Wiinter 2012 - Session 9 Update

We prayed for this last camp to be Christ centered, that the campers would hear about Jesus and feel his love.  God answered our prayers!

This was the last fourth through sixth grade camp for the season.  We had seven boys and four girls. It was a great combination for having fun, learning more about Jesus and enjoying God’s creation.  The boys had this sweetness about them, they were gentle and loving.  They knew how to play hard, yet when it was time, they settled down, listened and participated. The girls bonded with each other.  They were a bit more quite, but they still were taking it all in.

It rained for most of the day on Saturday.  We moved forward with sharing the message of Triumph though a deep study of David & Goliath.  The campers engaged and enjoyed seeing the story come to life through wild and crazy Camp Alandale skits!  Cabin fever was starting to set in by the afternoon.  But as the campers prayed, the rain turned to snow just before dinner.  They had just enough time to get wet and cold before the sun went to bed.

By morning almost 18 inches of snow covered the ground.  Most of the campers were up and ready to play early, yet the freezing temperature of 24 degrees brought them back inside quickly to warm up by the fire.  Similar to being warmed by the fire, are the cold realities of this world turned into the warm promises of Jesus’ presence, power and provision.

One camper continued to remember the lessons from the session about getting past our past.  We talked about how big Goliath was, and how he taunted the Israelites for 40 days, night and day, just bugging them and putting more and more fear and doubt into them.  She recounted this time as if she knew this as her own personal struggle.  For so many of the campers, what has happened to them, be it abuse, neglect, the moving from place to place and not feeling loved or connected to a family, becomes their identity and hinders their view of who they really are.  This struggle seemed to reign true here.  But God was getting the glory in the release of these lies to grasping the truth of our identity in Christ.  In Him, we are unconditionally loved, completely forgiven and chosen and valuable.

We were able to enjoy the snow more with sledding, snowman making, snow angles and snowball fights, and a whole bunch of digging out before the weekend came to a close.  The good-byes were sweet yet sad, only a few tears were shed.  We have confidence in our Lord and Savior that He goes home with each one of these precious campers and that His word and love will reign true in their hearts.

Mike & Lisa Towler

Winter Camp Session 6 - Feb. 24-26, 2012

As we sat and prayed before the campers arrived, we realized there was a potential for this to be a potentially volatile camp weekend since all but one camper was on mood controlling meds! God was answering your prayers since the unstable and unpredictable group could blow a fuse. Instead it was a beautiful weekend of watching most of the campers soak up great truths.

Jamal sucks his thumb even though he is 6 feet tall. His gentle spirit was all we saw and he loved his counselor. He actively answered questions and had a Bible filling, fun weekend.

Jonathan, a very insightful boy, gave tremendous answers to the questions at Bible Discussions and shared a touching testimony of abuse and God’s saving him from his biological family by being adopted. He made up a song which we let him sing to everyone. He said the best thing about camp was “seeing God’s nature all around of what He made.”

Even though Tyler was in a cloud from his medication, he learned a lot, waxed eloquent at Bible discussions and was a lot of fun using his energy to enjoy himself and others with enthusiasm.

Lilly accepted the Lord last summer when she realized God loves her. She is very afraid of authority and adults. She was sharply rebellious in a quiet way. However, her tender side covered with pain showed in the sweetest smiles and warmth when she understood Bible truths and could let go. She needs a lot of continued prayer as all the rest!

Randi was one of the hardest campers we had last summer. When she arrived this weekend, I had to catch my breath as I saw her face and remembered the wrenching rebellion and manipulation she poured on us. She had reasons to be difficult since she shared that she had just been raped by a relative before coming to camp. But to our great surprise and delight, she decided this winter that she wasn’t going to be like that anymore. It got her nowhere. She was livid at us last summer since we had to report the abuse and she was once again moved for her safety from her family. She has moved from 20 group homes to group home over the 7 years in foster care. Her greatest gift from God from the weekend was discovering she can make and can have the ability to make good decisions with God’s spirit!

Tessa was cautiously sweet. She loves the fun and love she receives at camp but remains unsaved and very resistant to God. She says she won’t ever go to church or pray but we noticed that she sang the worship songs half the time any way! Please pray for her to soften and be healed so she can receive God’s love and salvation. There is so much pain on her face!

