This last weekend of guest speaking up at Mount Hermon Christian Camps was a fun time of hanging out with high schoolers, sharing God’s Word, playing Guitar Hero and reconnecting with some youth ministry friends. I love being the camp speaker, you get to go to camp with kids and be the good guy the whole time. As the speaker you never have to say things like, “hey you kids don’t light that raccoon on fire”, “hey guys please, please go to sleep now” or “which one of you antichrists left that unflushed python in the toilet”. Being the speaker means never having to choke a hyperactive 9th grade boy to sleep before you turn in for the night - I AM joking here.
I was super encouraged by THIS :: Mount Hermon has added a new free time activity to their insane fun-catalog that includes ocean kayaking, hiking in the redwoods, a skatepark, a climbing-wall, surfing in Santa Cruz, mountain biking, mountain boarding, mountain scooting, polar bear swimming, a great high ropes course and more. Now students can give up some of the afore mentioned camp recreation to… serve the poor! Students can sign up to help out at the Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project or prepare and serve meals to the homeless in Downtown Santa Cruz at the Elm Street Mission.
I stopped in at the Mission Saturday night and was blessed to see these kids choose to serve the poor on the only full day of camp they had instead of just exercising their recreation instinct. These kids are the Schnitzel!
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When I drove back up to the Camp and sat down with my friend, Camp Director Kelly Burch, he informed me that signups to help the poor during camp fills up before the surfing option does now. Good news indeed.
Thought: The incoming generation often places great value in social justice, how might this power source be BETTER tapped into by local church Youth Ministries?
On The iPod: Jeff Beck - Wired
Comments (2)
Hi Chuckk,
Very cool stuff. I totally agree with you about the incoming generation and their thoughts on justice - they have such a tight integration on what they believe and what they do - it's not enough to just give it lip service.
Neat to hear about the camp offering that kind of outreach option - I've had some thoughts in the past little while about the whole concept of 'retreat' - maybe we are doing a disservice to students by taking them away to only focus on themselves for a weekend....
Anyway, good post. I just started reading your blog via rss a few weeks ago - looking forward to more.
Posted by tony sheng | December 12, 2006 8:27 AM
Posted on December 12, 2006 08:27
One of your kids got away.
Smittie
Posted by Chuckk | December 13, 2006 1:41 PM
Posted on December 13, 2006 13:41