This week we have our first group of junior high campers here at Lake Beauty! Missionary Jeff stayed for another week, and Chris Pappenfoos is our speaker. So far, he’s shared about six “g”s: Good (asking the question “Are we good?”), Guilt (Sin enters creation), Grief (Why does all this bad stuff happen?), Goats (the sacrificial system and how that will set up Christ as the Lamb of God), Grace (Under guilt vs. under grace), and Gospel (Celebrate the good news stories that God is writing at camp).

Tonight is our traditional “Dinner at the Beach,” where campers have a picnic supper by the lake. After the meal, the kitchen staff takes turns telling stories, and campers volunteer to choose which staffer they think is telling the truth. Out of the four storytellers, only one is telling the truth, and the campers who chose staffers whose stories weren’t true end up in the lake while the camper who chose the person who was telling the truth stays dry. "To Tell the Truth" will be followed by the traditional game of Capture the Cone.

Campers have two opportunities this week to attend seminars of their choice; options include a Q & A with our speaker and missionary, a seminar about modern-day slavery, one about our identity in Christ, one about the differences between Christianity and major world religions, and a seminar about God and science. All the seminars are created and led by staff, so the campers enjoy learning from people who are passionate about the topic on which they’ve chosen to do a seminar.

We are looking forward to the second half of an amazing week with our junior highers! Please be in prayer for hearts to continue to be touched and lives to continue to be transformed this week.

As we near the end of Super High summer camp tomorrow, it has been fun to look back on how much has gone on in such a short time. Our speaker Steve and our missionary Jeff (who is serving in Cameroon) have done a great job challenging the kids to grow in their understanding of God's character and their identity in Him. Specifically, Steve has been reading from the book Blue Collar God, White Collar God in the mornings and having the campers practice reading a passage of Scripture and picking out a word or phrase from the passage that had significant meaning for them. During evening chapel, Steve has been asking the campers to examine their hearts and recognize the difference between being a fan of Jesus and being one of His followers. Last night, campers had guy/girl chapel led by the summer staff, and they have also had two opportunities to attend seminars led by the staff.

Campers this week have done activities such as skeet shooting, paintball, horse rides, and the challenge course. The winning cabins of the intermural volleyball and dodge ball teams played the staff team today, and as always, the gaga court has been full during free time and canteen time. Of course, the highlight of many campers' weeks has been the night games, and we have had great weather for outdoor activities this week! Tonight we have outdoor chapel, and will be worshiping and learning in the middle of the woods, complete with campfires.

It has been great to see camp full of campers again, and to see the staffers interacting with and sharing the love of Christ with them. We are looking forward to this last 24 hours with our Super Highers! To see pictures from the week, check out the Lake Beauty Bible Camp Facebook page, and visit our YouTube channel (LakeBeautyBibleCamp) after each camp session ends to see the highlight video from the week.

As we anticipate the arrival of our Super High campers this Sunday, the Lake Beauty summer staff has spent the last nine days in staff training and will continue to learn about camp and grow personally throughout this week. Monday was our annual hangout day with the staff of Camp Lebenon, and besides getting to know Lebenon’s summer staff and defeating them in the traditional Ultimate Frisbee game, we also had training sessions in how to handle bullying and how to share your testimony.

Throughout the week, the LBBC summer staff has been getting to know each other through group initiatives and working on planning projects such as making our W.O.W. videos to teach groups of campers the camp rules. They have also been preparing spiritually for the summer by going through some of the sessions in Kyle Idleman’s “gods at War” series, identifying some of the idols in their lives and making a plan to deal with and defeat them. Tomorrow we are having a “silent retreat” in which the staff is spending time alone with God, listening to Him and praying for the summer. We would appreciate it if you would be praying for us as well, that campers would come with open hearts and that the staff would be attentive to God’s voice in every interaction with the campers. 

This past week and a half, it has been so exciting to see the summer staff bond with each other and prepare themselves for the ministry they are already a part of. We are excited to begin a summer of proclaiming God’s freedom both here at camp and in the lives of each of the campers.

- Laura Gibson, LBBC Intern