After three weeks at Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp we are finally "home". It was a whirlwind of action as our whole family got involved. Amy was constantly shepherding the young women, Bria counseled a cabin of girls, Ellia was a camper, Josiah led music and counseled a boys cabin (many of whom were barely younger than him), Mya did a little of everything while working on staff, and I preached twice a day to anyone that would listen :)
On week #1 of our time at Turkey Hill, Amy and I accompanied Jimmy and Ashley Allan on an epic canoeing trip along the Current river in the Ozark mountains. We were leading a group of 14 young ladies for "wilderness girls camp" where Amy taught the Bible lessons each morning and evening. Many of the girls were not believers so it was a tremendous opportunity to dig into the gospel and the Lord really seemed to use it. It was great to see Amy and Ashley doing the spiritual work and really pouring into the precious souls that they had been entrusted with for that week. While our wives did the ministry part Jimmy and I did the grunt work. We set up camp each day, started the camp fires, cooked the meals, washed the dishes, fought off the raccoons, defended the girls from snakes and saved them when their canoes flipped over. The rest of the time we went fishing and jumped off cliffs, you know man stuff :)
On week #2, after Amy had fulfilled her task of speaking to the teenage girls at wilderness week it quickly became my turn for an intense stretch of preaching back at Turkey Hill. I preached 25 times in 14 days to the high school and college age group and the Lord did great things. God was really working in the hearts of several young men. One night, after hearing the gospel many of them were totally broken over their sin and were crying out to the Lord. There was no manipulation or appeal to emotionalism, I just got done preaching and sat down and then God began to work. Some were on their knees and others were prostrate on their faces. Huge breakthrough's seemed to happening in many lives as spiritual chains were falling off.
The next morning when I went out on the lake dock at 4:30 am to pray and read.... 25 young people showed up to seek the Lord with me! All through the rest of that week there was an extra sensitivity to the Lord as the messages were preached. On several occasions large groups of guys and girls gathered to ask questions or request prayer or search the scriptures. There was a real hunger for God's word and a longing to be right with Him. Jesus was doing great things! Please pray for lasting fruit in these young people that were impacted for Gods glory.
Josiah was a counselor for two of the teen camps and one night he asked me to share a devotional message about Biblical manhood with his cabin. When I began there were only three guys present but after a few minutes the small room was totally packed out and when I looked out the door behind me there were about 20 more guys crowding around the doorway listening intently. The guys from the next door cabins had come over and there was an intense interest from these fifteen year-old young men. We live in an era with so much gender confusion and it was amazing to see these guys (most of them non-christians) longing to see answers from Gods word! I went for about 20 minutes and there was dead silence and the utmost attention was paid as they seemed to hang on each word spoken. Afterward one of the guys said: "That was the best thing that has ever happened to me." Each night for the rest of the week I had packed out meetings in different cabins with young men that were extremely hungry to hear clarity from the bible on the topic of manhood. Please pray for the souls that were impacted in these last few weeks!
Missions quote for the day by C.H Spurgeon: "The motive is this: Oh! That God would be glorified, that Jesus might see the reward of His sufferings! Oh! that sinners might be saved, so that God might have new tongues to praise Him, new hearts to love him! Oh! that sin were put an end to, that the holiness, righteousness, mercy and power of God might be magnified! This is the way to pray; When your prayers seek Gods glory, it is Gods glory to answer your prayers."
Micah for the Tuttle's
0 comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
