September 21, 2025 - Ministry Partners Conference - Session 2 - Aaron Steinel, CEF Camp Good News (Asheville, NC)

Well, we are honored today to have Aaron with

us from Camp Good News. I'm on the board there,

and I see some of the things he's doing. He's

doing a good job. He's a faithful man, and I

appreciate his heart and his work. He does really

hard. He's a good man. He's following in the

shoes of Dennis. Dennis is the same way. But

he's a good man. For some reason, when I stand

next to him, I feel real skinny. We appreciate

it. Come on up brother. You take whatever time

you need. We're done. Thank you. Hey everybody.

Thanks for having me this morning. Man, a lot

going on in the past year, right? I was supposed

to come last year right after, like the Sunday

after the hurricane happened. And then I think

I came in November. But a lot of things have

been going on since then. There's some new faces,

so I'd love to share a little bit about what

camp is. You may know a little bit, but I'd love

to share a little bit. Camp Good News, literally,

it is a ministry to share the gospel with children

of all kinds. And most of the kids who come,

actually, are not from church homes. No, there's

a lot from church homes. Like, I was a church

kid. I came as a little boy, and I was a church

kid. But it's a ministry to share the good news

with boys and girls who come. And it's been that

way ever since the 60s, when it was Camp Maranatha.

And then after the late 80s, the couple, Ed and

Nancy Wilcoxon, who ran Camp Maranatha, passed

away. Dennis and Marcia Bailey had heard about

the camp. They went out there. It was abandoned.

It hadn't been used in 10 years. They walked

up there. They prayed under the poplar trees

that God would give them a camp. And then, here

we go, God answered the prayer, and it became

Camp Good News. But it's always been an ministry

to tell children about Jesus. And so I'm glad

to get to be a part of. It always meant a lot

to me in my life growing up. That's the simple

part of what the camp is. But since last year,

we housed disaster relief groups from October

all the way until mid -April. That's kind of

the minister we took on so that they could go

and help the community. Because I'm not a handyman

by trade, so I don't know much about fixing up

homes and all that stuff. But I knew we could

use the camp to house them, so they could go

and be part of that. So that's what the camp

did. And some cool things came out of that ministry

during that time. God always works in His will

and His way. For whatever the purpose is, it's

His will, right? But there was, we mostly housed

men in that disaster service. They came from

Pennsylvania. They wanted to come help the community.

So they were the biggest group that used the

camp through that time period. We had some from

different churches around the state, different

states actually, to come and use it during that

time. But there was one particular group I just

wanted to share this story with. They're called

Work, Love, and God. They're out of Knoxville,

Tennessee. And I had not talked to them prior

to this. They had been praying. They told me

the story. They had been praying that they would

find a place to house 80 of their missionaries

that would come the first week of April. And

they had been praying. They had been looking

at the places in Asheville. And it seemed like

every place was either booked or not big enough

or just wasn't available. And so they were praying

as they were going down Old Fort Road, which

is the road the camp is on. And they're praying,

God, please just send us a place that we can

house these missionaries. And they drove past

the campsite, kept good news, and they said,

hey, maybe there's some good news. So they drove

up, and it happened to be working outside that

morning. And we struck up a conversation, me

and the guy, his name's Pastor Steven. It goes

by preaching. And it was a connection there,

a feeling that, man, this is something God has

put together. And it worked out, because we have

82 beds, and they needed 80. So it was a perfect

fit for them, two extra beds, and they came in

April. It was a blessing to work with them. Particularly,

I just think about that group because me and

Pastor Stephen just made a good connection. And

they did a lot of work for us. They were wanting

to donate and loved the ministry. They loved

what we stood for, telling the kids about Jesus,

even if they weren't from church homes. like

eight grand in repairs for us. There's a lot

of things I was going to get to eventually, but

they just said, hey, we want to do this and we'll

bless you in that way. So the biggest part of

last year was spent housing those groups and

connecting with those churches and places in

that way. And it was a blessing to do that. It

was a blessing to be able to do that and a blessing

to get to know a lot of those people. And we

may be doing that again this fall and this winter

if the Lord wills it. But also during the, before

the summer, before we get to the summer stories.

