Refiners fire!

Hey there! Wow! A lot of things have happened in the last three weeks. The main event was spending some time in New Mexico. My area church group was asked to help out at a youth camp up by Las Vegas NM called Blue Haven Christian Camp for the weekend. The kids that came to the camp were from the Sunset Church of Christ youth group. The weekend was really productive. We mostly worked with the recreation crew. The activities that the kids did were really neat. They all had a spiritual message with a practical application. The activity that I worked on was called the ladder. The kids had to build a ladder in order to get their team over an obstacle. The ladder is constructed in such a way that it can be taken apart and put back together. However, there is only one way to put it together correctly because every slot that the rungs fit in is a different size corresponding to a particular rung. It can be really frustrating. We made a phrase and wrote it letter by letter on the rungs. But the phrase was meant to confuse the kids more because some of the letters were upside down and backwards. It was really interesting to see how the kids worked together to build the puzzle. The challenge is designed in such a way that the people who are leaders will try to work out the puzzle by the first apparent solution (the phrase) however; the quiet people will look ahead to the real solution (trying each rung individually). The activity promotes teamwork but in a different light then most see it. It elevates those who are not natural leaders and gets them to voice their opinions in the group. There were about three different activities like this every day that we were there. The kids had a great time and I am sure that we learned more than the kids did but I am finding out that this is how it is a lot of the time when you teach the word.
Because we were headed to another camp the day after Blue Haven was over, our team got to spend an entire day at Blue Haven by ourselves. We went on several adventures. Including driving up on a mesa during a thunderstorm and consequently getting our car stuck in the clayish mud on the way down. We actually had a lot of fun pushing the car out of the ditch, guiding it down the mountain and getting absolutely filthy in the process. A few of us also got to go on a guided tour of the area led by the caretaker of the camp. Apparently when Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders the first place he went was New Mexico. There is an old campsite called “Camp Blue” that was the first place that Teddy found men. We went up the Mountain in a “mule” (basically a hardcore golf cart). We stopped at a place called Inscription Rock. The story goes that one of the men in the first bunch of Rough Riders was a skilled stone worker. He made an inscription of the names of the Rough Riders and also made a sign on a rock that said) “Old Camp Blue”. Also on the side of the rock that the names are in, there is a scale carving of a rifle complete with trigger and hammer!
After we got done at Blue Haven we drove straight to Mountain View Christian camp in Ruidoso NM. It was beautiful! You can’t even imagine how awesome trees smell until you have lived in Lubbock for a month. Mountain View was a time that we were allowed to get some rest and catch up on some sleep. We were blessed to have two amazing speakers: Mike Tenero and Geoff Dunn. They are both dynamic speakers. We were challenged by Mike to quit nibbling on the word and FEAST on it! And Geoff sparked a fire to our passion for the Lord and his word. I was challenged to HUNGER and THIRST for righteousness. It is so amazing how much I have grown just in two months. Every lesson is life changing and every class is motivating. I can’t wait to see what I will be like in eight months! I was humbled by an illustration that Kristen told me at Mountain View: When a silversmith is refining his metal he lights a fire under it. Slowly, painfully the ore is melted down. After it is given to a certain heat the impurities float to the top and as they do, they are scooped of and thrown into the fire. This process is repeated and repeated. The silversmith knows that his precious silver is ready for use only when the liquid, hot, maleable silver reflects clearly the image of his face. And so it is with the Lord. Pray that I am wise enough to allow myself to be refined over that fire, and that consequently I clearly reflect His face!!!