Summer Travels: IYPC & U.S. Staff Conference

Every summer during the first week of July there is a camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania called the Interdenominational Young People's Conference (IYPC).  As a junior in high school I was invited to go to the camp and during that week I realized I was missing something in my life… I was missing a relationship with Jesus Christ.  That year on July 7, 2005 at the Thursday night consecration service, I made the decision to accept Christ into my life and began my Christian walk.  I continued to attend the camp the following three summers until I was getting to old to go.  After two years away, I was asked back as faculty in 2011.  Last year I couldn't go because I was in Hungary, but this year I was happy to get the opportunity to go back as faculty again! 

On Saturday June 29th, I left with 12 students and 3 adults from Hillcrest Baptist Church in Galax, VA and the conference began on the 30th.  At camp, there are tons of fun activities like sports, games, choir, talent night, and free time, but there is also a lot of time to focus on growing in a relationship with God.  Each day we had three 50min classes to discuss the Bible and how to apply it to your life.  I was in charge of two classes this year.  One was an introductory class for first year boys and the other was on evangelism.  Our theme was "Born to be Bold" and our theme verse was Joshua 1:9 - "This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  For the class with the first year boys, I wanted to talk about Jesus' boldness in the Gospel of John, so I focused on Jesus' "I AM" statements.  I used these statements to show Jesus' bold claims, but also to point the students to the Gospel and their need for a relationship with Christ.  For my class on evangelism, I took a lot of the training that I have learned with Cru and developed the class to train the students on how to share their faith.  A lot of the material I used is the same material we used in Hungary last summer.  On the second day, I taught them how to share their personal testimonies and the next day I had several students open up about their lives to the class and share their testimonies.  I feel like this really helped bond the group. Overall I feel like both classes went very well!

In addition to the classes, I also was in charge of a prayer group with six boys and helped plan the talent show.  The first night at prayer group a couple of the boys really opened up about a history of drugs and abuse.  This kind of set the atmosphere for an openness in this group also.   On Thursday night there is always an altar call at the consecration service.  Three of the boys from my prayer group accepted Christ!  Several others who had been involved in my classes also made decisions.  It was an awesome night, and so cool to see these students start the same journey I started there years ago.  It was such a blessing to be part of it and to be used by God there, and I hope to continue to have to opportunity to go back in the future.

Games!

Get the bubble gum at the bottom of the bowl of flour... no hands!!!

The aftermath of what turned into a fog of flour!

Pass the wet sponge over your head to the back of the line to fill the bucket on the other side!

Talent Night! 
So the idea for talent night was a Disco Ball theme!  The idea was to feed off of last years idea of using the band as the hosts.  Karl (red shirt below) and I were in charge of planning the talent night. 

 Me, Karl, and Ben were part of the band and the hosts for the evening.

For killing time between set changes we used humor to keep the kids interested.  Here we have David, one of the other faculty auditioning to join the band.  He is holding a blow up guitar, but there was a wicked guitar solo playing through the speakers behind him! It was hilarious!

We let David in the band and also recruited back up singers and dancers as we did our surprise faculty talent act in which we altered the song "Born to be Wild" and made it "Born to be Bold" to fit the conference theme!

Last Night Western Party!

The kids doing games with the DJ in between songs

Male faculty dressed up western

Goodbyes...

Saying goodbye to my prayer group before heading home...

U.S. Staff Conference @ CSU
Just a few days after leaving IYPC, I flew out of Philadelphia to Colorado for a week.  While there we stayed at Colorado State University and we got to hear from our ministry leadership and other speakers.  It was great to have time of fellowship, prayer, and worship with about 6,000 Cru missionaries from around the U.S.

Opening night County Fair

Praise and Worship with the Keynote band

Tenth Avenue North concert!!!

Hearing from Alistair Begg, one of our main guest speakers

Hearing from our national leadership

It was a crazy couple of weeks, but it was great to have the opportunity to be at both of these events! Now to finish up summer and then off to seminary in a couple weeks!