We had different things like winter and spring

advance. Those are weekends of camps and we call

them advances because Christians don't retreat.

Mr. Dennis used to say that, that's why we named

him that. So pretty much everything I learned

I learned from him. You guys know Dennis Bailey.

But we had those and God really worked in a lot

of those ways and we're grateful for what God

did. During those times the kids learned about

how to... how to live a Christian life, and that

we live this life and we don't run aimlessly

as 1 Corinthians 9 would tell us. We run with

purpose. We live with purpose. We also learned

about how we can be honoring to God in our faith,

how faith honors God, and what that looks like.

We looked at Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith. Those

who lived their life by faith trusted the promises

of God, and they weren't doing it for nothing.

There was a purpose. Even in the hardships and

the struggles that they went through, there was

a purpose in everything they did, and they honored

God by their faith. Then we get to the summer,

and hey, again, God worked, God moved. This year

our theme was the seven seas, so we went through

the seven seas of Bible history. We looked at

creation, obviously the first one. Corruption,

the corruption of man, how sin entered the world.

We looked at the catastrophe, the flood of Noah,

and how God judged sin in that way. We looked

at the Tower of Babel, so it was creation, corruption,

catastrophe, and then confusion, Tower of Babel.

and how God changed the language of the people

because they were prideful. And so he told them

a certain thing. He told them to spread out and

to obey and to populate the earth, but they decided

to stay in one place. So he set confusion by

language and then made them spread out in that

way. And after confusion, we talked about Christ,

cross, and then consummation. So those were our

seven C's this year. And that was the biggest

lessons that we did through the summer. And so

we taught the kids from beginning to the end.

Bible as best as we could. You only get five

days. You only got so much time to teach them

everything. But that's what we did. That's the

biggest things that we did this year. We had

323 kids come to camp. That's the biggest amount

of kids we've had since before COVID. COVID really

kind of plunged the numbers there for a while.

And we built it back up slowly. And 16 of those

kids this summer professed faith in the Lord

Jesus. So that is a praise. And it was a good

summer. But if I can be honest with you. This

was probably the hardest summer I've ever been

a part of, in a lot of ways. There's a lot of

battles to go through this summer, with attitudes,

bullying, as you guys know, kind of a little

bit about, let's think about what that young

boy said about bullying. We had to deal with

a lot of that this summer. We had to deal with

a lot of hardships. It was just a hard summer,

I'll be honest. It was a hard summer, but God

is good, and God is faithful, and He... He worked

in a lot of ways. So even though it was a hard

summer, we saw God at work. And it was very good

to be a part of it. Even though it was hard,

you know, God taught us, I believe God was teaching

us a lot about endurance and perseverance. To

not give up, to see that He's at work even in

the midst of hardships. And there's a lot of

things that went on this summer that we had to

just, you know, trust God with. To not fight

our own battle, you know, not to fight the battle

on our own, but let Him do the work. Let Him

do the battling. And we just be faithful with

what He's called us to do. And so that's what

we were. But knowing these things, knowing that

it was a difficult summer, I do ask for your

prayers because I can see it going forward. Things

are changing, right? We got a lot of children

who, again, most of the kids who come are not

from church homes or homes where their parents

even tell them anything about Jesus. We have

kids who've come who don't even know who Jesus

is. That's kind of the kids who show up to our

camp. They don't, they live in this area mostly.

They don't even know who Jesus is. So it is a

privilege to take them in for that week and get

the love on them and care for them and tell them

God's word, teach them from God's word, tell

them how to be saved, tell them why they need

to be saved. But there's also a lot of some battles

that come with that spiritual warfare. You know,

we don't battle flesh and blood, right? But we

battle on the spiritual. It's a spiritual battle.

But we need your prayers going forward because

this is what I see. And it's hard to see it this

way because I've been a part of camp since I

was a boy and worked with. Worked with camp for

so many years as a counselor. Worked with Luke.

