Day Two Huachuca Oaks

I am fired up about the ministry here at Huachuca Oaks Camp. Last night went really well. It is hard for me to communicate how much I rely on the Holy Spirit when I am speaking. Often I have a moment of panic before I speak. It is an awareness of how much I need God. And if God does not speak, then I have nothing to offer. But when I yield my life to him in this way, to simply be a vessel that he can speak through, it always works out better than if I tried to plan it myself.

So last night was another example of this. The Holy Spirit clearly moved among the group. It was so cool to kind of watch it happen. I felt him taking control when I first got up to speak and then it was hang on for the ride after that. I spoke about what it means to be in a real, authentic, personal relationship with God. I spoke about making that commitment to Christ. And oddly, I told them not to pray with me if they weren’t ready to make that commitment. We had already talked about the idea that faith (i.e. praying a prayer) without works (doing something about it) is dead. What was so cool to me was what happened during the invitation time.

I began the invitation asking for a response to a question I have never asked at an invitation. “Maybe you are here tonight and you’ve listened to what I’ve talked about, about making a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. You understand what I am saying but you are just not quite ready to make that commitment. If that is you, and you would like me to pray for you in that regard, would you simply raise your hand so that I could pray for you?” What was so cool is that about 5 kids were honest enough to raise their hand for this. That was so exciting to me. I have to believe that God is at work in their lives and that he will bring them to the point where they will make that commitment to Christ. And when they do, it will be the real deal! So pray with me for these kids.

Then many kids responded to the next level of the invitation, indicating that they were making a commitment to be a real deal follower of Jesus Christ, putting their faith in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins. I was fired up.

This morning in chapel we followed up on what we talked about and introduced what we will be talking about tonight – Loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I would appreciate your prayers for the service this evening. There is a sense among the staff that God is up to something this week. The enemy has been coming against it in a variety of ways. And honestly, when see the enemy coming against it, it just heightens our sense of expectation that God is at work and is going to do a great work in the lives of many kids this week.

I’ll try to keep you posted.