Vicki was an unstable mess, loving everyone one minute and shooting harsh arrows with her eyes the next. She kept her counselor at bay with mean actions one moment and was a tender pussy cat the next. She is such a confused, hurting child but she had some other counselors that she would talk to and she received much from the program themes of “Getting past your past” and “Facing your giants.”

We just can’t imagine running camps these years without prayer when the pain that children have been inflicted with is so much worse. We are so blessed to have you to minister alongside us with these “precious in His sight” children! Three of the children signed up for camp had to cancel because of sickness. So, God even planned the size of this group. He is soooo GOOD!

Winter Camp Session 8 - March 9-11, 2012

Oh, we are Praising God for all Your Prayers!

What a camp! God was present through it all! Eight of the eleven campers were on behavior medications. We know we couldn’t have had such a good camp without your prayer support. We had about five powder kegs whose counselors worked so well with them that all went well. 

Only one camper refused to come under adequate control until Sunday. She fortunately, by the draw of the hat, picked the 65 year old counselor who has been in Social Work for over 30 years and was a Group Home Parent for several years. So, she was able to be handled with kid gloves! It is amazing to see God orchestrate things perfectly!

Lots of love and laughs and excellent Bible teaching and counseling by all the counselors! We just loved sharing the story of David and Goliath challenging the children with our topics: Choose Sides, Getting Past your Past, Why do Bad Things Happen to “Good” People, Picking up your Rocks and Being all In! It was a full weekend of teaching directed toward the needs of an abused child plus the greatest counselors around!

We can’t thank you enough for your investment of time for these children. It is something that will impact the rest of their lives!

May we now ask your prayer team if they will pray for our upcoming benefit “They Are Precious in His Sight” at the Crevier Classic Car Museum. We want to ask for prayers for it to be an evening of inspiration and joy from the Father’s Heart to each guest.

God is good and He has used you mightily!

Robin & Karen Wood, Founders

Winter Camp Session 3 Update

Dear Amazing Prayer Partners,

This winter camp season has been a struggle.  Mostly just in counselors signing up to come.  In the struggle though we always see God’s hand at work and He always provides exactly what we need.  Sometimes it’s an overabundance of help, and other times it’s just the right amount.  Never have we been in a situation where we didn’t have what we needed.  This weekend was no different.  It was filled with some surprises in how God worked it out, but God is always good and faithful to work it out for us.

This weekend was a smaller camp numbers wise.  8 Campers, 2 JC’s, 5 Counselors and a Staff Person.  Smaller camps always seem more intimate and seem to go to a deeper level.  This camp did just that.  From the discussion times, to the fun game times, it really felt like we were at a family reunion of sorts. 

One of the most surprising aspects of this camp was that my wife Lisa got to be a counselor for two of our girl campers.  Lisa had Kendra and Anna as her campers.  Their times were blessed with deep discussions and prayer.  The campers were so excited about having a director as a counselor.  In fact Anna asked me before we got to camp what counselors were coming for the weekend.  I told her the names and when Lisa’s came up she said, “I hope I get her as my counselor!”  Sure enough as God would see fit she did, and Lisa and her had some amazing times of being open to each other and learning more about Christ.  We pray for both Kendra and Anna because their last camp as campers was this weekend because both of them will be graduating in June.  At the end of the camp we honored them as our Senior campers and prayed over them and their future.  I am praying that we will be able to see them back at camp as JC’s or Counselors sometime in the future.

Gilbert is a camper that has been coming for a while.  He has some speech disabilities, and some would consider him a bit slower in thinking than most.  What we have seen is that Gilbert has a soft heart and is learning a lot as he grows older.  His counselor definitely had some tough times with him at camp this weekend as Gilbert refused to do the bible studies.  Even though he did, his counselor lovingly spent time with him and played games and shared Christ’s love in other tangible ways.  We are still praying for Gilbert’s heart to be changed by Christ.  He has seen some horrific things in his life that have made him continually resistant to God.  That being said though, the reason he keeps coming back to camp is Christ’s love being shown through the counselors, and the fun that he has.  We know God has great things in store for Gilbert and would ask you to continue to pray for God to get a hold of his heart.