Saw Sage there at camp many times. But this is

what I see. Kids' hearts are becoming harder.

Their love is growing cold. Kids are not all

the same as they used to be. They're still kids.

We've always had typical kids. We've always had

great kids. But what I see is hardened hearts

of children. And that's really hard to see. And

so we really need your prayers going forward.

Because things are changing, like I said. And

so not only pray for the kids and their families,

we have a great ministry to provide them, I believe

that. And God is gonna continue this camp as

long as he wants to. And when it's done, it's

done. We don't have any problems with that. But

we need believers who are gonna step up and be

ready to battle and be ready to face these hardships

and to serve in this way, no matter how hard

it is. And I'm grateful for all the people who

came out and served this summer. We had 60 plus

volunteers that came out. Some counselors and

some that just came to serve when they could

serve. And I'm thankful for every single one

of them. But pray for them, because if they're

going to continue to come back, they need to

be ready. And pray for the ones who are going

to come in the future, because they need to be

ready for the difficulty of ministry. Especially

as the Lord gets closer, the devil also is going

to fight harder, right? But I also see it as

an honor to go through some of those hardships,

because that means we're doing something right.

And if the gospel is the main thing, it's okay

that we go through some of these things, that

we face some of these battles that we do. And

we do our best to honor God in everything that

we do. And we keep Jesus the main thing. That's

the main reason we have campus so we can tell

boys and girls about Jesus. So whether they're

from church homes or not, there's a plaque up

at camp. If you've ever been there, if you've

ever heard me say it or somebody say it, it says,

there's plaque on this massive rock up there.

It says that this camp, this property is dedicated

to the spiritual growth and salvation of young

people. And in all things the Lord Jesus Christ

preeminence. So not only is it for the spiritual

growth of those who have already been saved,

but it's for the salvation of those who have

never heard. That's what we get a lot of. So

thank you to those things. Just be praying for

us and praying for the future. Things are just

changing. Things are just going to be different

in the future. That's okay. But we want to be

ready for what God has in store. We want to be

ready for the ministry that he has us to take

place in. Maybe you can be a part of that in

a different way. Maybe you guys can come up.

See what Lord is doing see how God works in the

hearts of the kids because I still love camp

But again, there's still just a lot that we have

to deal with with bullying and was just Hard

hardness really and so you can come up and you

can be a light and you can share the gospel with

with your life But the summer was good and I'm

grateful for all God did and what he's still

doing And there's still ministry to be had. It's

not just the summertime. I know a lot of people

think oh summers over you're done, right? Never

never done the ministry's never done. We have

counselor trainings coming up we have against

the weekends of camp, the advances. I actually

brought a few of these. These are flyers I got

kind of for the fall one coming up, so we have

three of these through the year. Usually they're

just for teenagers, usually, but we're going

to hopefully have some for the younger ones.

I do have a few of these flyers. Again, this

is a weekend of camp for teenagers. I have a

few of these if you guys want to take some, share

them with people in your neighborhood or share

them at your work, wherever. But the fall advance

coming up next month, end of next month is...

is October 24th through the 26th, and we're going

to talk about how to be rooted in Christ, how

to be rooted in our faith, what it looks like

to be rooted. And so that when the storms of

life come, that you're not easily shaken. So

be praying for that, if you will. But it is good.

It is good to be a part of this ministry. And

I thank you guys for your prayers and support.

And look, we just got to be ready. God's working.

God's moving. Even when the enemy is moving,

we know God's work even better. What he's doing

is even better. We've got to have our hearts

and minds ready. We've got to be prepared for

all that God would have in store for us. And

so thinking about that, I'd love to share with

you guys from Romans 12, if that's okay. I'd

love to look at that scripture for just a minute.

And I know the easy, at least it's easy for me,

maybe it's my own prideful nature sometimes,

the easy thing to do is be like, oh, Romans 12.

Heard that one before, especially if you come

to church a long time. But God is always going

to teach you something or show you something.

