Blessed to be a blessing … 96.0

Last night in Hugo

This class has been amazing this week. I am truly sad this is the last night.

Our morning devos before we headed out – Galatians 5:13-25

We are called to be free, but not to use that freedom to indulge in sinful nature, but rather to serve one another, to love our neighbor as our self … we do this through displaying the fruit of the spirit. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control.  As we come to day 4, we’re tired, patience can run a little thin and now is the time to push through and extend to one another grace that is empowered by the fruit of the spirit!  This means… we need to conquer the flesh!

I think this group of young people did a really good job of that!

Our Work Day

The kitchen crew FINALLY got the cabinets finished … after 7+ coats … 3 of them Kilz!  NO JOKE!  They worked so hard and never gave up! We were so impressed with all their hard work!

The table painting crew, which actually started out with everyone, did a wonderful job making all the fairly old handmade wooden tables look brand new. The students loved seeing the final table project finished, knowing they made a real difference for the camp with all their hard work.

The brush/log clean-up crew – really ‘cleaned up’!  All the brush clean-up helped make the view around the cabins and through the trees down to the river … beautiful!

Everyone came together as a team and a few of the students even commented on how they really enjoyed getting to know each other better, become a stronger team.  They all agreed that they really enjoyed working together as a team. Having MANY strong leaders in this group, it was good to see them all work together, helping each other, preferring one other.

Many students commented on the fact that they enjoyed the car rides, interacting with the leaders, serving together, helping Jim get much more done than he ever imagined would happen.

Jim and Johnny

It was really special getting to be a blessing to Jim and Melissa Ogden. The stories that Jim told, the history of Beaver’s Bend, and his passion to work hard and his appreciation of all our kids made them work even harder made us all want to get as much done for him and Melissa as possible. They are precious camp managers that love the Lord and love serving others.  Melissa baked us homemade cookies and brownies for us to take with us on the ride home. 3 LARGE gallon bags of cookies and brownies.  We didn’t want for the ride home … we tested them after dinner!  Delish!

Johnny Moffit who is over Little Dixie in this region of Oklahoma was so impressed with our kids. He led us to the camp and help serve  our lunch every day.  He served us as we served Little Dixie.  Johnny had seen Summit work a few years ago when our 10^th graders cleared the path for the Handicap trail here in the park.  This class was no different … they delivered BIG in everything they did.

Before we left Beaver’s Bend, we circled up and prayed for the camp, for Jim and Melissa and Johhny and his family.  Jim then prayed for us!  It was a sweet time of blessing.

Thoughts from the leaders during debrief

• Loved seeing a lot of incarnation leadership – Sonny – every single time – Mrs g asks someone to pray –  sonny and Dylan immediately  jump in
• Each one of you has matured more in the year – painting last year compared to this year – able to let you work and not stand over you – you just got up and started unloading you are thinking things through and making responsible decisions
• I loved getting to see your character shine and grow, I love the energy and the passion that you have displayed in everything you’ve done
• I am so proud of all of you. You stepped up to the plate and did not disappoint.

o   There was so much more … but there isn’t enough time nor space in this blog to write all our thoughts about what a blessing this week has been for each of us serving along side each other and with these studnets

 

Fun Stuff

After we finished our work day and returned to Hugo, we had the time to make two ‘fun points of interest stops.

1. Doaksville Choctaw Nation Capital ruins – A few of the students were really surprised by going to the Indian ruins of Doaksville (today at the end of our workday) – and really enjoying it. You have to go through a cemetery and take the concrete steps over the rock wall into the forest to the abandoned Choctaw capital in from the 1800’s.  There were ruins of the jail, 3 wells, a hotel, house, kitchen, and a tavern.
2. Mt Olivet Cemetery – I always take the team to the Mt. Olivet cemetery in Hugo and it is an interesting stop. There is a section for people that were involved in the circus industry. Sooooo interesting.  Elephant statues, showman’s best, elephant trainers, trapeze artist, etc.    Lane Frost (from the movie 8 Seconds) is buried there, Freckles the famous bull rider, the original Marlboro Man has his headstone there, however, he is still living in Hugo, OK and works at one of the Casino’s… and, by the way,  He was never a smoker!
3. After dinner and debrief – we played 2 games – screaming toes and that’s nonsense (or something like that) A LOT of laughter and talent. Oh my goodness!