One camper that always brings joy to my heart to see is Daniel.  Daniel gave his heart to Christ a few years back at Camp Alandale.  He has grown leaps and bounds since then.  He is plugged into a good church in Riverside and is continually looking for ways to express his faith to people.  One of the biggest changes I have seen that God has done in him is his control over anger.  When he first came he had a problem with getting angry and exploding in anger towards whoever made him angry.  This weekend however I saw a more mature, healed Daniel.  As there was opportunity for anger, he gave it to Jesus and remained calm.  At one point I got angrier than him at a situation and he helped to calm me down.  God is good!

All in all it was another amazing weekend of God’s love being shown to our campers.  Please continue to pray for our campers to run to Jesus with everything!

Blessings in Christ,

Mike Towler,  OC Camp Director

Winter Camp Session 2 Update

Dear Amazing Prayer Warriors,

This last weekend we know that some special Prayer Warriors had to be on their knees for extended times! The High School camp was so powerful, so warm that the campers were swept up into God’s arms. They stole the hearts of their counselors and Directors away. God put together an awesome team of counselors that loved on these campers so fully that at Victory Circle (a end of  the weekend wrap up session) every camper shared their gratitude to their counselor. This has never happened before. Maybe a couple, maybe half the campers share at most! To go with that all but one counselor got emotional and choked up sharing their tributes to their camper - and we had 6 men counselors and 4 women with the 11 campers!

We were warmed seeing children in whom deep waters and sensitive hearts reside were given so much by God through their counselors. Counselors commented that the camp was the best camp at which they ever were able to serve children.

We are grateful to God for all your prayers! We know that your part in reaching these broken hearts was indispensible. You are vital, indispensible and holy! We don’t see these results without you!

The two campers who had not accepted the Lord before at camp (Freddie and Alex), came willingly but after tons of answered questions about theology, about pain in the world and dealing with their pasts, they were just on the edge but were not ready to make a commitment. Please pray that what their counselor told them about how to accept the Lord at home will be sparked by the Holy Spirit.

More freedom and healing was seen in Adrianna and Salina. The rest visibly filled up on the Word and the love of God.

This was Sierra’s last camp since she is graduating out. With tears but a smile, she said camp was her family and she was going to miss us so much. She said she learned all about God at camp and had so many wonderful counselors but her last one, Gina, was the best!

Again, we praise God for your faithful prayers. We see it all the time--the more prayers, the more the victories from the battle over these children.

God Bless You!

Karen Wood,  Founding Director

Winter Camp Session 1 Update

Dear Amazing Prayer Partners,

Winter started off with a bang.  Not literally, but spiritually.  A large camp  by winter camp standards.  15 campers, 2 JC’s and 10 counselors.  So much of what happened at the first winter camp was because of God’s amazing power.  The eyes that were opened, the hearts that were encouraged, were the evidence of the powerful working of our Savior.  Here are a few stories of campers that were impacted during our first winter camp of the season.

John is a camper that we look forward to every time he comes.  Lately the Lord has really been doing an awesome work in his heart.  He was so enthusiastic about sharing answers during the program sessions.  Part of his enthusiasm is the fact that we asked him to be a JC this year.  Part of seeing God’s work in a camper’s life often time leads them to a place where we see they are ready to be JC’s.  John is ready to give back and serve the Lord at camp.  He might as well have been a JC that weekend.  He was stepping up and helping where he wasn’t asked, and wanting to bless other campers by encouraging them.  We are excited about what God will do in John’s life as we watch him become a JC.

One of the greatest things about winter camp is seeing campers that we have known sometimes for years.  Kayla is a camper that came to us many years ago.  Now she is living back at home, and not to long from now will be emancipating from the system.  Kayla has a very troubled past with many hurtful damaging experiences.  These have influenced her to lifestyle choices at times that were along the same lines.  Her counselor poured Jesus Love into her all weekend.  What we love seeing is Kayla’s demeanor change while she is at camp.  It’s as if she is allowed to be a kid again.  The joy shows up in little increments as she interacts with the other counselors and staff.  This weekend we know that God and His word did it’s perfect work in her heart.  We are praying that Kayla will fully give her life to Christ someday and that she will find a good church in OC to grow in her walk with Christ.  God is good and it is His faithfulness and work in Kayla’s heart that we trust in.

