Summer recap from a different perspective

Hello there readers!

Below you will find a link to the official Clear Camps blog. One of our leaders has written some about the summer, and also a challenge to all who attended a Clear Camp this summer. It's a great read from a different perspective than mine so I figured I'd share it with you here, so take a look. 

http://www.clearcamps.com/yourmove/

David

Clear 2012 - Week 8

Week 8 - Daniel Springs Baptist Encampment

Well, here the is, the last installment of my Clear Camp summer blog for 2012.  

The last week of camp consisted of all three of our teams converging onto the Daniel Springs Baptist Encampment for our biggest camp of the summer.  This youth camp brings in an average of about 600 students and 100 adults a year.  Add in the close to 70 Clear Staffers and guest throughout the week, there is about 800 people on the campus at any given time.  Needless to say, there is a lot going on.  

Throughout this week God was continually pushing me out of my comfortable place.  I didn’t realize that I had any comfortable places left after being surrounded by my other 16 team members non-stop for five weeks, but I did.  

Anyway, one of the major standards of Clear is that the staff is with the students as much as possible.  This means from breakfast at 7:30 in the morning until we walk them back to their cabins between 11-11:30 at night.  What this does is forces us to interact with students, at all times.  It forces those of us, like me, that don’t really like to talk, to talk.  

For me, this week started with just simply talking with the adult leaders.  I met some that had been doing this for a long time, and others that were at a Clear event for the first time.  Mostly, God pushed me in talking with students in the lunch/dinner line.  Since we all had to be there, and it took some time to go through, I had some great conversations with students throughout the week.  I really believe that God was speaking through me, showing His vast love to the students.  

Even as I type this, God is showing/reminding me how he systematically brought me through this summer, not just this week, teaching me to interact with people I don’t know.  He has continually been teaching me about His love for people.  About his love for me.  

The week at Daniel Springs concluded with 60 salvations.  How amazing is that!?  60 new believers in the kingdom!  That is why we do camp.  To lead students into a relationship with Christ, and give them tools to grow in that new relationship.  Over the entire summer, with three teams from East Texas, to Chicago, to Florida, and all the way to India, Clear has seen 293 give their lives to Christ!

This has truly been an amazing summer for me.  God has shown me a ton about himself, and myself.  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along.  If you would like more information about Clear, let me know or check out the website at www.clearcamps.com. There is some great stuff coming up this fall that you should definitely check out. 

Until next time,
David

Clear 2012 - Week 7

Week 7 - Conroe, TX

Week 7 of our Clear summer consisted of our team heading down to Conroe, TX to work with a church called Under Over Fellowship.  The church, less than two years old, is pastored by Jerry Vineyard.  Due to a passion to serve the homeless community in Conroe, their vision is to be a literal “come as you are” church family.  

What's really amazing, is that Under Over genuinely wants to help people get back on their feet.  Vineyard and his team take a few people at a time, teach them how to restore old furniture in their shop Under Over Mission, and then sell it in the store called All Things New.  After time, the guys working in the shop make enough money selling furniture to have a secure sustainable income.  

This week we also had the chance to visit the Conroe House of Prayer, or CHOP as it’s commonly referred to.  This is a ministry that opens its doors for the homeless community every weekday from about 5:00 to 9:00am.  Food is provided along with daily worship and preaching.  

While at the CHOP on Monday, we were able to further connect with many of the same people we had met at Under Over Fellowship on Sunday.  Through the week many of the team had the opportunity to listen to stories and pray with many of the people.  We even had one guy tell us that he would give God another try after hearing one of our team members talk about the week.  What’s amazing is that God was showing His vast love for people through every individual on our team.  

I really think that was one of the big things God wanted to show me this summer, what His love really looks like.  I spent the whole week in 1 Corinthians 13, which most of you know as the Love chapter.  I really think that being in the middle of a bunch of people I’ve never cared about before, and spending time in this chapter, God expedited my learning of the subject.  I’m no expert on God’s love yet, but I have a better understanding.  I would encourage you to go read 1 Corinthians 13 and take some time to understand what love is, and what love is not.  I believe this will help you get a better understand of God’s love for people.  

