WILDWOOD 2005 was AMAZING!

The only words I can use to describe Wildwood 2005 was amazing!  God did some tremendous things through the week.  From the very beginning to being dropped off at the side of the road to hike in to camp, we all knew that this was going to be a hard core camp. 

MISSIONS: IF YOU ARE NOT GOING YOU ARE SENDING
The first night we saw a video from Gospel for Asia (www.gfa.org) that challenged us to support missionaries overseas that are native to the countries they are called to minister to.  The idea that GFA puts forth is to think about spending$3000 to support 10 local missionaries for ten months instead of spending the same amount on a plane ticket to go overseas for a few weeks on a short term mission.  The basic idea here is stewardship.  So we began to support a missionary by the name of Babu, look for more information about Babu later.

THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
The next day we learned about the persecution that is happening all around the world and how Christians are being martyred more now than at any other time in history.  They put us through a simulated persecution that was intense and very realistic.  At the end of it, we were challenged in our faith as to whether or not we possessed the same level of dedication to our faith to endure such persecution.  Did we have the same type of hope that thing really are better in heaven?  Would we deny our faith to resist persecution or would we stand firm?  It was a really, really intense evening.  To find out more about what is happening worldwide go to http://www.persecution.com/ and learn what others are going through.  You will also begin to see “The Freak of the Week” here on the blog where you can read about a person who was martyred for their faith so that we can be encouraged by other who have gone before us.

INVISIBLE CHILDREN
Tuesday was Invisible Children night.  We watched a documentary that detailed the civil war that has been occurring in Uganda for the past 17 years.  You will learn much, much more about Invisible Children in the next few weeks.  You can go to www.invisiblechildren.com to get a sneak peek at what this is all about.

WORLD HUNGER
$1 a day.  That is what most of the world lives on.  Most don’t know where their next meal is coming from.  What is right about that?  Wednesday focused on World Hunger.  We had the opportunity to fast through lunch and have an extended quiet time (3 hours) to focus on Christ.  All of our meals were served family style.  That is, the food was brought out to you just like at home.  This meal was a world meal, where the tables were set according to the food statistics of the globe.  So two of the tables represented the US and was set with all sorts of food, while four tables had only rice and broth with water, while four more tables only had undrinkable water.  This object lesson hit us all very hard.  We had the opportunity to learn more about Word Vision, a relief organization that is helping to provide basic needs to the poorest parts of the globe.  Go to http://www.worldvision.org and check out how you can help.  Many of us chose to sponsor our own children and help with the global issue of poverty.

 BEING BOLD
Thursday’s focus was boldness with our faith.  We had the chance to focus on what we have been through during the week and decide what we were going to do about it all.  Were we going to leave all the lessons we had learned just at camp? Or were we going to actually do something about it?  We had the opportunity to just share about our faith and try to get in to faith conversations with students who were attending the regular camp at Hume Lake.  It was challenging, it was eye opening.

SO WHAT?
So what is different?  We all are to some point or another.  You will be reading some of my posts in the next few weeks, and I hope that you see a difference.  I don’t see the world the same way that I did before.  My heart aches for the persecuted, the poor and the oppressed of this world like is never has before.  I deeply desire to make a difference in this world.  To be a part of a church that is making a difference in this world.  To help send missionaries, provide relief to the needy, to fight to bring justice where there is no justice.  When this life is over, I don’t care about how many CDs I owned, but how many children I helped.  I don’t care how many square foot my house was, so much as how many homes I helped build for those who had none.  How many TV shows I watched as people that I have shared the good news with.  Those are the kind of things I want to be remembered for, those are the things we as a church ought to be involved in:

Missions·Relief·Justice