-Micah

Camp Tallowood 2010 Group Picture

Camp Tallowood 2010 Seniors

Today was a busy day in Houston as we met to unload the camp truck, put everything back in camp storage (where it will sit til next summer), and then plan the reflection service for Sunday night – 6 pm in the Tallowood worship center.  Anyway, after a long nap today I was able to put together the video for Thursday. Enjoy!

-Micah

This morning, Scot taught about Good Friday including the Roman scourging of Jesus and the process of crucifixion.  Then he explained the correlation between the site of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah and the crucifixion of Jesus outside the Temple in Jerusalem – these two events happened in the same place.  After Scot taught for a while, the Tallowood Players performed a drama of Jesus’ trial and beating.  After this, the Camp Eagle staffer that was portraying Jesus was led out of the Pavillion.  Then, the entire camp hiked to the spot where we would witness a depiction of Jesus and the two criminals on crosses.  It was a powerful image that was reinforced by Scot continuing his message at the site of the crucifixion while the three men hung on the crosses.  It was quite a moving experience.

After this was over, the campers hiked down the mountain and went off to their village sites for quiet time, small groups, and site time.  Instead of regular REC today, we had the Village Run which is a huge race between all 12 villages at Camp Tallowood.  It was a pretty epic race with lots of close finishes.  In the end, Sychar won the Village Run.  After the race, we took a picture of the entire camp and then enjoyed free time.

Today, I am happy to report that I did the zip line twice and even got video of it – though I am not able to upload video tonight.  If you’ve been reading the blog all week, I met my goal of getting some quality free time in today!  It was fantastic.  In addition to the zip line, I spent a good hour just driving middle school students around on my cart – they love piling in and then cruising up and down the hills.  Good times!

After our chicken finger and mashed potato dinner, we had our evening worship service which was anything but ordinary.  We began in the Pavillion where Scot taught about the resurrection of Jesus – particularly when Jesus appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24).  This passage talks about how Jesus appeared after his death to two men who were leaving Jerusalem.  As he walked with them on the road, he shared how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.  After this, the entire camp got to experience the road to Emmaus as each village visited all the other villages and heard different Old Testament Messianic prophecies and how Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies.  That was a very cool time!

Then, every village walked to the same place where we witnessed the living nativity on Sunday night.  Here, Scot concluded his message and the seniors did their senior interp.  This was followed by worship with Jeremy McCasland and band.  Then more surprises – as the band was singing “I Saw the Light,” fireworks began to light up the sky.  This went on for about ten minutes and it was incredible.  After the fireworks stopped, we were all surprised again with some good old Blue Bell ice cream.  What better way to end the night!

It has been an amazing week at Camp Tallowood.  I pray that after reading this blog you will be able to ask some good questions of your kids when they get home – which by the way will be around 7 pm in the south parking lot (facing Perthshire Rd) of the main campus.

-Micah

*Pictures courtesy of Camp Eagle staff!

**Video of Thursday coming soon… sometime this weekend I hope.

After lunch at the village sites, we had one last day of REC.  It was a beautiful day for this and I must say that most of our students (and adults too) have gotten some nice tans from being in the sun for REC all week!  Just another benefit of Camp Tallowood.  We will not have normal REC tomorrow, but instead we will have the Village Run – a huge race between the 12 villages that occurs all over Camp Eagle.  The Village Run is like a marathon mixed with hotdog eating, potato sack races, and some elements of our REC games integrated into the race.  I can’t wait!  It is one of my favorite things about camp.

After REC was a glorious amount of free time.  I realized today that I have never been repelling or down a zip line despite my many trips to Camp Eagle.  So a goal of mine for tomorrow is to follow our students’ example and do both!  The kids are having such an awesome time during free time with all these amazing options and I am jealous!  Check back tomorrow and see if I made my goal.  Haha

Tonight, we had an awesome spaghetti dinner with tasty breadsticks followed by our evening worship service.  Tonight’s service is where camp proved to be anything but routine.  We had awesome worship by Jeremy McCasland and band and then Scot Pollok taught about the Passover meal and how it connected to the Last Supper.  I am still processing everything that he said but his insight on the traditions of the meal and how the elements point directly to Christ was really deep.  As he shared, he had a table that contained all of the elements of the Passover meal.  This was an excellent prop for Scot as he showed us how the bread and wine as well as the other elements of the Passover meal were tied to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  If we are able, I want to provide his teaching on DVD when we get home.