Whether you've heard it before or not, you know,

we just have to have our hearts and minds open

to what He would have to teach us. So I'd love

to share from Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 this morning

Romans 12:1

for just a few minutes, if I may, as we think

about camp. I think about not being conformed

to this world. I think about how to be ready

with our minds and our hearts ready for everything

that God has. And so I want to look at Romans

12, 1 and 2. this morning. I'll read it and then

we'll go through it, if that's alright, Pastor

Peter. And he starts off this way. He says, I

beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies

of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable

worship. And do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern what is the will

of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

He says, I beseech you. Therefore well another

way to say it beseech is appeal or I urge So

he says I urge you therefore brothers by the

mercies of God now. What are the mercies of God?

Well if you Romans is one of my favorite books

to read through it to go through consistently

It's just so many so many great things to pick

back up on and you know again If you read scripture

any amount of time and you read the same thing

again. God's gonna teach something new Because

it's it's living it's powerful right and it God

will always teach you something if you're ready

to learn from it But the mercies of God if you

go back before chapter 12 We say all the mercies

of God laid out through the whole book and I

can't go through all those But we see that we're

justified from sin. We're see that we're adopted

in Jesus. We're given an identification Within

Christ Jesus were placed under grace. We have

the promise of help and affliction We're given

the confidence of the coming glory We're given

in confidence that we can't be separated from

God's love that we are We are always in his hand

and nothing can separate us from his love We

have the confidence in God's continued faithfulness,

and we have confidence that salvation is a free

gift. We have all these mercies that we can look

at, all these mercies of God that we can look

at. So he says, therefore, now that's why the

therefore is therefore, by the mercies of God,

I urge you to present your bodies a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual

worship, or reasonable service. That phrase reasonable

service or spiritual worship. I don't know how

your translation necessarily says it Could quite

literally be if I looked up commentary. I was

studying it. It could be translated logical worship.

It's only logical Seeing these mercies of God

that you would present your bodies as a living

sacrifice. That would make reasonable sense That's

reasonable. That's logical. That is a logical

logical reason to worship So in the sight of

God's mercy and we offer ourselves to Him as

a living sacrifice. It makes sense seeing that

how good God is, how gracious He is, that we

would present ourselves as a living sacrifice.

And so to be a living sacrifice means that you're

fully, you're always fully at God's disposal.

Whatever He wants you to do, wherever He wants

you to go, you're ready to be that living sacrifice.

You're ready to present yourself in that way.

That is a spiritual worship. That is a logical

way to worship Him, to be a living sacrifice.

