Category Archives: Camp Tallowood

Now that your child is back from Camp and the piles of dirty clothes have been washed, they have caught up on their sleep and things are about back to normal, where do you find yourself as a family? Your child may have come home talking non-stop about his or her experience or you may have had a difficult time prying anything out of them. We pray that your child had an awesome week at Camp Tallowood. Not just with all the fun experiences, but more importantly, with how they encountered Jesus. They may have told you a lot about “Acquire the Tire” and “Church on Fire”, but how much did they talk about what they learned about The Church and The Holy Spirit? The quiet times each morning were about the work of the Holy Spirit and His purpose in the world. They may have talked about being bounced off the Blob or flying down the Zip Line, but did they describe why our Camp Pastor repelled 150’ down a steep cliff while stopping along the way to make a Biblical point? They may have told you about organized rec and the “Church Chase”, but did they tell you about the Spirit piece they carried with them all week and where it ended up?

Over the next few days, at various times, ask your child about specific things at Camp that related to what they learned about the Holy Spirit, the devotion of the church and what it means to be an ambassador for Christ. Ask them to recite the memory verse to you—II Corinthians 5:17-20.  They memorized those powerful verses. Ask them what the passage means to them.

The week of Camp was powerful. Not because it was a fun place that had a bunch of fun things to do, but because they had a chance to disengage from their world and simply focus on Jesus and His purpose for them. You can continue to encourage them by your loving support and affirmation!

Thank you again for making it possible for your child to be a part of Camp Tallowood this year. We are already counting down the days to next year’s Camp, June 17^th-22^nd back at Camp Eagle! It is the 7^th and final year in the Biblical Cycle – Revelation. The Lord willing, we will be there and we hope your child will be back there with us.

-Jerome

A week ago, we were all at camp and every minute of our day was designed to focus us on what God was doing around us.  So, take a minute and remember last week in pictures and be reminded to focus on what God is doing in your life and world right now!

-Micah

Now What?

Okay, so Camp Tallowood was amazing!  You had the best week of your life with all your friends!  You have never felt so close to God!  But now what?

OPEN YOUR MOUTH!

• Open your mouth and tell at least 3 people about your week at Camp!  Tell your mom, tell your best friend, tell your older brother, tell your baby sister, tell your soccer coach, tell your Sunday School teacher, tell your grandfather, tell your Facebook friends, tell your friends who know Christ, tell your friends who don’t know Christ!
• Open your mouth and tell them about Acquire the Tire, tell them about Church on Fire, tell them about your church group, tell them about the food, tell them about being quarantined, tell them about winning the Church Chase, but most important…TELL THEM WHAT GOD DID IN YOUR LIFE!

OPEN YOUR BIBLE!

• Open your Bible on a daily basis!  Start small or start big!  The most important thing is TO START!  And then keep going!  With the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you can do this! 
• Open your Bible and read it, pray through it, think about it, write about it, memorize it, sing it, talk about it, create art inspired by it!  I promise you, God’s Word will change your life!

OPEN YOUR HEART!

• Open your heart to a group of people who are passionately following Jesus!
• One of the best things about Camp Tallowood was the fellowship we had with each other at meal time and rec time and church group time and free time and worshiping in the Pavilion together!  You can have that same kind of fellowship in real life as you continue to ENJOY GOD’S LIFE TOGETHER with other believers.  Jesus doesn’t want you following Him all alone.  And besides, the Christian life is so much more fun when we live it together!

-Rebecca

Debbie Boedecker, another one of our fabulous youth leaders and long-time camp sponsor, has been leading the charge for the camp prayer ministry. Debbie has taken the time to offer a few suggestions for parents, grandparents, church members and others who are lifting our students up in prayer this week. Many of you received an orange wristband and committed to pray for the student whose name was written on that band. Please use these specific requests as a guide of how to pray for your student and all of us throughout the week. Thank you for your commitment to pray!

• Pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the wisdom and power we will need in the coming days, weeks and months.
• Wisdom to make choices and decisions that will bring glory to God.
• Power to stand strong in the love and joy that is ours through Jesus Christ.

This year, we baptized 20 students at Camp Tallowood.  Take a minute and celebrate with us as these students make a public declaration of their faith in Christ!

Check out the video from the entire week of Camp Tallowood.  Thanks to Stefan Garrard for all of his amazing video work this week.

On the final day of Camp Tallowood, we woke up to enjoy breakfast in our rooms as we packed bags and cleaned rooms. The piles of dirty clothes going back into those bags were overwhelming!

