Saturday, August 23 from 10am-4:30pm
Summer Celebration 2014 at Camp Alandale
Come celebrate all the things God has done this summer at camp.
See flyer below.
Click here to RSVP or call 951-659-5253.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Summer Celebration - Saturday, August 23
Coming soon to Camp Alandale!
Saturday, August 23 from 10am-4:30pm
Summer Celebration 2014 at Camp Alandale
Come celebrate all the things God has done this summer at camp.
See flyer below.
Saturday, August 23 from 10am-4:30pm
Summer Celebration 2014 at Camp Alandale
Come celebrate all the things God has done this summer at camp.
See flyer below.
He Gave Me His Razor Blade - Session #8, August 4-9
Letter to Prayer Coordinators for Session #, August 4-9, 10th-12th Grade
Dear Prayer Coordinators,
Dear Prayer Coordinators,
Thank you
for your support as we near the end of summer. This last session was our second
to last one and God again demonstrated His power in more ways than we could
have ever anticipated. I, Jasmine, had a camper named, Rebecca, who grew up in
a Catholic home and now lives in a strict Christian foster home. While she
loves both her biological and foster family, she had never been able to love
the God they tried to show her. She displayed wisdom in how she talked about God
all week but could not grasp His love for her. When I asked when she gave her
life to God, she said “I don’t think I have, because I believe when you do
that, you do it completely. But I still have trouble with forgiveness. And
cussing.” Throughout the week, we talked about how God came to save the lost
and how we can only grow in His strength. She fell in love with Jesus Christ
and finally understands who He is. On Friday, she gave her life to the Lord
alongside her brother. She began to say she knows He will help her learn to
forgive those who wronged her growing up. Please pray for Rebecca as she goes
down the mountain, trying to maintain her joy in Christ despite frustrations
she has with her parents’ views of Him.
I, Emily, had a
returning camper named Jennifer as one of my three girls. The first few days,
Jennifer constantly complained about little things. However, as camp progressed,
she became increasingly positive despite constant leg pain. On Wednesday, she
turned 16 and insisted that she missed her Quinceanera last year and this birthday didn't matter. However, when we gave her a birthday crown and sang to her, she glowed
and said it felt like a fiesta. She even shared her testimony with everyone at
campfire time. She praised and thanked God for what He had done in her life out
of the many trials she had faced. She is currently a junior counselor at Royal
Family Kids Camp and I was blessed to recommend her to be a junior counselor
here next summer too.
I,
Gallagher, had
a first time camper named Winston as one of my three boys. He came up to camp
with dark clothes, combat boots and hair in his face. He sat away from everyone
else and told me he was a devout atheist. Monday, since he would not talk about
his own life, I shared my testimony with him. After this, he began opening up to
me. After that first day, he started asking a lot about God and the Bible.
Tuesday, he told me he wanted to give his life to God without me even having to
ask. Thursday, he gave me his razor blade out of his wallet so he would not
have to cut his wrists (then full of scars) any more. Friday, he shared his
testimony in front of the whole camp. It was remarkable to see the drastic
transformation that occurred when God took hold of Winston's heart. He truly
changed everything he knew about himself and the world. Please pray for Winston to feel God constantly reminding him of the truths he learned and guiding him.
In Christ,
Jasmine, Emily, and Gallagher
Summer Staff 2014
Transformation - Session #7, July 28-Aug 2
Letter to Prayer Coordinators for Session #7, July 28-Aug 2, 10th-12th Grade
Dear Prayer Coordinators,
Hello, my name is Irene and I counseled last week for our first high school camp, Session #7 from July 28 – August 2. It was by far the most amazing camp experience I’ve ever had. It consisted with many tears, smiles, laughter and hugs. I had two beautiful high school girls. They were both extremely quiet. However, immediately they trusted me and poured their hearts to me about their life. Both of my girls had extremely big trust issues, because people in their lives continually broke their trust.
One of my campers, Kelly was raped by her dad and since then she has never been able to understand love, or could trust anyone. Any person who had ever said they loved her had left her and hurt her tremendously. The same was true for my other camper, Sara. The reason it was my favorite week with these two girls was because of how honest, vulnerable and caring we were with one another, and to just witness God working in their hearts. They felt like little sisters to me. By the end of the week they gave their hearts to the Lord, and you could see the change in them. It’s so beautiful and honoring to witness a young girl realize that our Heavenly Father in loves them, and for them to know it, believe it, and act on it. When Kelly got home on Saturday night, she even called me to tell that she broke up with her boyfriend of 9 months, because she knew he wasn’t good for her, and now only wants to date Christian guys. God is so faithful, and once again He blew me away by how much He can change a young girl’s heart in a matter of a week.
