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CHOSEN

LA Youth Camp 2009 

Parent follow-up suggestions

John 15:19

As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

NIV

One of the most painful memories that many children (and adults) have is that of being in a group of kids when teams are being picked for a game. Sometimes you don’t even care which team you are picked for as long as you are not the last to be picked or not picked at all.

Certainly Gideon had felt that way when the angel of the LORD found him and charged him with saving Israel from Midian’s oppressive rule. Gideon’s response to the Lord in Judges 6 was consistent with the feeling of low self-esteem and the feeling of not measuring up to some standard.

Judg 6:15

15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family

NIV

Gideon felt that others wouldn’t believe in him and he didn’t even believe in himself. Feelings like this can tear the heart out of anyone.

In this camp we wanted your children to believe that they were valued and that they were “chosen” not last but first. Always believed in, always valued, always wanted and always loved.

To do so we presented a three part series of main evening lessons with the theme of “Seeing God as a Perfect Father”

-         What You Think about When You Think About God (Is He a scorekeeper who is keeping track of my rights and wrongs, is he like a grandpa who loves to give us what we want, etc.)

-         Reflection vs. Perfection (God is not the reflection of our earthly

fathers but the perfection of them)

-         Growing Up Like Dad  (God gives us His Spirit to grow up in His

image)

The purpose of this letter is to encourage you as parents to share, to remind and to build on what the camp has worked to plant in the hearts of your children.

Being a parent myself (and grandparent as well), I know how easy it is to get distracted, it’s easy to be grateful that our children have a great camp available for them, one that provides great fun, relationship building and rich biblical teaching made relatable to reach their hearts. I also know it’s easy to ask only questions like, “Did you have a good time? Did you learn a lot? Etc., but not take it much deeper.

This is a wonderful time for you as parents to engage with your children at a deeper level of communication then perhaps is the norm in day to day conversations. Taking advantage spiritually of this time will help you develop and/or deepen a pattern in your relationship that will be of great value to all of you, helping to strengthen the bond between parent and child that can last throughout your lifetime together and assist you in your ultimate goal of having your family spend an eternity with God.

One of the most important aspects of this follow-up process is for your children to know that you really are interested in learning about their time at camp. A genuine sincere interest in hearing all about what they experienced and learned is a key to their hearts.

To give you, as parents, some insight as to the content of this year’s camp, here is a list of the class titles that were presented.

          -        What You Think About God

          -        The Guardian

          -        Reflection vs. Perfection

          -        The Father Knows You

          -        Growing Up Like Dad

          -        When You Pray…Say

          -        Father Of Creation

          -        Abba Father

In addition to these the worship band played nightly as the campers sang praises to God, and late Wednesday evening we had the “starlight devotional” one of the most memorial times at camp.

We have worked to provide a sense of peace and comfort that the God, the creator of the universe loves them and has given them His very best to show His love for them.

I would offer these suggestions for camp follow-up with your son or daughter.

Ask them to tell you all about their time at camp, what they loved about it? Did they make any new friends? What was the time like in the cabin with their cabin mates and counselor? What was their favorite activity or memory from camp?

Be filled with delight as they tell you about their experience and enjoy every comment they share. Ask them about their days at camp and how they spent their time. If they share about how they cleaned their cabin every day please don’t say something like “Boy, I wish you would do that at home!” just enjoy that they were doing it at camp and tell them how proud you are of their efforts of supporting their team or something like that.

Ask them to tell you and even teach you what they learned from the classes, devotionals and quiet times they were a part of and really listen to their hearts. I am confident that you will learn a great deal as I do each year from being with your children for just one week.

Here is an additional suggestion that could be a lot of fun for your child and help you as parents get more connected with their camp experience. Ask your child if they would like to have their cabin mates and their counselor (you could invite all the parents as well) over for a cookout. All of the camp participants can sit together and share stories of the week at camp. I guarantee that you will see a room filled with great memories and much laughter along with hearing about special connections that were made with God.

The worst thing that could be done is to let this time slip by without working to make the most of every moment that you can. I am confident that your time and effort will reap a harvest for your family.

Mark 4:20

20 But the good soil represents those who hear and accept God's message and produce a huge harvest--thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted."

NLT

We should never doubt the power of a child and the power of a spiritual experience such as what Youth Camp can offer.

May God bless you richly as you and your families grow in Christ.

John Mannel, Elder (a.k.a. Grandpa Shark)

Youth Camp Executive Director

Suggested Resources

Shepherding a Child’s Heart; Tripp

The Age of Opportunity; Tripp

The Key to your Child’s Heart: Smalley

Please visit the Gallery of hundreds of pictures of camp.

This Article was taken from www.laicc.net

A group of girls sitting at a dinner table at the LA Church's Youth Camp 2007 found themselves without any of the brownies that had been provided for dessert. So a concerned adult found a group of boys with a full plate of brownies still covered with plastic wrap and, presuming they were the boys' second helping, asked if the girls could have the treats. The boys, however, informed the volunteer that the batch was actually their first helping of brownies, so she moved on. 
  
But then, a minute later, two of the boys tapped the adult volunteer on the shoulder and offered their brownies for the girls to enjoy.
 
That story, as told by camp executive director John Mannel, was just one of many like it that happened earlier this month among the 430 preteen and young teen campers at "Superhero" Youth Camp 2007. John also pointed out strong year-over-year growth in spiritual maturity. 
 
"The kids really responded to the (Bible) lessons more than I've ever seen," he said.

When asked what they enjoyed the most, some campers said the liked the sermon by Shawn Wooten, who leads the church in Kiev, Ukraine. Other campers stated that their favorite thing was the devotional under the stars. Of course, others said their favorite part was fighting in the water wars against the church's camp staff.

There are always campers with special needs, and this year John came across an encouraging incident regarding a boy with Down syndrome. The boy was seated with adult volunteers, away from the large group of campers, and two other boys went to sit with him to give him some peer company.

This was the eighth annual Youth Camp hosted by the Los Angeles Church. Geo Garces took over camp director this year because former director Frank Williams moved out of state to lead a church. John said it was a spectacular transition.
 
"Geo truly was a gift from God," John said.
 
The camp leadership's top three goals were to move each camper toward holding deep convictions about the authority of God's Word and the lordship of Jesus Christ; to teach each camper to have a Biblical world view; and to inspire each camper to love God with all of their heart, mind, soul and strength.

The week gave the children the opportunity to have quiet times in the morning with their cabin, listen to impacting lessons twice a day and build lasting friendships. By the end of the week, the youngsters had read the Bible, sang songs together and had learned a lot more about God. 
 
Saturday morning, before re-boarding their buses, everyone in the camp was able to watch a 45-minute video summarizing the week - it was so encouraging for nearly every camper to see themselves up on the big screen.
 
Story by Deb Eskew and Brian Martinez. Photos by Stuart Wightman.