Kids Rock Camp

Kids Rock Camp was the most amazing experience I've ever had with a group of kids.
We had 33 kids total over the weekend from Elim, Apo and ET, between 5 and 10 years old.

I was blown away at the group dynamics. All day Saturday the teams really were teams. When they sat down to make their team banner, litterally every kid was involved. Usually there are atleast one or two on the fringes, or someone running off doing something completely different, but none of that, all day!

I did a wee talk on hearing Gods voice, and they all sat there with their pens and note books taking notes. Some of them were really creative in the way they did it too.

On the confidence course and group building games, they were incredible how they worked together. They would come up to me when they were doing the confidence course and tell me how they had been working together as a team, and encouraging each other. Some of them tried stuff that would usually make them wet their dacks, but it was becasue thet felt safe with their group that they were able to. We didn't even give big "how to be a team" talks, they just got it.

We did a 15 min solo. We spread them out around the camp and they sat there with their pen and note book, and had a go at hearing God's voice. I could tell that some of them were dissapointed that they didn't hear anything, but some of the stuff they wrote down and drew was incredible! My heart is to build this into them now, while they're young, so they can keep growing in it as they get older.

OK, so the day was amazing, but just wait for what happened at night...

We started with a worship time, and the room was buzzing. All but about two kids were totally into it. Even the ones that are usually too cool for Sunday school, or too scared about what others thought. Its the most exciting thing for me to see kids connecting with God in worship.

We went into a ministry time, and gave each child the chance to be prayed for. The highlight for me was one girl from our church. She had said no to a couple of the leaders who offered to pray for her. But when I approached her she was keen as beans. I just knew that as we were praying God was doing something significant in her heart. She had decided that she want to give her heart to God, but was still a bit shy to say a prayer herself, but I know that that change has happed. After I prayed for her, Carly also had the chance to pray for her. After we had finished she was going around telling every one how she had been prayed for TWICE! She was so excited, and at bed time asked to be prayed for again.

After all that, we finished up with singing One Way Jesus. Now, you must understand that One Way officially died for me about 5 months ago. Sure it's catchy, but I've had enough. Well, Saturday night bought me another few months of liking it. The kids aboslutly screamed it. I mean, I've never seen youthies sing it as passionatly as that. It totally blew me away!

We have one wee girl in our kids ministry that had started coming only this year. Her mum went to church years ago, but since then just hasn't been interested. This girl, she's such a sweet wee thing, begged her mum to take her to church, so they ended up at ours.

Now, her mum has a Bible that she has given her daughter, she must have had it years ago, and it certinally wasn't bought with a child in mind. The girl loves this Bible. After the worship on Saturday, she started walking around with it every where. She asked several leaders to read it to her, and opened it up to the most obscure pages, mainly Song of songs... she really had no idea, but she new that it was special, and she couldn't get enough of it. The beautiful thing is that we never really talked about reading the bible,or specifally enouruaged them to do it, but some how she just got it. Sunday morning during free time, she sat there by herself, with her bible and just read. God is really doing something in her, drawing her to Him, and showing her without the instruction of adults, how to grow in Him. Isn't He amazing!

So, the camp was great. We had one of the mums nearly in tears on Sunday as she wathced her son worship. I like it! I also like that fact that this was Gods idea. Not ours. He had it all planned out. He got exactly the right kids there, and He couldnt wait to do somthing significant in their hearts. All we did was agree, and allow Him to use us to do His beautiful work.