Camp EPIC: Friday, Day 1

Wow! What a whirlwind… I hardly knew it before it was over…

We’re up here at Camp EPIC, the 2008 summer camp we hosting for our students at Kamp Kinship, twelve miles out from Deadwood/ Lead. …and day 1 is done!

Thanks to a team of great volunteers (and an incomparable summer intern), everything (set-up, registration, sound, lights, settling in, etc.) went smoothly. In fact, I had a hard time fathoming that I had a few extra minutes to hang with students right before dinner. It was great!

God started moving on my heart right from the start. I’ve come with such expectations that I was almost bursting at the seams by the time I got here. The prayer time before the chapel was so meaningful to me. Even in the practice session with our worship band, I was tearing up over the goodness of God. God is just so good!

When we finally got to our first evening session, I think the anticipation in the students was high, too. I’d never seen our students jump in so easily to our praise and worship on the first night. WOW! We started with a Nooma video and a Selah moment. Tyler then shared a vision of clouds descending upon us, and we jumped into singing “Tell the World” and “Sing Like the Saved” — so fun!

After that, we moved into a time of deeply personal worship with “Center,” “Refuse to Be Denied,” and “Rescue”. This is where I began to lose my composure. I felt led to lead students in a declaration and prayer time for those wanting to “let themselves go” during worship time — and, for several, I think they did for the first time. Students were raising their hands, eyes closed, bowing down on their knees, tearing up all over the place. I had a hard time singing. Together, we made some significant commitments and saw some pretty cool stuff that God was doing even before the worship was done.

As Barry came up to share for the first time, you could sense his heart and passion for the students. He talked about the love of God, how our lives should be lived in an EPIC way for his glory, and also about the EPIC problem of sin. But we have an even bigger answer to that! There was at least one salvation last night, and several came up front to lay down some personal struggles at the altar. So incredible!

The late-night activity was a lot of fun, too. We handcuffed and mouth-gagged our four GLs (adult group leaders/chaperones) and had their students — in their corresponding teams — go out and search for them with flashlights. There was a very adventurous and “action-hero feel” to the night.

After that, the students got with their GLs for group reflection before lights out, and I went to the activities lodge to edit the following video to catalog our first day. I hope you enjoy it!