This camp was full of JC candidates.  Esti is one that we have been praying about being a JC for a couple of years now.  This last summer we saw his heart ready to take the step and be a JC.  This camp confirmed that to us.  Esti has a heart for God, and is strong in his convictions and beliefs.  His siblings have walked the way of this world and Esti has seen the impact and effect.  He claims God and his relationship with Him as his reason for not being angry anymore about being in the system.  He met God at camp and since has found a good bible believing church that has been encouraging him in his faith.  We are excited about what God will do with Esti as a JC.  It was a blessing to watch him enjoy the camp program as a camper for the last time.  The end of an era, but the beginning of a new chapter in Esti’s life as he steps out and serves His amazing Savior as a JC.

The odd thing about this camp was the weather.  It almost felt like the end of summer.  Warm days  with cool nights.  There were only fragments of snow left.  Enough to mess around with, but not as much as we want during this time of year.  The program this year is called, “Triumph”  a look at the story of David and Goliath.  The campers responded to this familiar story as we dug a little deeper into subjects like, Getting Past our Past, and Pick up Your Rocks – What’s your next step.  It was a blessing to teach God’s Word and see Him do His perfect work in the campers hearts.  Thanks as always for the super important role you play as our prayer partners.

Blessings in Christ,

Mike Towler,  OC Camp Director

Camp Alandale Prayer Update

Session 9, August 15-20, 2011

 

    There are moments in time that make you so happy to be in the right place at the right time. Session 9 was one of those moments. One comment that kept coming up at counselor prayer from the counselors was that this was the best camp that they had ever been to. What they mean by that is the campers were amazing and were really soaking in all they could, and having a ton of fun. It was really a memorable camp in that regard. The thing that was most impressive was that a couple of the counselors that said that had been coming to camp for more than 10 years. I know for me it was an amazing camp filled with a ton of fruit. I hope the stories in this update really encourage you that your role in this ministry is so vital.

This last week of camp was just super sweet. We had quite a few returning campers who were eager to learn more about God and His love. Many of the counselors shared that their campers were asking great questions and wanted to understand God and the Bible more. For one of our campfire talks we ask the campers to come up with the topic. This week, they sure took us up on this challenge. There were so many questions that we didn't have enough time to address them all, and we went to bed super late. Some of the questions were: "Do you think teenagers know what true love is in relationships?" "What is the easiest way to share the gospel?" "Does dating mean you're disobeying the Lord?" "Is there a sin that God doesn't forgive?" "Is God angry if I have doubts about him?" and so on. We trust God answered each question for each camper and that they truly grasped His goodness and love and great plan for their lives.

Isaac was just one of these campers. He has been to camp a few times. However, he is so shy and to himself that you really don't know if he is having a good time or receiving the love. As the week progressed, a smile appeared on Isaac's face that everyone noticed. He just couldn't keep it in any longer. He was having a great time, bonding with both campers and counselors. Isaac wrote on his camper evaluation at the end of the week that his favorite part was having Doug as his counselor, and being on the Red team. Our favorite part was having Isaac at camp.

Ana was new to camp this week. She also started out quiet and somewhat shy. As she got to know everyone, she opened up. She shared her confusion about the Catholic church and the difference between it and Christianity. But what she saw was a love that covered her confusion. She was very moved by the love and care she saw and felt at camp from everyone. By the end of the week she didn't want to leave and she even wants to come back as a junior counselor some day.

Cheyenne is a camper that we have known for a number of years now. We have watched her grow into a young woman at camp. As we watched her this week we noticed something that had definitely changed in her. She told her counselor early in the week that she wanted to be a JC and that she wanted to not get distracted with boys this time at camp, but that she wanted to focus on God. It is such a joy to see a teenager put their focus on Christ. At one point she was acting so much like a JC that she was encouraging the other campers on her team to focus on God and accept Christ. It was amazing. It also shows the work that God does in these campers lives in a week of camp.

The hardest part of any summer is watching the campers go home each week. It is especially hard the last week of summer because the realization starts to sink in that summer is over. What amplified it for us this last week of summer was having such an amazing week with an amazing group of campers. God reminded us of His amazing goodness. It is His power and His love that we sent home with the campers. It will be His relationship with them that will sustain them and grow them into the young men and women He wants them to be. Our comfort and the victory this summer was remembering that we serve an amazing God who is more than able to accomplish the work He started in the campers lives. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Thanks again for all the prayers this summer. You were a part of God's work at Camp Alandale this summer.

Love in Christ, Mike Towler, OC Camp Director, Camp Alandale