The Chronicles of The Best They Ever Had

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. -Acts 2:43-47

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

so here we are, the first week

Its tuesday, and summer has started with the first slew of campers many of which are from Gil Wise's church, Luke and Stephen are support staff, Jordan Mccoy and Brooke have groups, Petra isnt here yet im not sure what she's doing Heather doesn't work here this summer, and im at my 20th week of day camp all time. Everyone is doing pretty well everyone is a bit tired we are severly short on female senior staff
im being summoned peace
jordanc

Sunday, May 22, 2005

HEEYAHH at camp PLAYA

Jordan M here, reporting live from the staff lounge. Nothing much going on right now--we just finished the staff appreciation dinner (YAY for getting dressed up!). We're all tired from all the physical activity (so much athletic stuff!). I'm really excited about this summer, and since we've been here, I feel like I've gained an even better understanding of how this summer is going to work. And, I really like all the staff members. Duane and Chas kill me, hahahaa.
love
jmmmm

Monday, May 16, 2005

two more days

Well - two more days till I make my voyage down to camp and I just got sick. Its just a cold, but hopefully it better go away by wednesday. Luke- Im assuming since I havent heard from you that you dont need a ride down. Well other than that, I went to the beach this weekend and woke up at 5:30 to do my devotion on the beach. It was amazing - and i have a couple spiritual questions that i've been thinking about - maybe ill get a chance to talk to some of you about them. I love the beach for spiritual reasons - the stars, the waves- everything is so inspiring. Anyways...as it is two days before and i havent even thought about packing - maybe i should start - cant wait to see you all.
-petra

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Just a Little Morsel of Inspiration

Heh, I realize that I don't post on here incredibly often but I came across a few pieces of scripture in 2 Corinthians that I found to be pretty inspiring so I thought I would share them with you kids.


The first thing I came across was 2 Corinthians 3:3 which says:


"and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."


When I first read this, my thoughts immediately went to camp and what our ministry is there this summer. Our only real job this summer is to allow the Spirit of the Lord work through us, to be a "letter of Christ" and write on the hearts of each and every child that comes through camp this summer. Then later in verse 17 it says "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." We don't need to worry about what happens this summer, whether we're not good enough to share God's word, or not prepared enough to take part in this ministry because God is bigger than all of our worries and insufficencies.


The next thing I came across has to do with what Luke addressed a few days ago about coming together as a staff, something I know we have all thought about as this summer has been approaching. In chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, verse 16 it says:


"From Now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view. We know him no longer in that way."


When we come to know Christ, it is part of our job to start to view one another throught Christ's eyes and to see Christ in everyone. It is when we start doing this that division is lessonsed and we can grow into a tighter family unit.


Well I suppose this is all I have to say for now, I shall being seeing you all soon and truly can't wait.

much love,
brooke!


This is Riley with her parents...my brother, Nate, and sister-in-law, Heather. Riley just turned one.
My Niece!


Dang she cute!
My Niece!

Monday, May 09, 2005

...so close

So, today i went on a run, and the whole time i was thinking "if this was a drill, i would have to run faster" Sorta weird. But anyways - im really excited about camp this year. i've just had the time to read what all of you had said about this summer, and I could not agree more. Truely the summer should have more support and more prayer. Micah's idea about the new person each week is genius! I strongly support that. Also, I suggest not pointing out the fact that junior staff are junior staff. Just getting out of that phase, I know how annoying that can be. So, instead of pointing out the fact that they are doing dishes or such, lets praise their work instead. With that, I love you all and cant wait to see you
-Petra

One More Week

In one more week most of us will start making our way down to camp. How exciting!!!!

With that said, when is everyone planning on moving to camp for the summer?

I will be heading down either Sunday evening(the 15th) or Monday morning(the 16th). It all depends on what I need to do around home once I move out of school Saturday evening. Gotta talk to Mom and Dad about it all--Monday morning is most probable.

Oh yeah, and for those that I haven't told this to--I have a car now. It's a white, two-door, 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage with less than 50,000 miles on it (we got a good deal on it!). Quite the cute little car.

Peace and Joy,
Jordan M

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Stuff

Those stupid people from the summer internship i applied for just now decided they'd email me and let me know whether i got it. I didnt get it...which doesnt really matter and i kinda knew that...but they point is that they're morons for letting people know about a SUMMER internship less than a week before summer starts.
Anyways, they suck, and they're missing out. Actually, i wouldnt be surprised if i applied there again next summer...but they still suck.

On another note, we should pray every night after staff training and every night for support staff during the summer. God's really put it on my heart that we need a lot of prayer if we wanna see stuff happen. So we're gonna pray more for VCM next year, and i think we should do lots of corporate prayer at camp too. But if we are really pressing in, both in our own time and together, and not just praying so we can check something off our list (which i think can sometimes happen and we dont realize it)...we'll see stuff happen, no doubt. Also, it aint no coincidence that Gene has the theme as Prayer, considering that some of yall had that on your heart early on and that God has been putting it on my heart a lot recently, too.

Here's another thing i've thought about often in regards to us as family this summer. We really really cannot allow ourselves to be divided...which i think means that us, as those who are "leaders" and familiar with both camp and eachother, must be making conscious efforts to incorporate everyone and develop a truly cohesive family. We also must be aware of the fact that we often tend to be conceited, and make sure that we are placing others higher than ourselves (i believe its Philippians 2 that says that we are to consider everyone greater than ourselves). This pretty well-known scripture here from 1 Corinthians 12 tells us exactly how to act as a body:

21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

I think we all already know and understand the principles here, but it's good to be reminded of it and keep it at the front of our actions when acting with our spiritual family (that being the staff this summer). I definitely hope to read this scripture often this summer. We definitely need to recognize the extremity of us as ONE body that's displayed in the scripture. There have definitely been instances of staff looking down on other staff (i'd say everyone who is a part of this blog has done so, to some extent or in some form), when we actually need to be placing those that we see as lowly in the highest honor. But it really does just blow my mind to think about how God set it up so that if we were missing one staff member that God has placed there, it wouldnt work out (in both the natural and the spiritual realms). He even says that they are indispensable. Good golly! That word sticks out to me a lot. Also, as one body, what we do even right now effects one another. So lets come together and fight together and see awesome stuff happen!

But anyways, i really really didnt mean to write all that...i was gonna stop after the first paragraph...but lemme know what ya'll think.

One Love,
Luke

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

I haven't posted in a while...

Hey kids, I just thought I would leave a little something here because I haven't posted anything in quite a while.

All's well here at State; I got lucky with the exam schedule this semester and my last exam was the very first exam of exam week. So, I finished Monday morning at 11 AM. Too bad I'm going to be here until May 14 because I'm an RA. But it's fun; I get to relax, sleep, play with other people when they aren't studying, and really just enjoy the fact that I am done. It hasn't entirely set in yet that I am finished academically with my 1st year of college or that I will be at camp soon.

In other news, I was chosen to lead a Bible study next year through Crusade. I'm excited! I can't wait to see you all, and I can't wait to see what's going to happen this summer!

Love
Jordan M