Thursday - Kids Kamp

Today was our last day of camp and it was awesome. Our students performed their fun arts presentations and everyone headed home. Though finishing a day early, it felt like a very full camp, and for the first time since I've become the DYD, we didn't send home any HOMESICK campers. Maybe the age breakdown helped some in that matter????

Next week is our last camp. (We had to cancel our sports camp for lack of registrations. We hope to do it again next year if we progress in our relationships with schools) Family Fest - Thursday, July 9th-Sunday July 12th. 

We could still use some more volunteers helpers to work on our rec staff/dish crew. The total at the camp will probably be around 150 people, so the work is not that hard, and Mike Maroney and Todd Mohrmann will be our rec directors again (just like Youth Camp 2).

Let me know if you'd like to come and help (and it's free!) Thanks

Wednesday - Kids Kamp 2009

Today is the last full day of Kids Kamp this year. We will end our camp tomorrow, to have Friday as an open day for our holiday weekend.

Here's a recap of what God has been doing at camp, as of yesterday!

- One of our 'fun arts' leaders is working on a human video for the students. We take for granted that the kids know everything about the cross and Jesus. Yet, one of the students asked her 'why is he coming back to life. I thought we killed him?' She went on to explain the truth of the resurrection and teach him the truth.

- A leader had learned that her niece had been born Monday night. They found a large bump on her back and were concerned. We began to pray for her. Last night, after service, she called and found out that God has started to heal her from this bump.

- A leader and some of his rec staff friends prayed for his younger brother to be filled with the Spirit. He was, and the God also filled 2 other boys who were praying for him nearby.

- A leader had a daughter that had come to one of our youth camps. She had prayed to be filled with the Spirit, but it didn't happen at that time. Last night, she was praying for a student to be filled with the Spirit, and while she was praying, she was filled with the Spirit herself. It seemed that God waited until she was in ministry to do it for her, when she wasn't focused on herself at all.

- A leader told about a simple moment where she was praying for one of her students, and she began to speak in tongues. They both stopped praying suddenly at the same time, and they felt like the heaviness of God's glory just descended upon them. They looked at each other, and knew that they'd both experienced it. The girl said, 'That's so cool!'

- A young girl asked her dorm leader why she raised her hand in worship. She was able to explain it, realizing that she'd never really explained it to her kids before. In worship, a little girl ran up to the dorm leader and asked, 'can I raise my hands now?' Later on, they were all standing there worshipping God with hands in the air. 3 of her girls were filled with the Spirit later on that night.

- A dorm leader put up some poster board and has the girl write down names of people they want to pray for. Every time they went to the dorm, they take care of their prayer posters. Now, when they walk into the room, even in the middle of the day, they pull out their posters and do it on their own. At night, they pray before going to bed, together, about the things on their poster.

Tuesday - Kids Kamp

Here's a recap of the awesome things happening at Kids Kamp this week in Nebraska:

- During pre service prayer, some students wrote out what God was showing them. When they were cleaning up their room this morning, a dorm leader found a picture of the cross, and the dorm leader immediately thought it was one of his more 'spiritual' kids. He asked who did it, and it was one of his rougher kids. It showed him that God is touching all the kids, even if it doesn't look like it.

- Also during pre service prayer, a dorm leader was asking that God would help her be a better example to the kids. She was walking by a decoration that we have, a big cardboard cutout of Jesus as a superhero. She felt like God told her to hug the cardboard, and when she did, she felt so much better, like God was changing her and making her adequate for the ministry.

- A dorm leader was at the altar praying for kids. The whole dorm got together at the end and prayed for the dorm leader, and it really touched her and changed her, that they would do that on their own.

- Last week, a leader received a picture of an eyeball in a vision. That particular night, a student drew a picture of any eyeball during prayer, that looked just like her vision. This week, another student drew the exact same picture without knowing anything about the vision and picture from the week before.

- Another leader mentioned that his boys prayed for him at the end, just like he had prayed for them.

- Last night, a leader raised his hand for prayer, and his students prayed for him. He was praying for healing in his back, and as soon as his students prayed, his back was immediately healed and the pain was gone.

- A leader had a really bad headache and was struggling during worship. Someone came to pray for her, and as soon as they started praying, the headache was gone and she was healed.

Monday - Kids Kamp starts today!!!

This is the last of our 4 youth/ce department camps this year. It's for students going into 2nd through 4th grades, so it's easily our youngest camp yet. We've got about 300 people pre-registered, so it should be a great camp. Because of the young ages, we've knocked a day off the normal camp length, so we actually will finish this coming Thursday. Take note, because our testimonies and pics (neyouthcamps.blogspot.com), will be one day shorter as well. Getting done on Thursday is also good considering the holiday weekend ---- JULY 4th IS SATURDAY!!!

There is still at least one more camp after this, Family Fest. Go to www.neag.org for more details and to register.

Thursday - Middle School Camp - 11:00am, Testimonies

Here's a recap of testimonies from yesterday at Middle School Camp:

- A camper's mom had a miscarriage three or four years ago. Last night, while praying, she saw a vision of God in heaven. She asked to see her 'sister' and God showed her a little girl 3 or 4 years old in heaven. 

- A leader was praying for one of his boys. After a few minutes, he asked his student if he had received the Holy Spirit, he said, 'No, but I found out I can do this cool thing with my hands.' The leader moved to the next student, who received it almost immediately. He started shouting, 'I got it, I got it', than ran out.

- One night at pre service prayer a leader was praying and God gave her a picture of kids with their arms all reaching for something that they wanted. They were saying things, but she couldn't understand what it was. Last night, one of her girls got a piece of paper in prayer and started drawing what God had given her. At altar time, the leader shared the vision with her girls, and this girl pulled out her paper, and she had drawn the same image. God gave it to both of them at different times.