So anyway, back to Conroe.  There is so much more I could tell you about our week in Conroe.  We put on a VBS for a parent center located in an old school and saw three or four kids come to know Jesus as their savior.  We walked around in some sketchy neighborhoods with known drug houses passing out flyers and making connections for Under Over Fellowship.  We had the opportunity to lead a Wednesday night service where many of our team had a part through music, preaching, testimony, dance, or serving.  But through all of what we did, God’s love was shown and that’s the only thing that really mattered.  

Thanks for reading!

David

Clear 2012 - Week 6

Week 6 - Shreveport, LA

Week 6 for us has been back home in the lovely state of Louisiana.  After being in Chicago for three weeks it has been good to be home for a short while before heading down to the Houston, TX area.  

All week we have been working with a ministry called The Hub Urban Ministries located in downtown Shreveport.  What we’ve been doing is working right alongside them in what they are already doing.  

The Hub works with homeless and low income people in the bottoms, a neighborhood located here around downtown Shreveport.  We’ve played bingo at the hospitality house, walked around to different places passing out flyers for events, hung out and talked with people in The Basement (one of The Hub’s locations), and helped with two different community meals in different places.  

Through all of this, I’ve once again seen God do some crazy things.  Before I go any further, I’ve had a hardened heart to this class of people for a while.  I don’t know if it was the what I was taught growing up in school or throughout life, but I haven’t really cared for or liked this social class.  (I only use “social class” because I know no other way to describe it.)  What I’ve learned is that not every homeless person is greedy and expects handouts from others.  Yes, there are those, but our team has had some great conversations with people who are very ambitious and want to work for what they’ve been given.  

Another great part of the week was when we held a water day at the park for neighborhood kids.  It was fun just to watch kids be kids.  I’ve learned that some of these don’t really have that opportunity in their home environments for whatever reason.  We also got to show kids a small portion of God’s love.  One of our guys held a small girl for a long while because she just wanted to be held.  I can only imagine that she doesn’t really experience that at home, and as I think about it now, it kinda breaks my heart.  

God has also shown me a lot about Spiritual Warfare this week.  I began asking God to show me what it looks like in my life, and the lives of others.  Well, I learned that God does answer prayers in a whole new way by showing me that very same day.  It didn’t click till later, but I got to see someone very close to me struggle through a good bit of troubles as we started off.  He showed me later in the week how I can easily let my flesh be a hindrance to the movement of His Spirit.  This was also one of those that clicked later on when I was discussing something with some of our team members.  So I’ve learned firsthand what Spiritual warfare looks like and it’s not pretty.  But our strength lies in the fact that in the end, Satan is defeated.  

Anyway, The Hub is an amazing ministry here in the Shreveport area. They have been working hard in this area to build a reputation as an organization that loves people and the community here sees that.  The Hub is solely supported by donations from individuals and local churches.  Since I can’t give you all the information about them check out The Hub website here.  

I look forward to sharing with you about H-Town next week!

David

Clear 2012 - Week 5

Week 5 - Chicago, IL


This week has been our last up here in the windy city.  Once again, we had a tremendous enjoying time in the city and learning about how people live in different parts of the world.  I’m not sure I will ever want to live in a city this large, but I do enjoy visiting one on occasion.  


Throughout the week God has been revealing tons of stuff to me.  He has shown me I can do great things even when I think I can’t, just by letting him work through me in unlikely situations.  


This week most of us changed form working with our work team to the camp team.  For me this meant going out of a place where I was extremely comfortable, to a place where I was immensely uncomfortable, working directly with kids.  Gladly I was with the oldest group but it was still challenging.  