Students then headed out for a final meeting with their church groups. During their quiet times, students examined 2 Corinthians 1:21-22. This verse offers assurance that if we have accepted Him, then we belong to God! Nothing can remove God’s seal of ownership from us – not the ending of camp, not heading back to the challenges of our day-to-day lives; not anything else.

At the pavilion, the time had come for the final awards presentation. Scores from Rec, Acquire the Tire, Church on Fire, scripture memory and the Church Chase were combined for a final total. Much to their delight, Pisidia was announced as the overall winners for the week!

During morning worship, the puzzle with Jesus’ name spelled out hung over the stage for all to see. As Scot began to speak, he asked the students how many of them had carried or touched their spirit piece at some point during the week. Every hand in the room shot up. Scot then asked, “Do you realize you were carrying the name of Jesus all week?” What an incredible visual for all of us! The role of the church is to carry the name of Jesus and our students have literally been doing this everywhere they went all week!

Scot then pointed us to the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40. Philip carried the name of Jesus with him, and brought the story of Jesus to Ethiopia through this man he met on the road. Will we be like Philip? As we get back to our lives at home, will we continue to be devoted to scripture, fellowship, worship and prayer? Or will we instead let the world influence and lead us?

Parents, now that your students are home, how will you encourage them to carry the name of Jesus and continue to devote their lives to God?

Next up was the BEST part of Camp Tallowood! Salvation had come and it was time to celebrate and let the world know of these decisions to follow Christ through baptism. Twenty students were baptized in the Nueces River as a symbol of their old lives dying and their new lives in Christ beginning!

Since we couldn’t top that, it was time for Camp Tallowood 2011 to come to a close. Students enjoyed a final lively lunch in the dining hall and loaded up the buses. The seniors helped load up equipment in the truck and we were all out of there.

-Laura

Debbie Boedecker, another one of our fabulous youth leaders and long-time camp sponsor, has been leading the charge for the camp prayer ministry. Debbie has taken the time to offer a few suggestions for parents, grandparents, church members and others who are lifting our students up in prayer this week. Many of you received an orange wristband and committed to pray for the student whose name was written on that band. Please use these specific requests as a guide of how to pray for your student and all of us throughout the week. Thank you for your commitment to pray!

• Pray for rest and restoration.
• Pray for the youth staff and adult leaders as they return to their families and recuperate after a challenging week.

Thursday morning started off with the seniors picking up the sixth graders for a special breakfast. This tradition once again brought the oldest and youngest students together to welcome the sixth graders into the student ministry.

At the morning worship service, Scot once again directed us to Acts 2:42 as we looked at being devoted to prayer. Prayer is the language of dependence, showing our weakness and God’s strength!

Parents, will you commit to praying with your students and as a family to demonstrate your reliance on God?

After continuing to unpack this during church group time, everyone headed to the pavilion area for the Church Chase – the final Rec event. Every member of each group competes in different events racing to cross the finish line first. The relay included a river swim, memory verse recitation, five-man pyramid, hot dog eating, mile run and more. The final task was to fit your church’s spirit piece (a puzzle piece that each group has decorated and been carrying around all week) into a giant puzzle. Phillipi crossed the finish line first! And after every piece was in place, the puzzle revealed the name above all names – Jesus!

Thursday afternoon, students once again enjoyed free time and dinner before meeting up with their church groups for a hike down to a dry riverbed at dusk. As the sun went down, the band led us all in worship. The final puzzle from the Church Chase was lifted up as a symbol as we all lifted up His name in song.

The crowd of students and adults gasped as Scot suddenly appeared 150 feet up above us all on the hilltop! As we lifted our eyes to the heavens, Scot gradually rappelled down the hillside. This is what God did for us – He became man and left heaven for us! He humbled himself to save us. He lowered himself to be like us. As Scot rappelled lower and lower, he reminded us that God didn’t even just become a man – He became a slave; Not just a slave, a slave who died; Not just a slave who died, but one who suffered humiliation dying on a cross. We are called in Phillippians 2 to mimic these actions and “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

As the service came to a close, the seniors led us in worship through an interp on their final night of camp. We’ll be sad to see a great group of leaders go!

-Laura

Debbie Boedecker, another one of our fabulous youth leaders and long-time camp sponsor, has been leading the charge for the camp prayer ministry. Debbie has taken the time to offer a few suggestions for parents, grandparents, church members and others who are lifting our students up in prayer this week. Many of you received an orange wristband and committed to pray for the student whose name was written on that band. Please use these specific requests as a guide of how to pray for your student and all of us throughout the week. Thank you for your commitment to pray!

• Pray for the students who are have made decisions this week that will change their lives forever!
• Pray for safe travel home.
• Pray for Chris McWatters and the Camp Eagle staff as they prepare to welcome another church group for a week of camp.