At the end of the service tonight, we also were able to serve the Lord’s Supper to our students.  That was a moving experience for our kids.  Since we are divided up into villages for the week, each village leader served the members of their team.  This made for a very personal experience for everyone involved.  I am humbled to say that during Scot’s teaching and the Lord’s Supper our students were highly engaged and focused through some deep teaching and application.  At the end of the service, a good number of kids were moved to respond when given the chance.  There was a lot of prayer and reconciliation tonight.  God is good!

-Micah

After worship, we headed out to villages again for quiet times, small group discussion, scripture memory and some time to work on the “Village Voice” presentations.  More about “Village Voice” in a minute…

Students then ate lunch at their village sites and headed out for REC.  We had another awesome day of games which are focused on the life of Jesus.  I like the messy games like “Gifts of the Magi” where students run piggy-back style to three stations where they dig through mud pits to find gifts for baby Jesus.  I’m sure that’s exactly how it happened in Biblical times, right?  Then another awesome yet spiritually shallow game is “Mud Pit Tug of War.”  It is a complicated concept where students get in a giant mud pit and play tug of war.  Awesome!

After REC was free time where students can go rappelling, swimming on the waterfront (with the blob), hiking, or even ride the zip line.  But the highlight of free time today was the annual “Saints and Sinners” game between the sponsors (saints) and the seniors (sinners).  It was another blowout with the sponsors winning 13 to 6.  It does an aging man good to beat some young and energetic high schoolers.  Haha!

After free time we gobbled down a fried chicken dinner and then had worship in the Pavillion.  Tonight, Scot taught about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11).  Scot is an amazing teacher and he really brings the scripture alive.  Several things stuck out to me tonight.  One was what Scot referred to as an Easter appetizer… Jesus raising Lazarus is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own resurrection.  Another point was the significance of Jesus saying “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  Scot really broke down the importance of Jesus saying “I am” in light of God’s reference to Himself in Exodus 3.  Read those passages today of you have sometime and see how they relate.  Be assured that your students are getting some quality teaching this week.

We had a quick break after the service and then we had the “Village Voice.”  This is a chance for each of the 12 villages to perform a quick sketch about the group they are in.  This year, this took the form of our villages acting out the miracle that Jesus performed in each village.  We had some pretty outstanding performances from our kids.  They are so creative!  We also had a surprise star in one of our MCs, our intern Tony Robinson.  He was awesome… especially when he sang Disney tunes!

I say this every night, but it has been an amazing day at Camp Tallowood!  I hope you are getting a small taste of what is going on at Camp Eagle in the middle of nowhere Texas.  We are having a blast!

-Micah

One last thing… a HUGE thanks to Jonathan Berry, one of our former students at Tallowood who now works at Camp Eagle.  He made me a frozen coffee in the coffee shop (after hours) so that I could stay awake and update the blog.  Thanks Jonathan!

We are having an awesome time here at Camp Eagle.  Since today was our first full day at camp, I feel more tired than usual, but God is good, and I love being a part of everything that is happening.  Needless to say, I know everyone is sleeping well tonight!

Today, our day began with breakfast all together in the cafeteria.  After we ate, everyone packed their own lunches to be eaten later in the day.  After breakfast, we moved to the Pavillion where we had worship led by Jeremy McCasland and Scot Pollok.  This morning Scot taught about Jesus as a boy in the Temple.  After worship, everyone headed to their village sites where each student and adult had a quiet time and a small group discussion building on what Scot taught in the morning’s worship service.  In addition to this, everyone at camp is memorizing Colossians 1:15-17 (New Living Translation) so there is considerable village time spent working on scripture memory.