Again, willing to obey God in anything, in every

area of your life, whatever that is, are you

a living sacrifice? That's a good question to

ask yourself. So I try to remind myself, am I

a living sacrifice today? Am I being a living

sacrifice? Am I at God's disposal to do whatever

He wants for me? To do whatever He asks me to

do? And so these Christians though, as you guys

know, they might have quite literally been a

living sacrifice. They might have been martyred

for their faith during this time. So they were

almost quite literally a living sacrifice. Hey,

sharing the gospel no matter what, it costs us

our life. They understood this life is not the

only thing there is. This life is a lot shorter

than eternity. They were willing to share the

good news, to share the gospel with those around

them. And so they were almost truly a living

sacrifice, but we have to be willing to be a

living sacrifice. And the Christian life is daily

giving our lives and our bodies in obedience

to God, giving our wants, our desires up. to

obey Christ, to be willing to do what he wants

us to do. But as we know, we may, as Christians,

we may soon in this country be a living sacrifice

in a literal sense. It may be true. I believe

there are people who are already being killed

for their faith in this country. Whether it's

in a political way or not, or by the government

or not, we're still being killed for our faith,

right? I think that's still happening, and even

more so, it's going on around the world even

now. So it may happen one day, but either way

we know from 2nd Timothy 3 that all who desire

to live a guided life in Christ Jesus will suffer

persecution in some way, some shape, or some

form. Now I haven't faced it in a physical sense

yet. I've been yelled at a lot. I've been made

fun of a lot. I've been talked about a lot, but

I haven't felt it in a physical sense. Maybe

you guys have. I don't know. But it may come

to that one day. Are we still willing to be a

living sacrifice with Lord Jesus? But thinking

about that that we're always at God's disposal

what he controls our life But you might say or

you might hear people say well, it's it's my

life. It's my body That's why I do what I want

Why would I have to give up what I want to obey

God like he loves me either way, right? Yeah,

he does love you, but he calls you to be a living

sacrifice and really if you're a Christian You

are not your own right first Corinthians 6. It

says that you are not your own you were bought

with a price So therefore glorified God in your

body We're not our own we are to be a living

sacrifice at God's disposal To do whatever he

wants it any at every point. We are his he has

bought us with the price in Christ Jesus So let's

be willing to be a living sacrifice and it goes

on to say do not be conformed Don't be conformed

to this world's way of thinking don't be conformed

to this pad the pattern of this world Because

again the world's gonna say for us to it's okay

do whatever you want live however you want to

live God still loves you. Do whatever you want

to do. God still loves you. And while He does

still love you, that's still not how He caused

us to live, right? So don't be conformed to those.

Well, God wants you to be happy. Maybe not in

this way. Maybe it doesn't honor God. So God

doesn't want that from me. Don't be conformed

in that way. Don't be conformed to the world's

way of thinking, the world's way of doing life,

the world's way of living. But be a living sacrifice.

We have to recognize and reject that the world's

pattern of thinking, of feeling, of behaving,

we have to reject that. We have to see it, we

have to recognize it, and reject it. The world

throws everything at us, right? We're always

in the world, so we have to be careful to not

be conformed to the world. You go to work in

the world, you go to the grocery store in the

world, you hear the radio, you watch the TV,

you hear the things of the world, but we have

to be careful not to be conformed to those ways.

Because what happens is... You'll live in the

world so long that maybe if you haven't been

presenting yourselves a living sacrifice, if

you haven't been transformed, we'll get to it

in a minute, if you haven't been transformed,

then you might not recognize that you're being

conformed to the way of the world because maybe

you're not paying attention. We gotta pay attention.

We gotta be ready because the world's sneaky,

right? Satan's sneaky. Satan is a deceiver, right?

And he'll make things look like the way that

they're not, just like he did with Adam and Eve.

Just like he tempted Eve, just like he deceived

her, as the Bible would say. He deceived Eve.

And Adam ate. I didn't say Adam was deceived,

but that's a different lesson, I suppose. But

they were deceived. Satan made things look like

what they weren't. Did God really say that you

shouldn't eat this fruit? Did God really say

that? Yes, he did. And again, that's going to

be the way the world tried to flip sin. Did God

really say this? Does God really want you to

do this? Does God really want you not to do that?

But again, that's the way that the world is going

to try to conform us. Say, it's okay, it's fine.

And then we'll take that, we'll take that if

we're not ready to, if we're not being transformed

by the renewing of our mind, right pastor? But

again, we have to recognize and reject the world's

pattern of thinking and feeling and behaving.

And we can only do that when we know what God

says and we know that God's way is better. So

we need to embrace God's will. We need to embrace

what He has for our life. And I don't know what

that looks like for your life, I don't know,

but we need to embrace that. And I know it starts

by us knowing Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

But it goes on to say, verse two, continuing

verse two, it says, but be transformed by the

renewing of your mind that by testing you may

discern what is the will of God, what is good

and acceptable and perfect. So we have to have

our minds inflamed with the truth of Christ,

the truth of God's word. What does God's word

say? That's how we transform our mind. That's

how we transform our way of thinking, to almost

drown out what the world says and be renewed

by what God says. So we have to reject the world

in that way by having our hearts and our minds

inflamed with the truth of Christ and God's Word.

