Camp Patmos 2005

I just have two words to describe this past week at Camp: Absolutly Amazing. The speaker was downright awesome, the atmosphere was beautiful as usual, the people were fun to be around and friendly, and most importantly I grew in my relationship with Jesus Christ.
The speaker's name was Pastor Don Jackson, a.k.a. PD. He is a youth pastor in Michigan. PD taught us all about The Seven Checkpoints, being Healthy Friendships, Moral Boundaries, Wise Choices, Others First, Ultimate Authority, Spiritual Discipline, and Authentic Faith, and living the Barbarian Way. Thursday night he talked about Authentic Faith. It really hit me that my faith wasn't as it should be. True faith is confidence that He will do everything He has promised to do. And at times, I would doubt Him and even my own salvation. Not that He couldn't do it, just that he wouldn't. PD asked anybody who needs to rethink their faith to come up to the front of the Chapel and pray. He told us that we should have the guts to do it infront of everyone there. I literally jumped out of that seat, knelt next to the stage, and cried my eyes out as I handed my entire life to God that I had been selfishly holding on to. Mrs. Kozy talked to me and my other cabin mates that had gone to the front also after Chapel. We stood in a circle and prayed. It was definatly a life changing moment in my life, and many other Patmos campers that night. I am 100% positive that if I die right now, I will be in Heaven's glory. He was an amazing speaker.
The theme this year was "Shine". Mrs. Kozy did an excellent job in leading our devotions. Two nights we invited staff members into out cabin to share their testimonies. Wednesday night, Amy, the program director came and shared her testimony and Thursday night Julie Jackson, PD's wife shared hers. It was really nice to hear their different salvation stories.
Of course, I had a ton of fun at Camp, too. Kristen and I learned to sail with Anna. Wow, I must say we are quite good. We took Mrs. Kozy and Emily out sailing on Thursday. I almost wacked everybody in the head with the sail, but other than that, I think that I did a good job. The only hard part was attaching that clip to the bouy. I went tubing and Torpedoing, too. I'm still attempting to stay on the entire ride, but my boat drivers, Keith and Nate, were brutal. Speaking of which, I got beat up pretty bad this week. No, not by some kid, by myself. Ok, first, I fell and scraped up my leg while running to give Andy my team's paper for the scavenger hunt, I cut my toe in the swimming pool, scraped my leg again on somehing, I don't know what. And then on Thursday we went to the East shore. Me and Kristen banged heads (mouths actually) into eachother. I chipped part of her tooth and she moved my tooth causing me to bite my lip and bleed. Thankfully, none of our mouth renovations are noticable. Oh yeah, and finally, while playing a game on Friday for All Camp Activity I hurt my knee really bad. The object of the game was to try and grab a sock that was on a person from the other team's head before they crossed the line to steal your eggs. Well, my friend Jon from the other team started to fun for my eggs. I was like "nuh-uh, no he doesn't" so I chased him, literally jumped in midair, grabbed his sock thing, and came crashing down on my right knee. Wow, that hurt. But it was pretty funny, I'm sure.
All in all, this week was awesome and I can't wait to go back next year. I just have so much fun and I learn so much. Last night at the bon fire, JP and Keith (two staff members) told all of us campers how we feel so onfire for Christ now, but it's a long time until next year and how easy it is to allow others to toy with our fire and ultimatly put it out. They encouraged us to not let anything, or anyone, put out that fire. Just please pray for me and even all of the other campers from this week that the fire in our hearts will not be tampered with by the World and that we will have the courage to stand up for our Lord.


P.S. I have added a photo album to my sidebar of my camp pictures. Look in the announcements section of the sidebar. Make sure once you click on the button and the page opens that you go to the yello sidebar and click on Camp Patmos Pictures.