Dinner

El Pueblito Restaurant in Hugo – Really good!

My Leaders

It has been an amazing time with this class.  I want to give a shout out to Jake Shackleford, Dana Jacobson and Tony Woods.  They have been amazing leaders with the kids and hard workers. They really helped make this trip a success!  Your students have been in good hands as they encouraged and empowered these students to do their very best … glorifying God by serving his servants!

 

Coming Home

See you tomorrow afternoon.  Our plan is to leave the park between 8 – 8:30am.  We will stay in touch with the front office.  When we are about 30 minutes out, we will be letting the students text and hopefully maybe get an Iris alert to you to let you know when we believe we’ll be pulling in to the campus.   We’ll be making a lunch stop and ‘pit stops’.  Usually 6 hours but that depends on the stops needed.

 

Thank you for allowing your students to come on this trip.  They are a blessing and it is an honor to serve alongside them!

 

~ Be blessed and highly flavored … You are the salt of the earth! ~

Mrs g

the title – a student asked me how many of these kinds of trips I’d been on … we figured it up …  for sure  96

True Joy! Absolute Trust! 1 Relationship

We had another successful day at Beaver Bend Park. These kids are amazing hard workers. They just don’t stop!  We had to end our work day a little earlier so we could get back to the cabins and get ready for tonight’s ministry time at New Life Church Boswell, Oklahoma.

This class has been working on the theme, scripture, songs, skit, and testimonies for the past 2 months.  As leaders, we were so proud of them tonight.  At the end of each ministry time, elementary and secondary, our students prayed for all the kids, listening to their concerns and prayer requests.

Elementary theme was JOY – Romans 15:13   May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit

Secondary theme was Trust – Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight

The church always feeds these children every Wednesday night, knowing that for most of those that come, it will be the only hot meal in the evening most of them will get for the week.

It was a jammed packed hour of fun, laughter, listening and blessing.  I know we blessed the church and the kids that came, but truly, we were the ones that were most blessed. Being given the honor to get to know these kids and listen to them and pray with them, is amazing.

After all the children left, we circled up with Rikki the children’s director and all her volunteers and prayed for them and their ministry. Please join us in praying that God provides every resource they need as they continue to love on and introduce these children to Jesus the one that can truly save them and give them the gift of eternal life.

Coming back to camp we stopped off at Braum’s for ice cream and Jr Burgers. (We were served pizza for dinner but most were still a little hungry)

Getting back to the cabins, it was a little late, however after such an amazing day and night, we needed to debrief.

The kids really are enjoying working hard and being a blessing to Jim and Melissa.  Seeing the results of your hard work is encouraging and makes you feel good about your work but also really feel good about being a blessing to the Ogden’s.  Also they are enjoying the incredible scenery and the history of the area that Jim tells the kids.

Many of our students stepped out of their comfort zones tonight and in the end it really did impact them personally. Some of our students spoke of how they were really glad they did stuff they’re not comfortable doing, and seeing the results of stepping out and speaking or taking the initiative with the kids from Boswell, it really made them realize they could do it … and they’re really grateful.

They would have really missed a special time if they hadn’t done it. I am thanking God they chose to step up and step out.

Some of the children had very sad prayer requests. This too is very eye opening and heart breaking. Our students took to heart the requests and tonight as we closed our evening debrief, the prayer time was very sweet and I believe very Holy Spirit empowered.

Please pray

• We get a good night’s sleep
• Safe travels
• Everyone continues to stay well
• We get all the work done
• (The Kilz works on the old cabinets)
• God touches the lives of the children and makes himself known to them – they will allow Him to truly be the Lord of their lives and their best friend

Pray the little ones find true, unexplainable JOY in their relationship with Christ

Pray the secondary students learn to trust in the Lord with ALL their heart

• This class continues to grow together and become more unified – they are an amazing group of young men and women

True Joy and Absolute Trust –  they both can be found in one relationship … I pray that each of these students will press in and strive to make their relationship with Christ an authentic one that will bring … true joy when they absolutely trust in the one that loved them so much he gave his life for them.