Again, the only way to replace the air of this

world's thinking is to replace it with God's

truth. Philippians 4 .8 would say, whatever is

true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,

whatever is pure, whatever is commendable, if

there's anything excellent, if there's anything

worthy of praise, think about those things. Think

about those things, the things of God. Colossians

3 1 & 2 were some of my favorite two of my favorite

verses if you have been raised with Christ seek

the things that are above Where Christ is seated

at the right hand of God and set your minds on

the things that are above not on the things of

earth So again by not taking in the world's way

we have to be put in our minds in the way of

God's God's ways and our thinking has to be changed

from Old and ungodly ways of thinking into new

godly ways of thinking Second Corinthians 10

5 would say take every thought captive to obey

take every thought take all of our thoughts captive

Is this obedient to God is what I'm thinking

is what I'm wanting to do Is that going to be

obedient to God is it going to be honoring to

God? Is it going to be showing that and I'm a

living sacrifice I want to be holy and acceptable

to God which is my logical worship is it showing

that I'm rejecting the world's ways and I'm being

transformed in God's ways we have to take our

thoughts captive and transformation through a

renewed mind It only comes when we expose our

hearts and our minds to God's Word. In prayer,

in fellowship with other believers, and in serving

God as God has called us to serve. That's how

transformation takes place in our minds. And

when we do that, when we transform our mind,

we'll also discern God's will, whatever that

is for your life. Maybe somebody he wants you

to talk to, share the gospel with. Maybe somewhere

he wants you to go. Now, truthful, I can't tell

you what God's will is for your life. I can't

do that, I don't know how. But I can tell you

it starts with you knowing Him. I can tell you

it starts with you knowing Christ. Now, there's

only a few of us in this room, and you guys all

know the gospel. But it'd be foolish of me, truthfully,

to think that all of you know Christ, right?

I don't know. I don't know your hearts. God knows.

God knows your hearts. He knows if you're truly

a follower. And I believe that you are. I'm just

saying I don't know. I believe that you are,

but I don't know. But if you haven't trusted

in the Lord Jesus yet, You can do that. You trusted

Him first and God has something else for your

life. He has a work for you to do. We're God's

workmanship, right? Created in Christ Jesus unto

good works. He has a work for you to do. Now,

I didn't know when I was a nine -year -old boy

that work for me would be being a camp director

one day. I'd never even heard about camp until

Mr. Dennis came to my church, told me about camp.

I was like, I went to camp nine years old. I

didn't know. I know I fell in love with camp

and I knew I wanted to keep going back. But I

know that that was the work that God had set

before me. But He does have a work for you. He

has a will for you. But are you walking in His

ways? Are you letting His Word be what guides

your life? Are you guided by the transformation

of your mind in His Word and in doing what He

has you to do? Again, with that, when you do

those things and you transform your mind, you

will deserve God's will. It may not be a clear,

like, do this or do that. But you'll know that

when it's not, you'll know, hey, I can't go here.

This would pull me away from Christ, right? It's

kind of like when you... This is the example

I like to use. My pastor did this once, and I

won't do it perfectly. But you've got two options

set before you. And, man, if you think of it

this way, man, one is, I need to go here and

share the gospel. God wants me to go to this

new job. There's nothing wrong with that new

job, right? Well, what about this place? Maybe

God wants me to move here. There's nothing wrong

with either. Now, if it would go against God's

Word, if it's telling you to go away from God,

use this as a guardian. This is a guardian to

tell you, hey, not to go there, not to this.

But sometimes you're faced with two choices that

are not bad choices. You have to pray, you have

to seek, you have to ask, and God will lead you

where he wants you to go. But you're also going

to know where not to go by having your minds

haven't been transformed. You will deserve God's

will in that way. But thinking about these things.

I just want you to consider your own mind as

we see the way that the world is going. People

celebrating murder and people celebrating things

that are ungodly. Whatever that is, we live in

that current country now where people do celebrate

those things that are ungodly and take pride

in those things that are ungodly. What does our

mind look like? What does our own life look like?

Are we being conformed to this world? Are we

being transformed? Are we living as a living

sacrifice? Are we just like I'll just do whatever

I want I'll just do what makes me what's most

comfortable and typically what's most comfortable

It's not always what's the godly thing. It doesn't

mean that your life is gonna Always be uncomfortable.

