Awesome God!

 Last we visited church camp for the week of North Central Family Camp. What an awesome week it would turn out to be! We took 50 people from our church, and out of that, one had to go home because he was sick, but 7 were saved! It was like a week of revival. One of the saved was one of my best friend's mother whom we have been praying for a long time.  Several saved were those of the bus ministry that we do. It is a joy to see them finally "get" it to where the light bulb comes on. God's Holy Spirit at work is unstoppable! Ellie Kate, Noah, and myself shared a bed the whole week, and yes, it was quite interesting to say the least. Elijah decided that he wanted to stay with my mom that week, and I missed him greatly. I tried to talk him into going with us on several occasions, but he would tell me, "no, I go to Nanny's house." So, all oft the talking I could do wouldn't compare to him being the "only" child for a week!

 Ellie Kate had her friend Cara at camp to play with. I enjoyed visiting with Cara's mommy, Judi Little last week. That is what our camp is for those that have been saved. It is a week of refreshing fellowship between believers and God. It is a time to learn more about God's word, and how to share it with others. The friendships that are born there are amazing! I have never been a part of a camp that has such a close relationship. Everyone loves everyone. There are of course a few exceptions, but hey 1 out of 370 is not bad, right? LOL.    Don't know how to rotate my photo and so, this is Cara and Ellie talking on the phone in the nursery in the back of the tabernacle during service one night! They are about a month apart, and are precious together!

The other picture, is Ally Hardee (one of the 7th graders that went), NOah and Ellie Kate were eating popcorn after church one night. We had a blast doing this! It gave me time to talk with some of the adults and the kids enjoyed eating the popcorn and sprite. Cody was doing his ministry pretty much all week, and in fact after we got home Friday we did nothing but talk from Friday evening until Saturday evening because we were catching up on eachother's week! He is just a busy man at camp, and he thouroughly enjoys himself!

 This is Abi Windham, one of the teens that went with us to camp. She is a very talented young lady. She is also going to teen camp in July. Abi and Noah had fun together, as you can probably tell! :) 

One of my favorite things about Budd Creek Camp is the food! They have wonderful food, homecooked food at that!! The other reason I like meal times is because they do it "family style" where you have what is called "table monitors" who go before everyone else does and they set the tables (in our case we had 5 tables) so we had to have 5 table monitors. This year I made out the list before camp...because if you wait until camp people think you're picking on them if they have to do it more than once. Every meal the table monitors had an adult to go with them and "assist" them to make sure none of them leave before everything is done at the end of the meal, and to teach those who are "new" to it. Some people like to do it for themselves, but in doing this you really "rob" others in this case the kids of the blessing of learning to serve others. So, I had to tell Bro Mullins (our pastor) not to do stuff on more than one occasion because he could "do it faster" than the table monitors! LOL, especially if you know him!!  Noah really got in on being a table monitor. He would take the "baskets" when they were empty and get them refilled with food and put them back on the table, and at the end of the meal, he would help sweep, and try to help put up the chairs as well. He is such a big boy now.
        The best thing about camp is the end of the week when the one's who have been saved ring the bell. The whole Idea is to picture what heaven is like when just 1 lost soul is saved, the amount of rejoicing is incomparable.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

The topic of this week was set by Bro Doyle Glass whom I have known since I was a kid, and he is at one of our churches in Birdtown just a little north of Morrilton (it really is a small, small world!) and in his sermon he preached to the saved about a marquee sign he had seen outside of a Baptist church somewhere in Quitman, Ar a while back. He asked us the question, "Will there be anyone in Heaven because of You?"  That questions played on everyone's conscience that week because if they had been saved, it was so convicting about how we are living our lives for Christ, and if they were not saved, they knew that they needed the assurance of Heaven after they leave this world! God greatly blessed us this past week with wonderful preaching, just a few were Bro Glass, Bro Cody (yes Cody preached one morning), Bro Mullins, Bro. Eli Maynard, Bro. Zach Garrigus, Bro. Kenny Haney, Bro Mike Haney, and so many more. They were all great preacher's for the Lord. I have to say this, Bro. Kenny Haney is a young man. I cannot remember if Kenny is 16, 17, or what, but he gave a devotional one morning before Breakfast and it was awesome. He challenged the kids/teens and he didn't hold anything back. It was so great because it came from someone that is "their" age. He is on fire for the Lord and I hope he will remain that way! My children are now running wild, so I must go. O, and by the way, Cody & I celebrated our Anniversary the Last day of camp, Friday June 17th! We enjoyed getting sang to by the Budd Creek staff, and little cake too! It was sweet. We had  a great time talking which is something we don't get a of time to do. 

Have a Great week!

Jamie