Hundreds of Teens Focus on "The One"

Florida Teen Camp is a great experience for the teens ranging from 7^th – 12^th grade to come together and build friendships that last through college and beyond. Many memories are built through the team activities, talent show, ring of honor and all those late night talks. The week was expecially colorful as the UCF campus ministry hosted an amazing “'80s Dance” that will be hard to top in the future years of teen camp.

Rich Bartoli, the USF campus ministry leader in Tampa, gave the the teens a lot to think about with the opening lesson on “The One Who Has Authority”. The following day, John Bringardner presented a deep lesson on “The One Who Fulfills Prophecy”. On Tuesday, Monte Drenner spoke to the teen men on “The One We Imitate” and Sue Folker spoke to the teen women on “The One Who Respects You”. They both brought great spiritual insights as well as the depth of a professional counseling viewpoint to their messages. 

Next, Tommy Shavers, UCF campus ministry leader taught a lesson entitled “The One We Imitate”. Jeff Chacon followed with “The One Who Died for You” and Bronson Taylor stirred their souls when he spoke on “The One Who Judges Justly”.  All the lessons were very moving and thought provoking, helping the teens to see for themselves who Jesus really is and how deeply he cares for each and every one of them.

As Mike (my husband) and I reflect on the this year’s teen camp there are three things that stand out to us. One is the incredible hearts of the counselors and additional staff that sacrifice a week of their summer.  They give of themselves to serve the teens until they have no more to give for only a meager stipend and a trip to Sonny’s BBQ on Saturday. Yet in their minds they would do it all again because of the talks they have had with the campers and the hearts they have seen moved to tears, openness, and in a lot of cases -- a desire to study God’s word.

 

Second is the brothers and sisters that give thousands of dollars to see that teens from their congregations get the privilege of attending camp. That is very inspiring to Mike and me.

 

And thirdly is the encouragement of 200 teens, 40 counselors/staff and many, many volunteers coming together to make this week a success. This year there were counselors from several colleges in the state and campers represented every city in our fellowship in Florida. The future of the state is in good hands.

 

We are seeing amazing victories in the family ministry in Florida. Please continue to pray for us as we go from strength to strength.