ALCF KIDS

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Kids camp was an awesome experience for the 16 kids who dared the wild. The adventure also extended to over 30 adult volunteers who were involved in cooking meals, serving, cleaning, leading small group activities, running games and crazy events, and leading Bible Studies! I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of the teens and adults who helped out and really made camp possible for all the kids.
Camp was well worth all the effort and more. We arrived and immediately jumped into the fun and the journey of growing closer to God in a genuine relationship with His Son! On the first day we began to make our flags in our teams. We had three teams this year. Each team consisted of one adult leader and 5 or 6 kids. We had the “Red Hots”, the “Blue Pythons” and the “Green Gators”. Each team designed their flag, put on face paint, created team chants, worked together in competing with other teams, found ways to show team spirit such as marching and saying their chant on the way to lunch, and my personal favorite is the R.A.K. points. Each team earned Random Acts of Kindness points by doing something nice for someone else. They would clean up, wash cars, serve food and anything else they could think of to show kindness. By the end of camp they learned that the idea was not to earn points but to put others before yourself because that is what Jesus did!
As the camp went on each night we grew closer to God and had a deeper understanding of who He is and how much He loves us. The second night 4 kids asked Christ to be Lord of their lives and things just got better each day.
Camp was not without it’s difficulties and the enemy was certainly on the attack but I was encouraged by that because that meant God was doing something in the lives of these 16 kids. I know that camp was life changing for the kids because it was for me too and I cant wait till next year!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Honor & Obey

“Honor Will Change the World”

There is a big problem in the world that has gotten worse and worse over the years. This problem is not your fault or mine but we are the ones who must change things. When our grandparents and great grandparents were kids these problems did not exist. They were living in a time of respect & honor for their parents. The crime was not as bad. The amount of kids and teenagers that were getting into serious trouble was much lower. Families were happier and healthier and worked together. Why is it so different now? What has changed? The Daddy used to rule his house with authority and demanded respect and obedience, now dads are many times working just to spoil their children and grandchildren with ridiculously priced gifts, toys, electronics etc. Parents used to demand love and respect from their children, now it is the children who demand freedom to do what they want, be friends with who they want, and force their parents into poverty to meet the demands of keeping up with their friends. It is time to break this chain of disrespect and dishonor and restore the family to be the way God designed it to be…

Ephesians 6:1-3
Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 2 "Honor your father and mother." This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. 3 And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing."