Our junior high winter blast is such a fun camp!

The shouts and laughter of forty campers and their accompanying counselors filled the air. They even made the lodge tremble with their energetic singing and hand motions.

This year, our speaker was the one and only Wiggin!

Wiggin was a camper here at Camas Meadows back when Scruffy and I were . . . much younger. Then he became a camp counselor and finally a youth pastor and camp speaker!

Wiggin spoke about the gospel being good news.

He mentioned how sometimes the gospel doesn’t seem like good news, even though that is what the word gospel means.

Sometimes kids are dealing with some serious church hurt. Maybe their family had a dispute with a local church, fell through the cracks and had real needs ignored, experienced the horror of a church leader who betrayed their trust, or watched the Christians around them treat others in ways that Christ would never have praised.

But while Wiggin was honest and serious about the hard things kids have lived and seen, he assured them that the gospel really is good news.

Wiggin shared about the origin of the word gospel. How it came from ancient military clashes where the townsfolk were waiting for the messenger who would run back from the battle to let them know if their army won the day or had been defeated. Gospel, good news, was a message of victory for the worried people who waited.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior High Winter Blast this winter. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Junior High Winter Blast–Good News! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

Come one, come all! It is time for senior high teen camp! This year’s theme: Monster Hunter! These brave campers are giving gentle pats to Scruffy and Boo Boo’s Newfoundland puppy, Nessie Karu–the puddle monster. While she is of course adorable, Nessie has very sharp teeth and seems to grow bigger every day. But there are monsters even more formidable than Nessie with her puppy teeth and whirling destructo-tail!

The theme verse for this week of camp was 1 John 3:8b–“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

Yes, my friends, monsters are real.

During Monday’s chapel, Van Helsing spoke about the deadly and dangerous monster of pride!

There are a whole lot of stories in the Bible about pride. A plethora of cautionary tales. One that stands out for me comes from the reign of Hezekiah, one of Judah’s most godly kings.

 “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; . . .” 2 Chronicles 32:24-25a

For almost his entire life, Hezikiah served the Lord fearlessly. He stood up to the mighty king of Assyria, even when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies. He repaired the temple, destroyed idols that had been set up to other gods, and celebrated Passover for the first time in many many years. He watched God do the impossible to save Jerusalem from Sennacherib’s invading army. And yet . . . pride was the monster that put a stain on his bright and shiny reign as King.

When God informed Hezekiah that he was about to die, he wept bitterly and asked for a miracle. God relented and the king was healed. In Isaiah 38 Hezekiah even writes a praise song to the Lord about how “Now I will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish I have felt.” Well, Hezikiah’s healing caught the interest of the Babylonian king who sent an envoy to Hezikiah with “best wishes and a gift.”

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Senior High Teen Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Senior High Teen Camp–Monster Hunter! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

 In the heat of late July and early August, amidst record numbers of yellow jackets for the state of Washington, a herd of wonderfully rambunctious junior high campers tumbled into camp.

It truly was a herd!

Between staff and campers, the kitchen fed 95 people this week!

And along with those rowdy kids, Pyro, tumbled into being our camp speaker.

You see, Scruffy thought he had the Middle School Camp 2 speaker all covered, but at the last minute, the plan fell through. Pyro, a long-time camp friend and one of our board members, heard that Scruff was madly scrambling for a new speaker and offered to help out.

This week, he spoke on the life of David.

How David, as the chosen king of united Israel and Judah, was supposed to point ahead toward the coming Messiah. Pyro also spoke of David’s incredible failures and a life filled with war and bloodshed, so much bloodshed that he was not allowed to build God’s temple. However, God still used David. Even with all of his flaws, David’s life and reign did indeed point forward to a completely different kind of King.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Middle School Camp 2 this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Middle School Camp 2–Like David . . . Only Better! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

Junior B Camp started out bright and sunny with a game in the meadow as campers and counselors met, moved into their cabins, and began a week of summer adventures together.

One of the special elements of this week was the fact that our speaker (camp name Phoenix) had experienced this exact moment herself way back when she was a camper attending Camas Meadows for the first time.

Phoenix went on to become a camp counselor herself, where she got her awesome camp name. She now has a little one of her own and she and her husband work for the Moody Aviation School. So much life has happened since she was last here serving at Camas Meadows. It was so exciting to have Pheonix back in the role of camp speaker.

Monday’s chapel was titled “Who Am I?–Knowing Our Identity”, and Pheonix spoke on knowing our identity.

“Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3

The little people in our lives face so much pressure. Everyone wants them to achieve great things: in sports, at math competitions, getting a solo in band, being a drama star, knowing exactly who they are right now and striving for their goals with gusto . . .

Both grownups and children alike, often forget something vital about our identity.

We can rest in an awesome knowledge that is mind-boggling and beautiful. We were made in the image of God and He longs for us to choose Him and to be His very own.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior B Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Junior B Camp–Made for a Purpose! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

We had a rough weekend leading into Middle School Camp 1. Good friends stayed at camp as they set up a memorial cross for their daughter by the campfire where she spent so many summer evenings.