Hey, my name is Tyler and I too counseled last week at camp. I was a little nervous going into the week because it was my first time counseling high school campers. However, I was fortunate to be blessed with two amazing campers. One of the campers that I really connected with was named Kip. On the first day it started off a little rough though. He was very anxious going into our first one-on-one and did not want to talk very much, so we just searched for lizards and snakes. During Bible study he refused to open his Bible and look up verses and he would not answer any of the questions. He could not sit through the campfire talk and was even making comments to the directors asking when the talk was going to be over. On the second day things started to get better. Kip actually started to participate in Bible study and he started to open up to me on our night one-on-one. Things continued to progress with his behavior as the week went on. In the middle of the week I went on a one-on-one and immediately he told me that he wanted to accept Christ into his life. I found out that he had accepted Christ once before but he said that he felt like he wasn't living like a Christian so he wanted to rededicate his life to Christ. We started talking about what it means to be a Christian and why he wanted to dedicate his life to Christ and he said he was tired of the way he was living and tired of the way he was dealing with anger.
After that one-on-one the transformation was absolutely insane. In our next Bible study he was so driven to learn about the Bible. Kip and I found some common ground as he took an interest in the book of Revelation. From then on he was always asking me or anyone else that he could find if they would read with him. He started bringing his Bible to amphitheater and reading it then and we would also read before we went to bed. It is absolutely crazy the amount of transformation that can take place in one week here at camp. Kip went from being completely uncooperative to craving to learn more about God. He even called me the day after camp to tell me his plans to read the Bible and how he wants to start going to church. Thank you for praying for us and joining us this past week!
Dear Prayer Coordinators,
Hello, my name is Irene and I counseled last week for our first high school camp, Session #7 from July 28 – August 2. It was by far the most amazing camp experience I’ve ever had. It consisted with many tears, smiles, laughter and hugs. I had two beautiful high school girls. They were both extremely quiet. However, immediately they trusted me and poured their hearts to me about their life. Both of my girls had extremely big trust issues, because people in their lives continually broke their trust.
One of my campers, Kelly was raped by her dad and since then she has never been able to understand love, or could trust anyone. Any person who had ever said they loved her had left her and hurt her tremendously. The same was true for my other camper, Sara. The reason it was my favorite week with these two girls was because of how honest, vulnerable and caring we were with one another, and to just witness God working in their hearts. They felt like little sisters to me. By the end of the week they gave their hearts to the Lord, and you could see the change in them. It’s so beautiful and honoring to witness a young girl realize that our Heavenly Father in loves them, and for them to know it, believe it, and act on it. When Kelly got home on Saturday night, she even called me to tell that she broke up with her boyfriend of 9 months, because she knew he wasn’t good for her, and now only wants to date Christian guys. God is so faithful, and once again He blew me away by how much He can change a young girl’s heart in a matter of a week.
Hey, my name is Tyler and I too counseled last week at camp. I was a little nervous going into the week because it was my first time counseling high school campers. However, I was fortunate to be blessed with two amazing campers. One of the campers that I really connected with was named Kip. On the first day it started off a little rough though. He was very anxious going into our first one-on-one and did not want to talk very much, so we just searched for lizards and snakes. During Bible study he refused to open his Bible and look up verses and he would not answer any of the questions. He could not sit through the campfire talk and was even making comments to the directors asking when the talk was going to be over. On the second day things started to get better. Kip actually started to participate in Bible study and he started to open up to me on our night one-on-one. Things continued to progress with his behavior as the week went on. In the middle of the week I went on a one-on-one and immediately he told me that he wanted to accept Christ into his life. I found out that he had accepted Christ once before but he said that he felt like he wasn't living like a Christian so he wanted to rededicate his life to Christ. We started talking about what it means to be a Christian and why he wanted to dedicate his life to Christ and he said he was tired of the way he was living and tired of the way he was dealing with anger.
After that one-on-one the transformation was absolutely insane. In our next Bible study he was so driven to learn about the Bible. Kip and I found some common ground as he took an interest in the book of Revelation. From then on he was always asking me or anyone else that he could find if they would read with him. He started bringing his Bible to amphitheater and reading it then and we would also read before we went to bed. It is absolutely crazy the amount of transformation that can take place in one week here at camp. Kip went from being completely uncooperative to craving to learn more about God. He even called me the day after camp to tell me his plans to read the Bible and how he wants to start going to church. Thank you for praying for us and joining us this past week!
