What a Weekend!

-
Where do I even begin?!?  As my Instagram and Facebook posts have shown, this past weekend was our Virginia Leadership Camp down at Watermarks Camp in Scottsville, VA.  As a huddle leader coordinator, I went down early with a few other staff members to greet and train our 19 huddle leaders.  These are college students, most of whom are athletes on their campuses, who willingly gave up their weekends to spend 3 days pouring into middle and high school athletes.  These college kids were rock stars from the start!  There’s a lot of information, spiritual and technical, that goes into pulling off a camp like this, and they all completely blew me away! 
The students began arriving late Friday afternoon from parent drop-offs to buses filled to capacity and our huddle leaders stayed enthusiastic from the time the campers arrived on Friday until they left Sunday afternoon.  As a result, the campers had an amazing time from information sessions to program to competitions and free time.  Many students, and even a few coaches, gave their lives to Christ for the first time this weekend and several rededicated their lives as well.  For me, one of the most powerful parts of Leadership Camp is Sunday morning's Cross Walk. Students and coaches took notes on their crosses (a 4x4 beam) throughout the weekend and on Sunday at 6am they have a chance to literally follow Jesus' command to take up their crosses and follow His example.  By the end of the weekend, we were physically tired but our hearts were so full at seeing God at work and lives transformed.  
On Sunday afternoon, when students were asked to share how the weekend had impacted them, one boy, a rising 9th grader from Loudoun, said that he considered himself an atheist before this weekend. But after hearing the gospel explained in such a clear way and seeing the enthusiasm his huddle leaders had in living their lives for Christ, he said he knows that God is real and he decided that he also wanted to follow Christ with his life.  How cool is that?!  From the time I got home Sunday evening, I’ve been receiving texts and emails from Loudoun parents saying what a wonderful time their students had.  To all of you who support our ministry, in finances and in prayer, thank you does not seem to be enough.  We as a staff are so encouraged by what happened this weekend and I hope upon reading this you are, too.  We are releasing around 60 students and 5 coaches from Loudoun back into their schools and communities this week and we can’t wait to see the impact that God continues to make in our area.  What a mighty God we serve!
Sam, a student from Dominion HS, had a blast with his huddle on the low ropes course!

Best huddle leaders ever!  We had football, baseball, hockey (field and ice), basketball, tennis, and volleyball players from UVA, JMU, Liberty, Longwood, Grove City, and the University of Richmond, just to name a few!


"Take up your cross and follow me."  Powerful reflection happened at 6am Sunday morning during our cross walk.

That's a good looking Loudoun group, if I do say so myself!
To watch our recap video from the weekend, click here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Idolatry of Safety

-
My favorite scene in C.S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is when the children are learning about Aslan, the Christ figure in the books, for the first time.  In the scene, Susan, Lucy, and their brothers are talking to Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who inform them that Aslan is likely not exactly what they expect: “Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"... "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” He’s not safe.  But He’s the King.  How often do I live in a way that equates safety with God’s goodness?  I mean, this is crazy thinking, right?  But don’t we all feel this way sometimes?  Even though the Bible clearly says that following Jesus means taking up your cross (which doesn’t sound very safe to me)...
Read more

Step by Step

-
Image
Tomorrow morning I leave for my first FCA camp of the summer, Virginia Leadership Camp.   My role at this camp and our upcoming multi-sport camp at the University of Richmond is Huddle Leader Coordinator.   I love this role because it means I get to the camp early and train and equip the college athletes who will then lead the middle and high school students attending the camp.   If I’m honest, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent more mental energy stressing about filling these Huddle Leader roles than I have spent praying about it, forgetting that the battle is not mine, but God's (2 chronicles  20:12 ). What if, every time I start to feel my anxiety elevate, I pause and praise God in the midst of the battle? What kind of great blessing would I see then, both for our camp in and in my own life?   I believe the enemy knows that students’ and coaches’ lives are changed at camp and he will do whatever he can to discourage us before we even get there. ...
Read more

A New Adventure Begins!

-
Image
Welcome to my new FCA blog!  I can't wait to share how the Lord is working in the lives of coaches and athletes in Loudoun County.  Here are a few highlights of the past few months as I've been working to raise support and transition into this new women's ministry role on the Loudoun FCA staff: Women's Ministry teammates, Rebekah and Noelle at the NSC in April In April I traveled to FCA’s National Support Center in Kansas City, MO to attend Fundraising Bootcamp.  I flew out with two other amazing women who are also prospective women’s ministry staff for Northern VA FCA.  We were given about 20 hours of prep work before coming to bootcamp, all related with understanding the Biblical model of support raising in ministry and being able to share our personal stories of how the Lord brought us to this desire to work for FCA.  The prep work was so helpful and the information I learned at bootcamp has been invaluable as I started raising support.  La...
Read more