One of the most amazing things I saw was one of my teammates spontaneously jump into teaching our group about the narrow and wide gates to Heaven and Hell from Matthew 7.  This was definitely a Spirit led moment and we learned that even though most of the kids have grown up in a Christian school, hardly any of them had a personal relationship Jesus.  We later learned that another one of our teammates did the same thing with her class.  


These two instances, along with a tremendous amount of prayer from our entire team, helped lead to many conversations with our students throughout the week, but everything seemed to come to fruition on Friday morning.  Maybe it was because we knew it was the last day, but just about every one of our team members were sharing the Gospel with the kids.  I’m happy to tell you that the Spirit of God moved in mighty ways on July 6 of 2012.  We believe that five students from the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, IL came to know Jesus as their personal Savior.  


This in itself made our three weeks in Chicago absolutely worthwhile.  Five kids came to know the Lord!  I get super excited just typing that. For many more kids, genuine seeds were planted for a future harvest and that excites me for whoever has the chance to see that harvest.  I personally had the chance to show one student that once he is in God’s hand, no one can take him out of it.  


So as a close to our three weeks in Chicago, we were able to see God do some amazing work in our lives and the students lives.  We are a little sad to say goodbye to the windy city, but we are thrilled to be headed back to Shreveport and spend some time working at home for a week.  


See you next week,
David

Clear 2012 - Week 4

Week 4 - Chicago, IL

Well, this is week 2 in good ole Chicago.  So far it’s been a mostly enjoyable experience.  This weekend we had the opportunity to go and spend some time in Millennium Park, right in downtown Chicago.  During this time, some of the team were playing a game we have yet name.  Anyway, it was really cool to watch a random game being played by our staff and have some locals come join in.  Afterwards we had the opportunity to talk with them about the Clear ministry and what we are doing in the city.  

Once Monday hit we were all excited to meet the kids we would be working with for the next two weeks.  Most of these kids attend school were we are working.  It’s a privately run organization that is backed by one of the churches in the Chicago area.  

Now as a Clear staff, we are used to doing things a certain way.  Working with this school has been a challenge for us all.  It feels more like a summer school than a summer camp.  The teachers or counselors act like regular school teachers with their method of doing things.  Our role as a staff is to work alongside them and maybe help equip them with some of the things Clear does.  

Now as challenging as this has been for us, we have experienced and seen God working in what we are doing.  We feel that the first week we have been here doing manual labor has helped us build some credibility with the school staff.  It has been tough for all, but we are taking Paul’s words from Ephesians 6:5-8 seriously. 

Here Paul says...

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

So we are doing our best to serve wholeheartedly.  As we are serving the Lord in everything we do, not man. And slowly, we have begun to see effects of our work.  Kids have begun to open up to us during the day.  Through conversations with the adult leaders we have learned that they are impressed with what we do as a ministry. We have even had conversations with some of the younger workers here at the school about how they could possibly be involved with Clear next summer.  

Personally, God has reminded me that I am a leader.  People are watching me from every angle.  And as a leader, I have to be careful about how I react in situations.  This week I hadn’t had the best of reactions every time, but I’ve decided to learn from those mistakes and make tomorrow better than today.  

David

Clear 2012 - Week 3

Week 3 - Chicago, IL


Well, this week our team has traveled up to the grand ole city of Chicago.  Most of our team was surprised to learn that the entire east side of Illinois is mostly flat, and is nothing more than corn and a few windmills.   


And to say that coming up here has been a culture shock would be an understatement.  You could probably call it ignorance but I had no idea Chicago contains a large Hispanic population.  In conversation I have learned that the majority of the neighborhood is of Puerto Rican heritage.  I am now intrigued to do a little historical research about the city when I find the adequate time.  


Anyway, we have been working with Salem Christian School which is a ministry of New Life Covenant Church here in the city of Chicago.  The school is located in an old Lutheran church that was built in the 1890’s.  History tells us that the church closed in the early 1980’s and the school bought, and moved into the building.  So from an architectural and historical point, this is a pretty cool building.  Looking at it from a modern day comfort standpoint … not so much, but we are happy to be here serving the Lord, which I will tell you about next.


