A Link and Thoughts on Planning Youth Camp

First off, for those of you who haven't heard it yet, I preached at my church in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago. If you want to hear the sermon, here is a link for it:

http://218.189.239.40:44057/shares/share/12June2011_Nothing%20but%20the%20Gospel.mp3

Secondly, starting this Sunday, I will be leading 2 weeks of youth camp/missions trip with my youth group. From Sunday to Friday, we will have a camp, where we will have times of fun and learning about God's Word. Then, on Saturday, we will go to Manila for a week to work at Kids International Ministries. Planning this trip has taught me a lot of things about myself and about life in general. Here are some of the highlights:

• I am not an organizer. Each of us has strengths and weaknesses, and organizing something like this is one of my weaknesses.
• I am horrible at asking other people for help. I'm not sure if I just don't want to inconvenience them or if I want to do the job myself, but I'm just generally not good at asking for help. Which makes more organizing for me. Which is not a good thing.
• It takes a lot of time to plan a camp. When you're planning one for the first time, you don't necessarily realize all that goes into it (unless you're a great organizer) until you're doing it. Which, if you have failed to plan properly, will likely happen at the last minute, since you didn't know there would be SO MUCH TO DO!
• Going to camp is much more fun than planning for camp.
• Good friends who can help you out when you're super busy at work are amazing blessings. Especially when they offer to help without even being asked (see the part about me not being good at asking for help).

That being said, please pray for our upcoming camp. Here are a few things you can be praying for:

• That any youth who come who are not already Christians would hear and believe the gospel during this trip.
• That our kids who come who are already Christians will grow in their walk with Christ during our time at camp.
• That our whole group would have hearts to serve during our time in Manila.
• That we would all remain safe and healthy throughout the trip.
• That any minor details that I may have missed in the planning stages would work themselves out and not turn into big deals.