Preteen Camp Highlight

At Thursday night's Preteen Camp Celebration time, I challenged students, using 4 stories of very ordinary kids their own age, to move from an attitude of "Who Am I?" to one of "Here Am I God, use me!"

I told them that the Lord could do a work through their life that would exceed their wildest dreams if they would simply allow him to do so. The 4 stories were that of...

1. Austin Gutwein - At age 9, he started the ministry "Hoops of Hope" that has raised enough money to build both a school and hospital in Zambia.

2. Austin Hostetter - Former NMC student who started inviting a lost friend to church in 7th grade. That friend later received Christ and starts college this fall with aspirations of becoming a pastor.

3. The boy in the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-14) - He simply offered up his 5 barley loaves and fish even though they weren't much and God used it in a miraculous way. He didn't care how much he had or that it wouldn't be enough. He simply was willing to give what he had and allow God to do the rest.

4. Jason Thompson - As a middle schooler, he was quiet, shy, stuttered and greatly feared public speaking. He would have been one of the last students his teachers would have predicted would speak publicly for a living. Not until he decided to fully trust the Lord with this fear as a college senior did God loosen his lips and give him the ability to speak effectively in front of groups of people. No one could have ever predicted that Jason Thompson would speak in front of literally thousands of students between 1998 - 2009. But they didn't know what God had in mind!

At the close of the Thursday night Celebration, I gave students the opportunity to stand and publicly state that they wanted to be used by God. Over 50 students stood and boldy proclaimed, "I want to be used by God." This was a powerful moment, a holy moment!

It was so powerful to see so many students move from a posture of "Who Am I?" to one of "Here I am God, use me!" For me, it was the highlight of the 2009 Preteen Camp!