Summer Camp 2012 Session 1 - June 18-22

Dear Praying Friends,

            Thank you all for your sincere payers for us this past week here at Camp Alandale. We are grateful to see how God has used you here at camp through your commitment to lift up our campers, JCs, counselors, and staff. During this past week, June 18-22, God’s power could not have been more evident.

            The first week of camp always feels like riding a bike after having taken a yearlong break. You’re unsure how to make the pedals go or how to stay upright, and you’re confused about which direction to turn in order to reach your destination. This week’s fourth through sixth grade camp wasn’t much different from that, yet all the while God kept us upright even when we felt we might fall.

             I had two beautiful girl campers, while my husband, Jeremy, had two adventurous boys. Together we made up the yellow team. We were the smallest team, but that allowed us to grow closer. At first the campers weren’t too sure of each other, but by mid week we were acting like a little family. I was so impressed by their love for one another; they even liked spending time together when we weren’t doing team activities. One thing in particular that warmed my heart, when it was time to load the bus to go on the Thursday hike, and our whole team decided to sit together in the back of the bus. Teaching kids about what it means to be adopted into God’s family is a powerful part of what camp does, and we had the privilege of seeing the joy that teaching brought to our small team. During a final one on one time Jeremy was able to share with his camper Angel about being adopted into God’s family. When Angel finally realized that although he longed for the prospect of being adopted into a physical earthly family, he was already adopted into God’s spiritual and earthly family of believers, you could see the excitement on his face.

            From the way my camper, Skylah, kept her turtle stuffed animal close at hand I could tell that she was a bit unsure and nervous. She was timid, but it didn’t take long for her to warm up to camp life. Soon she was acting as if she had been coming to camp for years. From her confidence on the ropes course, to strutting her stuff at the tea party, joy exuded from her beautiful face. On the second night she even boldly volunteered to give her testimony for the first time. Her story was jumbled and unclear and during our one-on-one times the story grew longer. Like a rope wound up too tight that was finally released, her story unraveled.  Her life seemed like a revolving door of people, with a mom who was trying her hardest to just stay off the streets. As the week progressed I worried that she was checking out. I suspected that the dazed look on her face was due to her being overwhelmed by the depth of her own vulnerability and the realization that her home’s environment was unstable compared to camp’s. I thank God for your prayers, which I believe enabled her to stay engaged and grow through the rest of camp. She continued to ask the hard questions even up until our last day. Please continue praying for Skylah’s situation, and that God would help her to come to know him personally as her Savior as well as bring healing to her heart and mind.

            As you can tell, God worked in mighty ways this week at camp, and this is just the beginning of it. There were so many more campers and counselors that you all prayed for that were touched by God. We thank God for the eternal blessings that are happening every day at camp, and for your part in that!

Sincerely in Christ,

Amy Allen, Staff/Counselor

Summer Staff Training 2012 - June 10-15

Dear prayer family,

            Greetings and thank you for your prayers! This past week I watched as God took a diverse group of people and knit them together into a team. I have been on staff a few years now, as have many of the staff. However, this year more than any other I was impressed by the love for the Lord and kids in the foster system that each of these staff members have.

            Several times during this training week the staff made it a point to get together for prayer and devotions in addition to those scheduled in the program. In past summers, the staff normally meets at 6:45 for devotions together. However, we all decided that we should get together earlier on the weeks when camps occur to pray specifically for the day. Just as God has impressed the extreme importance of prayer on our lives, I am thankful that He has done the same in your lives. I can only attribute the abundant spiritual atmosphere to the prayers being offered up to God by His saints. Before Jesus started his ministry on earth He made it a point to be alone and prepare himself for the ministry that He was going to do. In a similar way, I am thankful for the week that we had prior to camp where we could prepare ourselves physically and spiritually to serve these children.

            Having the knowledge that we are being covered in prayer, it is with much anticipation that I look forward to this summer, and I am confident that God will work mightily both in the hearts of those serving and those being served. We covet your prayers.

                                                                                    In Him,

                                                                        Brian and the Camp Alandale Staff

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