- A group of boys woke up real grouchy. One turned to the other at breakfast and said, 'Man if you would have gotten filled with the Spirit last night, you wouldn't be so angry this morning.' The young man returned, 'I'm Spanish, I already speak in tongues.' The dorm leader had a good breakfast explaining this a little better to his students.

- A young lady kept praying with her leader about being sick of being afraid. Over and over, this was her prayer. Last night, she wanted to be filled again with the Holy Spirit. She was one of the last two people at the altar. Her leader asked her what God had done, and she shouted out with joy, 'I'm not afraid anymore.' The leader felt like God told her this girl was going to be a missionary. Then, the girl said God told her to tell the leader,'God's called me to be a missionary.'

- Last night, a student was led to pray for some students from another cabin, for boldness. The kid he was praying for starting screaming at the top of his lungs. Then, the student stopped and the leaders asked him what was happening. He said something to the effect that God had set him free and he was changed.

- A little boy was at the service, and he has an intense learning disability. They prayed for him at length last night. He is regularly hard to understand, but he asked the leader if he heard what he had said about the devil. The leader hadn't understood, but the student told him that God said He is going to be a warrior for God. God will take the weakest among us and do great things for the world to see.

- There was a young girl that has a bad eye that has always been scared to do things because of it. She prayed for boldness, and then yesterday, she started stepping out in new things. She got on a horse, shot a basketball for the first time, walked to the cabin on your own by herself. 

- Sunday night before camp, a lady kept waking up and felt like God was doing it. It felt like a train was going through head. She felt like God said the devil didn't want a certain two students to go camp. She prayed for them all night. Last night, they prayed with of of them and made a lot of ground, as she is here because God is going to set her free.

Wednesday - Middle School Camp - 11:00am Testimonies

Here's a recap of what God has been doing at our camp this week:

- Our camp director testified first about Monday night. She prayed with a staff member about her poor self image. Last night, she was able to minister to some campers about the same issue.

- Another staff member testified about how he had been a camper two weeks ago at Youth Camp 1. He had a blood circulation problem that he had prayed about for healing. He went home and two weeks later, right before this camp, he realized that God had healed him. He used to have problem with circulation in his hands and feet, but now he is fine.

- Another dorm leader prayed with a young man who's mother had recently died. He felt like God set him free from the pain of that moment and the boy was able to say that he believes his mom is now in a better place.

- A dorm leader prayed with a girl that was pretty shy. She finally opened up and said she wasn't sure if her grandpa died this week or not. He was supposed to have a serious surgery while she was here. She was scared he had died. They prayed together and she was able to have hope and believe. (incidentally another leader across the room asked if it was a redhead girl, which it was. He said he knew the grandpa, and he did make it out of surgery fine!)

- A dorm leader had about 8 or 9 little guys that gathered around him in prayer time. He prayed for them individually. They had seemed disconnected in service, but they all stuck around and prayed for each other. They prayed for issues like being angry, hurtful, mean to mothers, arguing with his sister, violence in his home, disobedience, watching bad things on TV, saying bad words. God set them free!

- A dorm leader prayed with a kid to let God become the Lord of his life. The student already acted different last night and this morning. The dorm leader saw the boy being nice to another student, complimented him for it, and the student said, 'Now that God is in charge of my life, I figured that is what God wanted me to do.'

- A dorm leader had 4 or 5 students come forward to the altar call to make better choices for God. One student was so sick during service, with his head hung down. He came forward and was touched at the altar at the end. Another student had prayed for him and God healed him on the spot. They had seemed so disconnected in service, and yet God touched them so powerfully in the end.

- A security guy came by to quiet a room after lights out. The student and dorm leader inside were praying, and one of the students looked at the security guy and asked, 'Hey, can you quiet down, we're trying to pray in here.'

- At a time when most students were praying for personal issues, a leader was so impressed by his students because they asked for prayer for others, and not for themselves.

- During dinner, a leader found 3 students at a table eating by themselves. It was the first time we've allowed our students to sit wherever they like during dinner. The leader led them to a different table to connect with some other students. After the meal, the student came forward to the leader and thanked them for taking them to that table, because they made new friends with the students who were there.

Tuesday - Middle School Camp - 11:30am, Testimonies

Here's a recap of what God did in our people last night:

- A leader from camp last year had a student come to him. They confessed that they had broken a window at camp last year, and wanted to make it right.

- A veteran dorm leader has a young girl that talks often in her sleep and moves around violently. She prayed for her and she was able to resume sleeping quietly. 

- A dorm leader had a group of guys not really involved in anything. He kept encouraging them to get involved. He asked if they had anything to pray about, and one boy answered seriously that he wanted prayer because his mom and dad were about to get a divorce. He took him forward and we prayed for him together in the service.

- A boy had started crying while his dorm leader was up front praying. The other students in the dorm went with him and ministered to him, without the dorm leader, and took care of him. The boy had a grandmother that had died and he hadn't had the chance to apologize for misbehaving with her. The boys were helping him overcome his guilt and speaking out Psalm 91. The dorm leader was amazed.

- A girl in a dorm is a PK and struggling with it. Last night she felt like she was being watched by everyone and she had to act perfect. The dorm leader was able to encourage her and help her find her purpose. The girl broke down and prayed with the dorm leader. 

- A leader confessed they were having a rough night. They had worked the last two weeks and felt drained. All of her dorm girls held her hand and prayed with her like a family. She felt like God used the girls to minister to her and fill her up with energy and strength for the week.

- A leader called out that God wanted to 'double' the good things we've seen at the camp. So we prayed together to believe that God wants to 'double' it up!