Wildwood Staff Wake Boarding Trip

It took a while but here it is. All I can say is that it was a great trip and I can't wait until next summer.
-Rich

This summer God slapped me in the face once again with this concept of obedience.
More than anything I desire to be a woman that seeks God's face in everything and with that, It requires obedience.
I've been battling it all summer, being obedient in things I don't necessarily want to do, and to be obedient when God changed my plans. I've been reading The Best of A.W Tozer and this certain chapter has rocked my thought life, and my relationship with Jesus.
The chapter is called "The marks of a spiritual man" It pretty much lists what I should be like as a follower of Christ. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and reflecting into my own heart, and thinking of the way i treat people.
These are the biggest things I have learned this summer:
I NEED:
To desire real holiness
To desire God's will for me- at any cost
To choose to obey christ, and choose to carry the cross
To see everything from God's viewpoint
To view this earth as something temporary
To see others better than myself
To make eternal judgements rather than time judgements.

I am really bad at all of this, but I'm on my knees that God will transform me.

Katy

This summer has definitely been a time of growth for me (way more than I had expected, actually). I started out this summer being very excited about God taking me out of my comfort zone for an extended period of time. Little did I know how much time would be spent there. Over the last ten weeks I have had to learn (again) to rely on God's strength and energy to get me through. I'm not typically the type of person who volunteers to be a leader or constantly around other people, but somehow this is where God has placed me for now. As I get ready to move into another year of JWI, I am grateful for the opportunity I have had this summer to practice investing in other people's lives. I feel confident and thankful that all the lessons I've learned this summer (and will continue to learn) will give me the courage to be more willing to take myself out of my comfort zone and spend more time investing in people's lives.

Hilary

This summer at Wildwood has been one of the best summers of my life. Something that God was really teaching me was how to be faithful in the small things. God reminded me of David's obedience as a Shepard and how in watching and protecting his flock he went from killing a bear and a lion, to defeating a giant on the battle field. So rather, than getting discouraged doing seemingly meaningless tasks I pray that I will become even more diligent in serving God in all that I do, with the knowledge that God is preparing me for his service in ways that are beyond my comprehension.
-David

This summer, I feel like I have been challenged by SO MANY of the things
that I’ve challenged my campers with every week. One thing that has
specifically stuck out to me is actually the summer's theme of being
involved with missions. Every Monday morning I helped give a talk about
World Vision with the purpose of encouraging campers to be involved
through donations and prayer. As the summer progressed I was really
challenged to “practice what you preach” as I recognized my own lack of involvement with missions (especially with World Vision). I was hit with the realization of how little I was consistenly praying and giving to missions. One thing that challenged me the most was actually through a few campers asking me my opinion on how much money we should be giving as Christians. This is something I’ve already been wrestling with over the past year and this conversation really challenged me to think seriously about giving and spending at this point in my life. It’s been a huge realization of something I need to start changing and living out now. It was amazing that campers challenged me each week and to have been continually learning and growing alongside with them!

-kelly

Evan's thoughts from the summer.

Yo yo, so this is what I’ve been learning this summer. It’s actually what I’ve been learning all year. I just noticed that often in my life, I treat my sin pretty flippantly. Usually it’s with smaller sins, I just think of them as though they weren’t a big deal and don’t really make any effort to stop them. And kind of in the back of my mind is the thought that God’s grace covers it anyway. Well, I realized that nothing about that is right. Certainly God’s grace does cover it, but that doesn’t justify my continued sin. In Romans 6 it says “What then, shall I go on sinning that grace may increase? May it never be!” Essentially the question is if I continue to sin, God can give me more grace, which gives him more glory. But it would be wrong to think of sin as a means to bring more glory. A better way to understand it is to look at Romans 5 where it says “For the wages of sin is death…” The fact is, every sin, whether we perceive it to be big or small, is worthy of death, hell, and eternal separation from God. Each one required Christ to die in order for us to have the opportunity of a right relationship with God. All that to say, sin is a big deal, whether it’s big or small. I don’t expect that I’ll ever live perfectly, and God’s grace covers my imperfection, but that is no excuse for me to simply give up on being faithful in the little things. Have a great year.

-Evan

Summer is over

Hey guys its crazy that another summer has come and gone at Wildwood. I don't know about you guys but this summer was amazing. Even as the director I was encouraged and challenged throughout the summer concerning the idea of my heart and attitude breaking for the things that break God's heart. Truly my prayer for you guys this summer was that you would go home and begin to see the world around you differently as you are seeing it the way Jesus does. For the next few blog entires I will be posting many of the different things that the Wildwood Staff learned this summer. I hope these blogs encourage you and feel free to leave comments of what you are learning as well.

Take care
Rich

PS enjoy this amazing photo that we took on the last Friday night of camp