She had been a camper, counselor, and camp intern and when she lost her battle with depression it broke us in ways we can’t fully express or understand.

Scruff had also asked one of our former staff if he would help us fall some trees around the camp to make the area safer. With the pine beetles sweeping through our local forest, dead trees are increasing.

As the grieving family of this dear young woman put up a handcrafted cross in a grove of aspen near the meadow, this young man cut down pine trees. He had just heard about the death of a close friend, once again a young person who lost their battle with depression. All three were in the same graduating class from the same high school and now two were gone.

I was one of that young man’s AWANA leaders and remembered him as a pesky and vibrant kid who was so fun and bright-eyed and made sure there was always a lot of action in the room so the leaders wouldn’t get lazy!

It was a lot. Missing a staff member who had been one of our camp daughters, hearing about this second death, watching others in their grief, grieving again ourselves.

It begins to feel hopeless. When you have answered the call to ministry and poured out yourself to the best of your ability and walked forward knowing that your heart would break, but despite it all, to lose the precious young ones you tried to love. These are dark moments.

What do you do when you point the way to Jesus again and again, and some are still lost? What do you do when your loved one finds Jesus, but then they are lost to you in a different and terrible way?

I know the answer just like you do. You keep pressing on. God is still there. The darkness won’t win. Oh, I know it’s all true. But it doesn’t feel like enough when the one you loved is gone.

Then Spiro, our speaker for Middle School 1, told her story.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior A Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Middle School Camp 1–The Father’s Heart! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

Hello, Blog friends. It’s Campfire Saturday! Please enjoy this sneak peek at one of my blogs written for Camas Meadows Bible Camp. And please forgive my tardiness. It’s taken many months to recover from the bad concussion I received this summer and I still have a ways to go. But it is Saturday and I’m sharing blogs now, so please enjoy!

Our first camp of the summer was for children ages nine to twelve. Soleil (a former camp counselor from many years ago) was our speaker and the theme for the week was Journey With Jesus: A Road Trip of Faith!

On the first day, Soleil read Genesis 12:1-4 and told this new group of campers all about God calling Abram to go on a road trip with Him! Monday’s Road Sign: Invite Jesus! He’s the Guide!

Children have so many new experiences at camp. From giving a 20lb puppy gentle pats to playing paintball for the very first time, each experience is an adventure.

Our camp nurse, Trauma Tropper, keeps track one aspect of camp adventure whenever she joins us. You guessed it, the injury statistics!

First Nuse Visit: Sasquatch. Most Visits: Sasquatch with 30 total visits to the nurse! Cook/Support Staff only had 12 visits, but what was remarkable was that most of these visits were from a single support staff member! Fewest Visits: Mountain Panther with only 3! Most Cuts/Scrapes/Splinters/Burns: Owl’s Perch with 13! Most Insect Bites/Stings: Robin’s Roost with 7! Most Sprains/Strains: Sasquatch with 3. Most Head/Nose Injuries: Chipmunk with 4. Most Serious: Owls. Weirdest: Bear’s Abode with the back of an earring embedded in an earlobe!

Well, Trauma Trooper is even able to make camp injuries sound fun! Who knew a single cabin could obtain seven nurse-worthy stings and bites or that a single cabin would manage to both participate in camp activities and visit the nurse thirty times? Amazing!

Well, now that we have experienced Trauma Trooper’s Adventures in Camp Nursing . . . let’s jump back into Soleil’s Journey With Jesus!

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior A Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Junior A Camp! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

The Junior High Winter Blast is one of our very favorite camps!

But so many times when I talk with people about this amazing thing called camp, this crazy life God has called us to, folks want to simplify the camp experience and break it down to the bare numbers.

“How many kids chose to follow Christ?” they ask. “How many rededications and baptisms?”

As someone who has sat with teens on the day they chose not to give up, chose to trust God with something impossible, chose to open the Bible again after a dry stretch, chose to forgive, pray, change, grow, or just get up in the morning one more time . . . this hurts so much to hear.

God is at work in a myriad of ways during a weekend of camp.

His transforming power is so much more glorious than what a handful of numbers can express.

What about the weekends where we water those tender seeds, planted in the hearts of children by their parents and Sunday school teachers? What about the weeks where campers simply get the joy of being children in the forest with new friends in a place where they feel safe? What about the kids who are already Christians, already following their Lord with everything they have, but they are discouraged and tired and sad? What about that camp that brings them a moment of joy, a taste of courage, and new forever friends for the hard times when they go back home? All the work that God does here is Holy. Please, don’t forget this truth.

And that is your sneak peek at Jr. High Winter Blast for Campfire Saturday.

For the rest of the story, check out The Campfire Blog!

The post Campfire Saturday–Junior High Winter Blast! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

This year, we enjoyed our biggest snow camp for high school teens yet!

It was so fun to watch the campers run to the door every time someone new arrived in order to greet them.

And yes, of course true friendship involves mashed potato art! In this case, another mashed potato duck.

After witnessing a variety of enthusiastic greetings, one of the leaders jumped on the band wagon and flung himself into Van Helsing’s arms when he arrived to lead chapel.

After a quick get-to-know-you game that involved a great deal of running, shouting, and some danger of broken chairs, it was time for the first chapel session!

Choco and Partake joined us to lead the worship, starting with some fun fast songs to get everyone’s hearts pumping!

It is so lovely to listen to teens sing together. Many of them have trained voices at this age and those who don’t sing with such vibrant enthusiasm. It is a joy to gather with these amazing campers to lift our songs before the Lord.

Van Helsing’s topic for the weekend was Your Brain on Faith!

Using the fascinating book The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation by Jim Wilder and Michael Hendricks, he addressed the tendency that we have to only connect with God in more left-brained logic types of ways like study and scheduled prayer times. However, if we ignore the part of our brain that thrives on making connections through emotions and shared experiences, we will miss out on so much of what God wants for us and how He relates to us as a loving rescuer not only a just master. Van Helsing took us through some right brained exercises to not just know who Jesus is but to draw closer to Him through a deeper connection to our Lord.

OK, that’s a wrap for Campfire Saturday! Join me over at The Campfire Blog for the rest of the story about Senior High snow camp!

The post Campfire Saturday–This is Your Brain on Faith! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

At Camas Medows Bible Camp, the day after Christmas isn’t for finding all the stuff you lost underneath that pile of Christmas wrapping or eating leftover pie all day long.

Nope. Here on this mountain meadow, the day after Christmas is when we welcome a group of rowdy teenagers (and older staff, too) to come into our winter wonderland and take a moment to consider if they are being called to serve God at camp this summer.

It’s time for the Summer Staff Winter Retreat!

For those who have already been on staff with us, it is time to hang out with the friends they made over the summer and be refreshed with Biblical encouragement.

For staff during our busy summer season, there is little to no down time.

Hard physical work if they are on the support staff team or the constant weight of being both spiritual mentor and 24/7 childcare for a cabin of campers if they are counsel staff take up almost every hour of their week of service at Camas Meadows.

And some staff members come for multiple weeks! They make it possible for campers ages 9-18 to rest, play, and grow closer to God in this beautiful setting.

However, some campers at the Summer Staff Winter Retreat have not been staff yet.

They are only considering what it might mean to spend their summer in service at an off-grid Bible camp.

For campers just considering coming to staff training for the first time in June, this retreat is a great time to get to know the current staff, soak up some great Bible teaching, and build an igloo or acquire a frozen nose while zooming down the camp’s terrifying tube hill at night!

Scruff was the speaker this year and he focused on the questions Jesus asked.

He gathered them all into a document and printed them off. Then posted them on the big log pillars at the center of the lodge.

There was only time to cover a few, but simply reading over every question was an amazing experience.

Scruff’s plan was to “Enter into the encounters people had with Jesus and the questions He asked them and to wrestle with those questions ourselves.”

So, which ones did he cover?

Do you want to be well?

Who do people say that I am?

Who do you say that I am?

What do you want me to do for you?

Will you also leave?

Thank you for enjoying this sneak peak at what I’ve been writing over at The Campfire Blog! To hear the rest of the story about Summer Staff Winter Retreat, just zip on over there!

The post It’s Campfire Saturday! –Summer Staff Winter Retreat appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.

Not the war on drugs, not the war on terror, not the war on furbies … this is the war on you.

Van Helsing was our speaker for senior high camp and this year’s theme was Battleground!

During Monday’s chapel, Van Helsing spoke on The Battlefield of Faith.

What exactly is faith?

Faith is a belief that leads to doing something.

Monday Night’s Tactic: Join Up!

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12

On Monday night, the campers went on a Star Trek to Inspiration Point. Choco brought his guitar and they sang worship sons under the stars. Then Scruffy had them sit in silence for four minutes as they look at God’s wonderous creation spread out above them. A youth pastor took this photo near Inspiration Point with his really good camera years ago, but it continues to inspire.

One of the campers shared about her experience at Inspiration Point during the Friday night campfire at the end of the week.

She had come to camp with many worries and concerns weighing her down. Then she and her cabin walked up to Inspiration Point in the dark. She gazed up at that ocean of stars and felt so small. Beneath that giant sky, all her problems felt suddenly small, too. Knowing that the God of all those huge and brilliant things had made her and loved her brought an unexpected peace.

During Tuesday’s chapel, Van Helsing spoke on The Battlefield of the Heart.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly parted.” Ecclesiastes 4:12

OK, folks. Head on over to The Campfire Blog for the rest of the stories and pictures from our amazing week at Senior High Teen!

I hope you enjoyed this Campfire Saturday!

The post Battleground! appeared first on KristenJoyWilks.com.