BEACH CAMP | August ‘04

By Ashley West

11^th Grade, Red Mountain High School 

 

     “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”  1 Corinthians 12:12

     And so it was with Beach Camp 2004.  In one of our studies at camp, this passage was actually the main point.  The Church is made up of many people and we all have different spiritual gifts from God, but through cooperation, we can use our gifts together in order to form a stronger church body to serve the Lord.  Throughout our enjoyable week in California, each of us found many opportunities to use our gifts in order to make our camp experience a deeper one.

SERVING:  One of the first opportunities we had at camp was to serve others.  As a body of Christ, we all traveled to the soup kitchen to serve food to those who are not as fortunate as we are.  Some of the people who we served were homeless, but there were also those who just couldn’t stretch their money to make it through the month.  Regardless of their background, we came to feed them, talk to them, encourage them, and much more.  It was such an amazing experience to give back to the community and receive nothing except the knowledge that we spread a little more of Jesus’ love.

LEADING:  In a group of so many talented students, we were bound to have some quality musicians among us.  Using their leadership skills, they took the opportunity by the horns and guided the rest of us in the spiritually nourishing activity of worship.  Through the enthusiasm that these student leaders portrayed and the God-praising songs that we all sang, that night of worship was very touching.  Even outside of our regularly scheduled worship time, several people would sit around playing music and singing songs, just out of the love for our savior.  Anyone who sat nearby and listened was encouraged by the heartwarming songs of worship. 

HEALING:  Not all healing is physical.  In fact some of the most important healing that happens is emotional and spiritual.  On Wednesday night, we took a walk through a type of prayer labyrinth.  Stopping at many different stations, we listened to the story of the last supper, betrayal, crucifixion, and the resurrection.  Many were deeply moved by this event and were lead to spend much of the evening in prayer.  Through the love and support of friends, and most importantly that of God, countless people were able to be forgiven by God, be forgiven by themselves, be healed and let go of some painful experiences that only God could take away.

     There were so many great things that happened at camp and everyone was able to take something away from it, whether friends grew in fellowship with one another, or someone learned more about Jesus, or even just had lots of fun hanging out at the beach and getting a nice tan.  Beach Camp 2004 was what many of us needed in order to grow and become more of who God wants us to be.

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