In
Christ,
Irene
& Tyler
Summer
Staff 2014
Listen, Understood, Responded - Session #6, July 21-25
Letter to Prayer Coordinators for Session #6, July 21-25, 7th-9th Grade
Dear Prayer Warriors,
Greetings! This is Alejandro and the session last week was once again amazing. We had a full contingency of campers, which made the time soar by. By weeks’ end, whilst praising God for the work He had completed, my only other feelings were that of sadness to see these precious children of God depart from camp. But during camp, God graced me by paring me up with a couple of regular gentlemen. One of whom, a returning camper by the name of Jose, was truly a joy to become more familiar with throughout the week. Unfortunately, he fell ill mid week and periodically rested in the infirmary to combat a reoccurring fever. Notwithstanding his health status, he was a trooper and still held a positive attitude throughout the duration of camp. What’s more, despite his more reticent stigma within a group, during our one-on-one’s he shared his testimony accompanied by a fresh trial in his life. He never knew his father, and his mother abandoned him at a young age. However I praise our Father for allowing another gracious woman to adopt and raise him. Albeit things at home for him are currently stressful, and are weighing on his and his mother’s heart, he demonstrated a godly strength to endure and persevere. My prayer for Jose is that he will continue to bless his family, and use the strength that God has built in him to fortify his relationship with Him, and spread the Good News. Thank you once again for your continual support throughout the year!
This past week I, Brian, was blessed to spend time with Jonathan. Jonathan was fourteen years old, six feet tall, over 170 pounds, and had a deep need for physical attention. He had no idea of physical boundaries, and several times a day he would try to put me into a headlock, pick me up, or squeeze my back. I had the opportunity to not only share with him about self-control and safe ways to show affection, but of Christ’s abundant love to us. We sang many songs together in amphitheater with his arm over my shoulder, doing hand motions and singing together. During one of the worship songs he even tried to hold one of my hands up so I could worship God like he saw some of the other counselors doing. In many ways Jonathan was still a child, yet he frequently inspired me with his simple, yet sound knowledge of God.
Dear Prayer Warriors,
Greetings! This is Alejandro and the session last week was once again amazing. We had a full contingency of campers, which made the time soar by. By weeks’ end, whilst praising God for the work He had completed, my only other feelings were that of sadness to see these precious children of God depart from camp. But during camp, God graced me by paring me up with a couple of regular gentlemen. One of whom, a returning camper by the name of Jose, was truly a joy to become more familiar with throughout the week. Unfortunately, he fell ill mid week and periodically rested in the infirmary to combat a reoccurring fever. Notwithstanding his health status, he was a trooper and still held a positive attitude throughout the duration of camp. What’s more, despite his more reticent stigma within a group, during our one-on-one’s he shared his testimony accompanied by a fresh trial in his life. He never knew his father, and his mother abandoned him at a young age. However I praise our Father for allowing another gracious woman to adopt and raise him. Albeit things at home for him are currently stressful, and are weighing on his and his mother’s heart, he demonstrated a godly strength to endure and persevere. My prayer for Jose is that he will continue to bless his family, and use the strength that God has built in him to fortify his relationship with Him, and spread the Good News. Thank you once again for your continual support throughout the year!
This past week I, Brian, was blessed to spend time with Jonathan. Jonathan was fourteen years old, six feet tall, over 170 pounds, and had a deep need for physical attention. He had no idea of physical boundaries, and several times a day he would try to put me into a headlock, pick me up, or squeeze my back. I had the opportunity to not only share with him about self-control and safe ways to show affection, but of Christ’s abundant love to us. We sang many songs together in amphitheater with his arm over my shoulder, doing hand motions and singing together. During one of the worship songs he even tried to hold one of my hands up so I could worship God like he saw some of the other counselors doing. In many ways Jonathan was still a child, yet he frequently inspired me with his simple, yet sound knowledge of God.
We took a walk for our one-on-one the last
night, and I was unable to have a productive conversation with him because he
was so distracted by the forest around him. However, I finally gave up trying to reach him on that level and started
singing “Jesus Loves Me” to him. As soon as I started singing he sang along,
and as we sang together, I was overcome by God’s love towards him and me.
Afterwards, as I simply told of God’s love for him, he listened, he understood,
and he responded: sharing with me of the years he spent as a child with his
abusive mother, and contrasting that with God’s love for him. What joy it
brought me to see God personally meeting with Jonathan and providing for him!
In Christ,
Alejandro
& Brian
Summer
Staff 2014
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