All of our villages had lunch together out in the country followed by REC which is made up of games that tie into the theme of camp this year – the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  When REC was over, everyone headed to their cabin to change into old clothes so that we could play a Camp Tallowood favorite – “Acquire the Tire!”  This is one of the most amazing sights to me – 300 students in a circle waiting to hear their grade and gender called.  When they hear their group, students go running to the middle of the circle where they fight for huge tire tubes that are covered in all kinds of food – like pickle relish, ranch dressing, mayonnaise, chocolate sauce, syrup, honey, BBQ sauce, etc.  Pretty cool if you ask me!

Acquire the Tire was followed by a couple hours of free time which for most students included floating in the river to get all the gunk from the game off their bodies!  We ended the night with a fajita dinner and worship in the Pavillion.  Tonight, Scot taught about John the Baptist and how we must be humble in our relationship to Christ.  It was a powerful message that I simply would not do justice describing here.  But ask your kids about it when they get home – so many of them are taking notes!  It makes me proud…

Well, that’s about it.  Today was a good day!  Be sure to check out some pictures from the week HERE (facebook).

-Micah

To begin the day, our campers met at the Tallowood Center and loaded up five chartered buses ready to make the five-hour trek to Camp Eagle – one bus took a little longer than the others, but we won’t worry about that here!  While the majority of our campers and adults were back in Houston, our small advance team was working hard to put the finishing touches on all of the camp preparations.  We had a Sunday worship service, finished setting up the rec games, filmed the Village Run instruction video, set up the final village sites, and began getting ready for the service we had tonight.  More on that later…

It is always so interesting to be at Camp Eagle with such a small group and then to see the hundreds of campers come flooding in.  I love helping students off the buses and showing them where to find their lodging space.  There is nothing like the wide-eyed look of a sixth grader who has never been to camp and is not sure where to go or what to expect!

Once we were unloaded, we headed down to the Lumberjack site where we ate grilled hamburgers and had a chance to meet everyone  – we even got to play some games with the Camp Eagle staff!  Eventually, all of our campers got into their village groups (which will be their teams for the week) and then they headed to their village sites.  After being with their village for a while, each group read the toledot (which is a brief history of God’s work in the world from Genesis until the end of the Old Testament).  After reading this, each village observed 400 seconds of silence to represent the 400 years of prophetic silence that separates the Old Testament writings from the New Testament.  At this point, a “shepherd” (camp eagle staffer dressed in Biblical costume) came to each village inviting them to “Come & See” the baby that had just been born.

As the sun was setting, all of camp descended on one spot where there was a living nativity (including animals!).  After checking this out for a while, Abby Newton sang a song about the birth of Christ followed by Jeremy McCasland and his band leading  us in worship.  Scot Pollok wrapped up the night by teaching from Luke 2.  Pretty awesome experience to be taught the Christmas story in June under the stars at Camp Eagle while a living nativity brings it all to life.  Good stuff!

Overall, this has been quite a first day.  Can’t wait for Acquire the Tire tomorrow!

-Micah

A few of us (the “pre-advance team”) came to camp on Friday night and this morning we got started preparing the stage backdrop and clearing sites for all of our villages.  Once the seniors got to Camp Eagle, we put them to work unloading the camp truck, setting up village sites, setting up rec games, blowing up tires for “Acquire the Tire”, and setting up sound equipment. Once that was done, we had an awesome dinner provided by the Camp Eagle staff (who are more amazing than I can ever say) and then Jerome led our seniors on a hike after giving them their “senior staffs.”

Overall, it has been a pretty awesome day.  Right now, I am listening to Chris Tomlin’s “Chosen Generation” as our seniors practice their Senior Interp under the stars.  Pretty good ending to a day full of hard work with some great friends and students at Tallowood.  Can’t wait for tomorrow!

-Micah

Camp Tallowood begins on Sunday and we are so excited about what God is going to do in our group while we are at Camp Eagle.  Check back here throughout the week for updates, pictures and video from the week.  It should be an awesome time!

-Micah

Are you ready for camp?  I know I am!

-Micah