Middle School Camp, 1st night

So we have arrived at the Blue Ridge Assembly last night around 4 PM. students did great on the ride up, with only one stop for lunch. we got situated into our rooms, had our 1st rec group meeting and headed to dinner. The excitement was big. The doors opened for our 1st night session at 7:25. We are literally jam packed in the Chapel. God has really taken us by surprise with the amount of student that joined us at camp this year. Over 40 more compared to last year!!! Being in a room that seats 200 with almost 200 people here feels amazing.

We started off with some weird game time followed by some super

worship brought to us by the Tyler Gardner Band. The kids jumped right in and the atmosphere was electric. Songs like Go, Take it All, Came to my rescue and Your Love never fails brought our students and leaders fully in. Some of us sang so hard, our voices are kinda gone :)

Pastor Dwayne smith brought a message on the CHOICES made in Middle School and challenged our student to choose Christ, as the only and the best choice. Our students were invited into a life of UNASHAMED WORSHIP to the One who died and rose again for us - JESUS CHRIST. By the end of the night 8 students made decisions for Christ. God is moving big already in our group and we are only one night in.

Worship was followed by family group times where students got to share what God has spoken into their hearts and where He is at work in them right now.

At 10 PM it was our LATE NIGHT event. We were going to take students on a walk to the lake where s'mores by the bonfire were going to be on the menu. The rain came down pretty strong starting at 10:00, the fire would not catch… So we had a choice to make, WE HAD TO have the s'mores, so we asked the YMCA staff if we could use their fireplace in the lobby. It was done. We stayed in and enjoyed some yummy s'mores. Closed the night with a cute little line some of our leaders made: “come get your s'more then get in groups of three or more, head out to your room and snore.”

11:30 PM, our students went to their rooms and we called it a night. A great sweet and awesome night. I imagine everyone is asleep right now and soon will be waking up and head to breakfast.

Pray with me for our group this weekend. Pray for a great day today and tomorrow. Pray for good weather as they had rain here this week. Kids are having fun and loving it here already. Pray above all that God continues to open hearts and change lives more and more as we go thru our camp.

I can't wait to see what happens today!

Blessings,

Flav and the HSM staff