly a better place to do that than on the grounds of Camp Tejas.  Picture this… cool crisp air, dew on the grass, tall pines, large oak trees, the sun on the horizon, the ripples in the water as the breeze blew across the water…. God’s word in your hand… nice!

Our work day began with finishing the light maze!  There are rules to wrapping the lights – only green going perpendicular to the wall and clear going vertical – only 8 strands to an outlet – no space between the strands . . .  but we did accomplish it!  As the time was passing but the temperature was getting cooler, it was harder to stay motivated. (you know that moment when you are thinking, “I can’t hang another strand of lights”)  Audrey always seems to come up with the best idea for a competition to motivate everyone…   We finished the task!   (Audrey’s team won and I will say mine came in second)

Then… on to more ‘stringing of the lights’.  These kids are troopers I’m telling you!  Tomorrow we will be working indoors finishing putting together the larger Christmas trees – the 9ft and 12ft trees!

This evening for devotionals we read John 4.  Jesus with the woman at the well.  I love this story because it shows us that Jesus takes us right where we are and offers salvation, healing, hope.  He doesn’t tell us- go get yourself together and come back and we’ll talk. It’s not about us getting our act together so we can have a relationship with  Jesus, it’s about how his incredible love and sacrifice has done it all –  we by faith believe in him, allow him to be Lord of our life … then our amazing journey of hope begins…

The small group time was a time of sharing where each one was with their relationship with Christ – letting each of us know how we can support and pray for one other.

Debriefing was fun, everyone sharing their favorite moments, or things that they got to do.

We have had fun! We have worked hard! We have laughed hard!  God is good! The heaters are wonderful in our cabins   ! ! !   just sayin’!

We’ll see you at the campus around 3 tomorrow!

Mrs. G

Youuu… light up my life… tree… fence … building … etc etc etc

Yoouuuu…. Light up my life… trees… fence…

We had a GREAT day of serving – stringing lights and putting together 175+ Christmas Trees!

To begin with our kids had to crawl under a stage to get the boxes of trees out!  Thank goodness for agile adventurous students… They were troopers!  The guys started out helping us put the trees together but were quickly called out to ‘hang lights’ … 100’s of trees later… the girls began to wane so we turned it into a competition….   Ashley and Jernee won … (I’ll tell you what it was once I let the front office know  J  )  Then… it was lunch time!

After lunch we had a nice break – the climbing wall and the zip line!  I know I promised last year I would not do the zip line again, HOWEVER, to get another student to do the zip line…  I showed her… It can be done!  And you can survive!  Of course… don’t ask me how I hung my right foot on the platform and twisted my ankle 30’ in the air… what?  HA!

As soon as the break was over… as a whole team we headed back to the ‘forest’ and put together 3-12’ trees and 1-9’ tree.

The Evening Devotional Time – Get Plugged In

Ricky Campbell shared this evening…  He began his talk with sharing about when packing for a trip… the most important thing he wants to make sure that he has is his cell phone…  more important to him than anything else it seems is that cell phone… it keeps him connected – Facebook, texting, calling, internet, twitter.

And he makes sure it’s fully charged.  It’s not going to work long with a 5 minute charge.

Then he made the comparison about God’s Word in our life.  Are we plugged in to it?  It’s not going to be much use to us if we do not keep ourselves plugged ‘in’ to it!

We then read Matthew 4 – The temptation of Jesus… how he overcame every temptation – the physical, the material and the spiritual…. Only by the Word of God!

The small group discussion time was really good! Seeing our students be ‘real’ and discuss God’s Word and where they are at personally in this struggle!

Pray for your student as they meditate on the scriptures tonight and in the morning during quiet time.

Pray that each one of us will allow God to reveal to us those areas in our live where temptations keep us from ‘plugging in’

mrs. g

Thanks for allowing your students to be a part of this trip.  We’ve had many opportunities to share about Summit and Impact with the other volunteers here.

What’s in Your Attic?

Arrived at Tejas – picked our bunks – and began to enjoy the campgrounds, the gigantic play-scape and some mean games of Hacky sack!

After dinner we enjoyed some more team building time in the game room.

Our two student leaders Audrey Hill and Ricky Campbell have spent time preparing for the evening devotionals and Audrey was the first to share tonight.  What’s in the attic? Toys, decorations, luggage, things we don’t use very often, or we get them out only when we occasionally need them.  She compared our relationship with Christ to the boxes, etc in our closet.

She directed us to John 3:19-21 This the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God

Audrey compared our relationship to that box of Christmas lights in the attic – rather than paying attention to Jesus all the time – we just pull him out… whenever we need him.

In other words… our relationship with him can be situational –  John 3: 19-21

She challenged us…Don’t look at just your behavior – let God look at our hearts.  It motivates every action that we have – don’t just try to change our actions –  ask God to change our hearts

Scripture tells us light has come into the world… however… we love the darkness… man has such a sinful nature that we desire to be in the dark instead of the light.

When you do evil – you hate the light –  they don’t mix

If you do evil – there is no way you can be fully following Christ –

Whoever lives by the truth will come into the light…

We can’t do evil and love the light –

We have to say –  I can’t live in the light without the light in me.

It’s encouraging to know – the light has already come –  but it’s eye opening when we look at this scripture and realize…  we are sinful – we can’t love the light…

We naturally want to do what is pleasurable to us …

We spent time answering our devotional questions

1. Is it possible to find a balance between the world and God?
2. What are the ‘evil things’ in your life that make it impossible to fully commit to God?
3. Are you willing to step into the light and have God reveal to you what’s keeping you from serving him wholeheartedly?

Pray for your student, all of us as we spend time praying over these scriptures allowing the Holy Spirit to shine his light on our ‘darkness’ bringing it to light

Pray that we will desire to serve God wholeheartedly

Pray for our work day tomorrow… there are a lot of lights to hang.

Mrs. G