But as a Christ follower, it's gonna be a lot

of uncomfortable times, right? You're gonna have

to have to be ready to live in the uncomfortable

because we are Despised by the world because

of Christ and that's okay again. This is not

the only life there is there's a lot far beyond

this one an eternal an eternal life And that's

what we've got to share with people. I don't

know, that was my encouragement for you this

morning. To be a living sacrifice because you

know the mercies of God. You understand the mercies

of God that has been set before you. So be that

living sacrifice. Be holy and acceptable with

God and don't be conformed to the way that this

world is going because it's going to throw everything

at you. It's going to be easy. It's easy to conform.

It's easy to live sinfully, right? It's easy

to live in the world's way. It's a little bit

harder to live God's way. But we can live God's

way when we're transformed by our renewing of

our mind. Thank you for the time appreciate appreciate

time and ask for prayers and Just any prayers

you'll lift up We appreciate it. Thank you. Do

you have any questions? Yeah, you guys have any

questions? Yes, well we got Maitland and Slater

which is our two -year -old then we actually

just had our third our second child Roman four

days after camp which was an answered prayer

because I got please don't please don't let him

come during camp That'd be so hard And it came

four days after camp was over. But they're all

good. May Lynn's actually helping in the kids

ministry at church this morning, so that's why

she couldn't be here. I've got two kids. Slater,

who's the oldest, and then Roman. And they're

doing good. And I'm grateful for children who

are blessed and truly. And I teach a lot about.

Hey, maybe in the future. I'm not saying no.

Yeah, two was the surprise. We weren't pregnant

last time I was here, so, two weeks later. I

said, I think the congratulations are in order

that you all were expecting. He goes, we already

had them all. Some people, you know that, but

some people I feel like are just pregnant forever,

and then some people are like, you already had

that baby? That's how I feel sometimes, thinking

about people who are pregnant. Yeah, any other

questions on behalf of me? What age do you start

your summer camps at? So we have a day camp.

We started a day camp week this year. I didn't

show that, I forgot. We started day camp week

because there's a lot of kids who just can't

make it overnight. So we have day camp week,

which is 7 to 10 year old boys and girls. And

then we have six other weeks of camp, which runs

from 7 to 16. But boys weeks and girls weeks

are separated. And we start with the oldest boys.

I worked out in the weeks to the youngest boys.

And then we started with the girls and we separate

them out that way, but with seven to 16. I'm

hoping to have the applications ready for the

next year by the beginning of 2026, hopefully

sooner. But that's typically when the timelines

I get them out on the first of the year. So that

would be for camp for the summer of 2026? Yes.

Yep. And that would go typically with day camp

week around the middle of June. And then overnight

camp starting the last few days of June all the

way through August. Do you guys ever have any

kids with medical needs that come to you? We

do. And some of that depends. I mean, we've had

so many different kids with different medical

needs through the years. And we only have, you

know, it would just depend, but we do have those.

So whatever that is, we definitely talk about

it. We try to always work with kids who might

have medical needs. It's people who help with

medicine. We have camp nurse. We have a lot of

good counselors, too. So we always do what we

can to help. We still have the campfire at the

end of the week where kids come and share testimonies

about what God did that week. And you know, it's

always a blessing, too, during that time because,

you know, there's so many things that can run

through your mind as you're working through camp.

Man, did they get it? Did they understand it?

But you've got to remember that you plant the

seed and you water it, God does the growth, right?

That's the hard sometimes thing to remember because

you're like, man, do they understand? They seem

like they don't get it. But you did the part

of sharing the simple gospel with the kids. Trust

God to do the rest. And what's always so encouraging

about the testimony time is kids will come up,

and I saw that a lot this summer, that were here

last summer. And they're like, last year I got

saved. I'm like, I didn't know that. Hey, last

year I learned how to live for Jesus. That's

great, I didn't know that. You know you didn't

know it took root. And sometimes, an encouraging

thing I actually like to share from this summer,

is there's a girl, her name is Macy, and she

has been coming to camp since she was little.

