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Church Camp can be a very powerful and uplifting experience. Many valuable lessons can be learned and many strong friendships can be created or made stronger. It happened this year.

I used to be really shy IRL. And the first time I went to this particular church camp, I only talked to people I already knew, or people that looked like I could get along with very easily. The following year at school, I became unshy, or whatever, and so the next year I began talking to people and what not and gained a lot of friends. So this year I was really looking forward to getting to be with those friends.

The Praise and worship band that has played every year, so far that I know, has been another favorite part of church camp for me. However, last year, the leader of the band told everyone that was being called to South Carolina. Needless to say, I was kind of bummed out. I loved those guys. Looking at them, you wouldn't think they were a band, or at least a good one. But when they get together they make a glorious noise. And now, that was gone. But then, a month before camp, he called and said that he was comig this year and bringing 20-30 High School and up people with him. And boy were we glad they did. I knew that though we would were only able to hear that band once a year, it was for the greater good, because meeting those guys and spending time with them has become the most memorable experience of my life.

So anyway, yeah I got to spend a lot of time with great new and old friends this year. One of which being a sort of class clown. He was the kind of guy who, during church camp and whatever, played the part of a great christian, but once he got back out there, he went back. We still loved him because he was always good for a laugh with his great stories and wacky antics. But this year, I think something just clicked for him. Our church camp is kind of weird. Jr. Camp and Sr. Camp gone on at the same time, just with different schedules. And one of the things JR. Camp has is a little time where a SR. camper wiill share his/her testimony with the wee ones. A worker had asked him to share his testimony with the Jr. campers. Had I had a say in the matter, he wouldn't have done it, and I thank the Lord I didn't. He shared his testimony and gave the traditional "You ever need me or whatever, call me or talk to me and I'll try and help you out," at the end. And this guy really has had a rough life, and he hasn't had very many positive role models. And afterwards, all these kids who had gone through stuff he had gone through came up to him crying and whatever and he realized he had to stop being the one that always needed someone else, and had to be there for the ones that needed him.

Sr. Camp is pretty lax on staying up. As long as you don't wake the Dorm Dads, who sleep in the commons area, after lights out, its okay. Tony had told us about how he shared his testimony during nighttime devotion. We hadn't heard it, so after lights out, our wing asked him to share his testimony with us. It was powerful. Most of us were in tears. And after that, other people, peole I had looked up to, shared stuff that I never would have imagined, and by the end of that night, we had all grown much closer to each other and to God. And because of it, the next day, someone got saved. It was the greatest night of my life. We stayed up till 4:00. slept till 7:00, and we were still ready to face the day.



For those of you who go/have gone to church camp, share some of your memorable experiences from church camp.