Ok, so this week we have helping do some renovation/maintenance work (cleaning, electrical, painting, cleaning bird poop from a bell tower, etc).  Yes, you read that right, quite a few members of our team were given the task of cleaning piles of old pigeon poop from the top of the school’s bell tower.  This was a nasty, but rewarding job for those involved.  Once it was cleaned, some of us went up that night and enjoyed a beautiful sunset along with a great view of the city of Chicago.  


While I was able to enjoy a piece of our teams hard work, most of my days were spent working on all things electrical.  Ron, the school’s maintenance guy, was extremely happy to have someone with an electrical background on the team as he has had a long list of items that needed to be fixed.  He’s probably been exploiting my limited skills as an electrician, but I don’t mind that because I’m one of those weird people that enjoys playing with wires.  


I’ve also had the chance to use this time to teach these skills to one of the other guys on my team.  God is definitely stretching me here as He’s basically given me someone to teach and mentor all day long.  


So while this week we are working, next week kids are coming!  Kids are one of the reasons Clear exists so we are extremely excited about that.  


Anyway, time for me to go. Try and see you all next week!

Clear 2012 - Week 2

Week 2 - Camp Bethany


Week 2 was our first camp of the summer, and my first real camp experience with Clear.  Originally my team was supposed to be in Pittsburg, TX doing a VBS however the church needed to change the dates.  Our next plan was to go do to Kenner, LA and help a church renovate some different areas but once again, God had different plans.  


So we found ourselves working with another team at Camp Bethany in Bethany, LA.  We were able to join right in with the other Bible study leaders and support staff which was pretty magnificent.  Like always, I jumped in on the production side of things which meant setting up and helping run staging, audio, lighting, and video.


God showed me something really fascinating about myself during this week, and I’ll tell you how it happened.  Warren, Clear’s director, asked me after the first day to train other people in using ProPresenter, our presentation program.  I was a little hesitant on the inside but did it anyway.  After trying my best to teach the first person I felt a little better about it, so I got a couple more.  During this process God showed me that I can teach and reproduce the knowledge that’s in my head, and pass it onto others.  I gained a great deal of confidence in this area over the course of the week.  


I was also able to teach the production leader on the second team a few things throughout the week.  It was completely refreshing for me to work with people that possesses a desire to learn.  I am looking forward to teaching others as the summer progresses.  


So while all of the teaching stuff is good, God also showed me at Bethany that I hide behind production equipment.  Why?  Because I fear the rejection of others.  I am insecure and unconfident in many areas of my life.  What’s really interesting about me though, is that I hide all of this very well.  I put on my mask and act a certain way but have many many internal battles.  Though I am learning that I need find my security in Christ alone.  This is a really new step as it’s uncharted ground for me but I’m really enjoying it.


During the week at Bethany, we saw 13 pre-teens come to know Jesus as their personal Savior.  This alone is what Clear is about.  Investing in people and leading them to Jesus.  


As always, get more info about Clear Camps at www.clearcamps.com


David

Summer's a comin'

Well, the summer's only a month away and we are really excited about what God has in store.  We have gotten to know some amazing, Christ-centered people with a deep desire to share the love of Jesus with others.  Even though it's coming fast, everyone is believing that God will provide a harvest this summer.


The team Bethany and I are on will be traveling to Chicago, Houston, Shreveport doing mission work, putting on a VBS and helping with a Youth Camp in East Texas.  Needless to say we are thrilled and expecting to see what God is going to do in our lives, the lives of our team, and the lives of the people we get to work with all summer long.  I hope to be able to keep everyone updated as the summer progresses.  


If you would like to know anymore info about Clear, go to the website here: www.clearcamps.com 


That's all I have for now, 
David