Monday, August 20, 2012

Summer Camps 2012: Discipleship Week

Our summer camping season has come to a close. It has indeed been an amazing summer filled with blessings and challenges, often at the same time! We have been so encouraged to be able to be a part of this ministry and all that the Lord is doing here at ANBC!

This last week of camp was a Monday to Thursday camp that we piloted for the first time. We had no idea just how it would look when all was said and done - but we turned the week over to the Lord and He made it into something wonderful. We invited back to Arrowhead ten campers (eight returned) who we felt would most benefit from a week of more focused attention, Bible study and some special sessions about Christian living.

It is always amazing to see how God orchestrates things for His Great Glory! On Monday night we had a bonfire on the beach for everyone, after a time of singing and testimony we noticed that the skies had cleared. They had been cloud covered throughout the day, but just as we were together on the beach God drew back the curtains of heaven and we were able to enjoy some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. We lay on our backs on the beach and anxiously anticipated the next "falling star". The amazing thing about this was that I had planned as a part of our schedule to share "Indescribable" by Louie Giglio as part of the afternoon session the following day. It was a perfect fit that only God could organize, and so the Majesty of God was brought directly to our attention!

Below is the video we watched the following day, if you haven't seen it I think you will be blessed by it.


Indescribable - Louie Giglio from argie muyco on Vimeo.

This week was marked by it's relational aspects, campers and staff laboured together, bunked together, learned together and prayed together.

  Everyone was assigned chores to do, and for the most part everyone chipped in cheerfully. 

There was lots of time for swimming and just hanging out together, which was excellent!
 
Special guest Marsha Boyd-Mitchell joined us from the Christian Action federation of New Brunswick and brought some very practical and scripture based seminars dealing with issues our teens are regularly confronted with; peer pressure, cyber character and substance abuse.

It has been a fantastic summer and we are so grateful for the privilege of serving the Lord here. His provision is sufficient and His work is preeminent. We were abundantly blessed in volunteer staff in 2012, staff with a heart for ministry and dedication to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Families and individuals came to ANBC and served humbly and diligently and that marked the ministry here this summer!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Summer Camps 2012: Lil' Squirts

Lil' Squirts week was something new we wanted to pilot this year! Last year we tightened up the age ranges for our camps, making the youngest campers 8-12 year olds. There still seemed to be a great deal of interest in camp for 5-7 year olds. With that in mind we developed a three day camp for the youngest group. Unsure of just how this would fly, we plowed ahead, undaunted by having only received four registrations prior to camp.

When Monday arrived, the afternoon came and went without the arrival of a single camper. Although discouraging, we looked at it as an opportunity to think outside the box. The Lord led us to prepare for some outdoor clubs in St. Mary's and Oromocto. So, on Monday evening we met with all of the volunteers and devised a game plan for Tuesday.

It was an immense blessing to see the Lord work out the details and to go with everyone and minister to children right in their own communities. We packed up the bouncy castle, the puppets, instruments, tuck and games and headed out. How encouraging it was to see all of our volunteers dedicate themselves to the ministry for the afternoon and engage with those who came along, children and parents alike. The Lord had a plan, and it wasn't for us to have camp how we had planned it, and it was good.

Some games...

Music & Puppets...

Preaching the Gospel...

Our God is so BIG...

Yay... Bouncy Castle!

Gathering in the gazebo in Oromocto...

Todd & Eve & Ben (and puppets) with some camp music!

And let's not forget about the games!

This past Sunday we were blessed to have Cumberland Bay Baptist church hold several Baptisms at the ANBC waterfront. Two of our summer volunteers from this summer were Baptized, it was a wonderful blessing.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Summer Camps 2012: Junior Camp #3


As has been the case this summer, each week has come with it's own set of challenges, this week was no exception. On Monday, I found myself wondering just what we would face this week. My question was very soon answered as I arrived at the Center to find that there had been a leak in the new water system. Todd Nielsen was up early in the morning and heard a gushing sound, a quick investigation alerted him to a separated pipe in the furnace room. He turned off the water main and woke Phil Welch to help sort out the problem. They cleaned up what could have been a much more serious problem had it occurred with no one around. What had happened was a pipe joint had broken loose in the new water system, it became apparent to us that these should all have been double clamped. As head of maintenance this week, Phil took care of that early in the week.


Some late nights early in the week took their toll on me physically, as I battled a cold and was greeted with a stomach flu on Friday I was forced to bed. The team at ANBC took over the reigns and finished up the day on Friday. After a restful weekend I am feeling much better and am preparing now to head down and meet with the team about our upcoming "Lil' Squirts Camp". Another challenge faced this week was the loss of our laptop (or at least it's brain), which was a bit debilitating as it contained all of my camp roster, staffing and camp program files. Not to mention all of our personal and ministry information. I do run frequent back-ups of the data, but haven't had opportunity since the beginning of camp. Thankfully I was able to find a company in Fredericton that was able to replace the hard drive in our machine and retrieve the data from the old drive. It will take some time to get things put back together, but we are up and running for the time being.

We have been tremendously blessed this summer with staff who love the Lord and with guest speakers dedicated to clearly presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We are so thankful for the truth that has been taught and the understanding that has begun to be seen in the lives of some of these young people. The success of our summer camp ministries is not based on numbers of professions, but on clear and complete presentation of the gospel and good relational discipleship. And those things have happened this summer at ANBC abundantly. It has been a joy to see the Lord work in the lives of campers, leading them to question their sin and recognize their desperate need for repentance and Faith! It has also been a joy to see the Lord work in the lives of our volunteer staff as they seek to serve Him... this summer has not been without it's challenges, but through everything, even through those things we might call problems, God has been Glorified - and that is indeed all that matters.

Below is a video put together by our guest speaker this week, Micah Hiltz. Thanks so much Micah for your attitude of service and diversity of ministry in speaking, music, games, sports and photography!