 

Blessed to be a blessing

 

Mrs. g

A Great Day of Serving!

Our students are amazing!  As soon as we got to the Camp at Beaver Bend the kids went right to work.

Within 1.5 hours the Camp Managers Jim and Melissa realized this was a hard working group of young people that had showed up to work and to be a blessing. Jim told me, “They’re ahead of me. I didn’t think we’d get all this done today.”  We painted, picked up tree limbs from the recent storms, repaired table legs and hauled BIG tree pieces, painted some more.

Sitting with Melissa (Jim’s wife) during lunch we got to hear a little bit of their journey to become Campground Managers and we also had the privilege of hearing her share her heart for our First Nation’s People and their Christmas Outreach to them.

We returned back to the campground and were surprised by the wind blowing across the lake – it looked and sounded like we were at the seashore! Supposed to be a low of 35° tonight!    : – O

We rehearsed for tomorrow night’s ministry time in Boswell and had a quick debrief. Everyone was tired and ready to head to their cabins. The kids spent time in prayer tonight and listening to them pray was incredible

Prayer for tonight and tomorrow:

1. Great sleep tonight
2. Safe travels to Beaver Bend tomorrow
3. We get a lot accomplished tomorrow at the 2^nd Camp Ground
4. God brings the children to the church tomorrow night. Please pray that they will take courage in their relationship with Christ and trust Him to give them the words of encouragement and speak through them as they are there to bless the young people of Boswell
5. Pray for Jim and Melissa as they are into their 2^nd year of managing the camp. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. Pray that organizations that use that campground will come and serve to help to get all the things done that are on Jim and Melissa’s Do To list!

Philippians 2:1-30

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, …

 

We are having a blast serving together

(Ice cream and cold weather go together … right?)

mrs. g

This will be worth it!

Monday

We got to our destination in record time, even stopping in Paris (Texas) for a couple of pics by the Eiffel Tower!  There really is a replica of the tower right near the town convention center that has really nice restrooms.  Today we got a real treat with our stop. A gentleman jumped off his tractor and asked if we’d like a quick tour of the Veteran’s Memorial that is beside the tower.  “How long would it take?”  “Five minutes!”  We take him up on it, because he look excited to share about all the news things they are doing to honor veterans.  They really have added more things since we last stopped there and he/Travis was so proud. Being flexible can really be a catalyst to being blessed!  I have to be honest, I didn’t really want to take the time, I was trying to get to Hugo Lake State Park in time to check in and get our keys, get to the grocery store, etc. etc.  But a tug at my heart and the excitement on Travis’ face spoke to me, “this will be worth it” .  It was. Sometimes, it is just the little things isn’t it, a smile, a word of encouragement, a helping hand … five minutes! Travis stayed true to his word and we got the quickest tour EVER and I must say I was wishing he would slow down, it really is an incredible memorial park. Small, yes, but large in the honoring department.

We said our goodbyes and asked how we could pray.  Pray for all veterans and for his two sons who are in California and train others preparing them to serve our nation.

We got to the State Park in time and moved into our cabins, had dinner, then we practiced our program for Wednesday night in Boswell.

We ended the evening looking at Proverbs 3:5-6 tonight and Romans 8:28 …  In what areas in my life is it easy for me to trust God?   Where do I struggle to trust Him?  Even though God’s word tells us that in ALL things  God  works for the good of those who love him …  we know it’s not about giving a fake answer that things are great when really they are not, they are very hard.  It’s another way we learn to trust God … in the hard things … in all things!

We go to our work project in the morning. Continue to pray for our safety as we travel back and forth to our work project and as we work and serve!

Pray that we will all be aware of the moments God places in front of us these next 5 days that everything we say and do will be to glorify and honor God so that every moment God sets up for us … we will know in our hearts …    “This will be worth it”

Mrs. G