She's like 15 or 16 now. And through that time

I'm like, man, is she getting it? She just doesn't

seem to be getting it. And me and JP and Mr.

Dennis all knew her, all knew her family. And

you're like, man, are they understanding? I feel

like nothing is happening and they just come

year after year and they just don't, they're

not getting it. And it feels like we're working

for nothing. But again going back to that scripture

first Corinthians two or three I can't remember

things three We planted and we watered God does

the growth in his time and how he wants to do

it, right? Well this summer she got saved and

I was so encouraging to see her Step into after

years of you know pouring in and in some ways

battling the enemy because man There's a lot

of things that tug it at her particularly in

her family But to see her transformed in that

way And now I think soon she's going to be getting

baptized, so those are encouraging. So testimony

time at the campfire on Thursdays is always,

always wonderful. And you guys were playing that

song earlier. I don't know what exactly it's

called. I just know the lyrics to it. Jesus I

adore you, lay my life before. I remember Luke

singing that years ago at camp, so that was cool

to hear that again. He's a good boy. Yes he is.

I know Mr. Dunison always had a lot of stories,

and first and foremost, I appreciate your heart

for the camp. And I know that it went through

Mr. Dunison and JP and you, and I think it's

a really good fit for you and your family. But

outside of the spiritual needs, what kind of

physical needs do you need at the camp and stuff

like that? And I know we've been able to help

with a couple of work days. Do you have any of

those coming up? That's going to be something

we're planning with with the board. Hopefully

this comes about at the board meeting. But there's

a few things that we definitely could use to

help beautification -wise. We're supposed to

be having somebody jump off a bunch of mulch,

which is not always fun, but we need some mulch

around our flower beds. And there's some buildings

that could use some love, just because they're

old, and definitely could use some help with.

The director's house, and this is not me just

promoting my own where I live. There's a director's

house. It's not my house. It's director's house

that can do some work. It got flooded a few years

ago, and it's just kind of set for a while. So

the downstairs could definitely use some love

on it. We're having somebody come and clean up

some mold. But once they do that, we're just

trying to kind of put it together. You know,

even if it's not us living there, somebody will

live there eventually. But it got flooded during

2021. And JP had to block off the doorways down

there because the way that the water just ran

in and messed up everything downstairs. So there's

definitely some beautification around camp and

some cabins and buildings that could use some

help. If I can set forth a work day and let you

know, you're welcome to come. And if you'd like

to, that'd be great. Yes, sir. Any other questions?

Just be praying for us. God is moving in my heart

for a few different ways to use the camp and

ministry, whatever that looks like. Obviously

camp being one, summer camp being one, the weekend

camp being another. But do be praying for some

things God has been placing on my heart to share

with the board to see if we can go forward in

those ways. And also just truly, like I said,

I think a biggest prayer right now is for future

counselors. to really be ready for the work,

to really be ready for the kids that are coming

in, to share the gospel with them, and to be

able to understand that there's going to be some

spiritual battles, that it's going to be like,

why is there so much chaos? It's because we're

sharing the gospel, and the enemy doesn't like

it, right? But that's just been on my heart a

lot, is we're going to be praying about looking

at, man, where do we find these counselors? We

have a lot of great counselors, but that's not

what I'm saying at all. But we're going to need

some really strong counselors as the years come

and as the Lord gets closer because things will

get harder. That's okay. That's an encouragement

to us, right? It's encouraging, but it's a good

fight. It is a good fight. And there's nothing

wrong with that. But we need to be ready for

it. Right now we're not doing the after -school

program because the biggest reason is because

they just don't have enough help to run it. So

we're praying through that. Like, who can we

find to run? It's almost like having a secondary

ministry. And it's hard to do both the camp and

do the after school. And we want to do it well,

and right now I just don't have enough help.

So that's something we're praying through in

the future. But right now we've paused it, hoping

to do it in like an after school good news camp

once a week until we can get back to where we

can do it every day. But right now we're not

doing it, unfortunately. Well, thank you pastor.

Thank you guys for having me. Thank you.