summer of service recap

Last week was our summer camp.  We stole the idea from my buddy Sean’s church a couple of years ago, and I think our version of SOS is starting to get legs of its own.

Here’s the scoop:  We used to charge a lot of money to take kids to a retreat center, bring in a band and a speaker, and head out of town.  It was good, but we wanted to attack things a little differently.  You see, we want to highlight community, building relationships with other churches in our town, and that wasn’t happening with our camp.  We also wanted to raise the level of serving with our teens.  So we decided that we’d round up as many youth groups as would join us, stay local (sleeping in host homes as small groups or in churches), and serve throughout the community for a week.  Each day starts with a devotional from a local pastor and some guided quiet time for the campers, then we send them out to serve all day.  We volunteered at the local food bank, the high school, the SPCA, nursing homes, clothing agencies, and lots of other places.  We gave away water bottles, gas cards, gift cards for ice cream and coffee, and freezie pops all over town.  One of the highlights was our 1 dollar car wash–we gave a dollar to every person who let us wash their car!  Each afternoon we’d regroup, play some games, worship, and dig into God’s word before sending the students off to “sleep.”

This year we had 7 churches participate, and nearly 80 students involved.  There were about 20 adults who took time away from family and work to be part of SOS.  We’ve got some great people loving and leading student ministry in the Centre Region!

We hope to have a video of the whole shebang in the days to come.  I would love for you to hear some of the stories that came out of the week.  One young lady made a commitment to follow Jesus this week!  God spoke to me (and my family) about adoption.  There were tons of great conversations during the week.  God was moving in some big (and under-the-surface) ways.

What hit me the most, however, was the conversations that I had with other youth workers.  One youth pastor said that it was the best thing that he’s been involved in so far.

I believe that God wants to do something in and through this next generation.  Right now, the church doesn’t have a good reputation among the 16-29 year old demographic.  But if we keep loving and serving in the name of Jesus, I believe that can change.

Small things done in great love can change the world…