GLBC
News & Notes - Fall 07 Edition
Click on the link below to read each article:
Bits
& Pieces from Chapel
2008
Schedule
Tuned
into God’s Power at Station GLBC—75: Women’s Retreat
Worshipping
God in your Church and Home: Men’s Retreat 2007
Elijah:
Hearing God’s Call: Youth Retreat
Facts
& Figures
Fun-filled
Activities
Rescue
Mission: Missions Chapel Update
Return
to Home Page
Our registration fees cover 60% of our costs.
Any donation would be appreciated.
Use the link below to make a donation.
http://www.grindstonecamp.com/Donation/Donation_Main_Page.htm
Bits
& Pieces from Chapel
Chapel
is the primary place where ministry happens.
We would love for each of one of you to be there each week to see how God
moves among the campers. However,
because you can not be there, we have shared a few of the chapel highlights for
the summer of 2007 below, giving you a glimpse into what happened at chapel this
summer.
Isaac Dunnick,
from Stanchfield Baptist Church, laid down a challenge to set aside the
roadblocks that keep us from coming to Jesus.
One roadblock that Isaac presented was trying to straddle the fence
between Jesus and the world. One
poignant video that showed this was a skit between a character representing
Jesus and a character representing the devil.
The devil attempted to persuade the man, who desired to follow Jesus,
into the temporary pleasures of the world.
The character pursued the best of both worlds by standing on the line
between Jesus and the world. However,
what the character had not realized is that the line was owned by the devil.
As he walked the line, he found himself walking over to the trappings of
this world.
Pastor Wayne
Reed,
from Tea, SD, shared the gospel of Jesus Christ by through a personal message by
bringing his newly adopted daughter to chapel.
He shared the story of the process of how he adopted his daughter, so
that his daughter no longer belonged to her birth mother, but had been grafted
into his family. He then connected
this to God the Father’s adoption of us as His children, when we trust in His
son by faith. Outside of
chapel, Pastor Wayne allowed the kids to attempt to “Stump the Pastor.”
If the kids could come with a Bible question that he did not have an
answer to, they would win a free candy bar.
Kids asked him all sorts of like “Are there computers in the Bible?”
This opened up numerous opportunities to talk to the kids about God’s
Word.
Dale
Cliffton used
puppets and many object lessons to teach the basic lessons of the Gospel.
One lesson, to teach how much sin binds us, was when Dale took a
volunteer camper from the audience. Dale
would read a verse about sin and what it does to us.
Dale would demonstrate the verse in a tangible way by applying the verse
to the camper. For example, one
verse was how sin blinds us, so Dale would then put a blindfold on the camper.
Next was a verse about how we are lost in our sins.
Dale then led the camper around the chapel, so that he would be lost.
After several items like this, Dale then asked the camper to make a
basket in the Nerf basketball hoop that he had set-up.
Of course, the camper had no chance of making the basket which showed
that without Christ, we are incapable of saving ourselves.
Dan
Hubbard,
using his wit and humor, shared with the kids pictures of our universe from the
Hubble telescope. He used these
pictures to show the kids how huge a universe that God has created.
He shared with them that there were two reasons
God made this universe so huge: 1.) to remind us to show respect for him;
2.) to humble ourselves before him. Sharing
from Psalms 8, Dan went on to explain that the God of this huge universe still
takes the time to care about you. This
God hand-made each person and loves you very much.
Many
more powerful lessons were taught in chapel.
Pray that the campers can remember them and apply them to their lives.
2008
Schedule
We are awaiting final approval of next
summer’s schedule. Our order of
weeks should stay the same, but we are working on new start and end times.
A final schedule will be
available on our website after 11/1/07. We
will also mail a postcard in November to 2007 campers.
Tuned
into God’s Power at Station GLBC—75: Women’s Retreat
Women’s
retreat was held at Grindstone Lake Bible Camp, September 7-8, 2007.
About 130 ladies attended. Many
of the ladies were first time attenders, stating that they had had children
attend camp here, but had never attended themselves.
Keynote
speaker, Patti Wiens, grew up as a “street person” in Minneapolis and went
on to become a teacher and then school administrator of New Life Christian
Academy in Woodbury, MN. Her
husband, Dick, was formerly a pastor in Mora.
Because Patti had spoken at Women’s retreat in 2004, the committee
thought most women attending in 2007 would be familiar with her personal
testimony. As it turned out, the majority of the women at this year’s retreat
had never heard Patti’s testimony so Friday night’s message was altered to
include her life story. Friday’s messages focused on the theme verse, Psalm
105:4. Patti instructed on ways to
look to the Lord and seek His face through daily Bible study and prayer. She
stressed by use of personal experiences that battles against Satan are won
through our knowledge and use of God’s Word/Scripture and prayer.
Robbie
Fowler, wife of Pastor Duane Fowler, Mora, presented a workshop on “Mentoring
through Discipleship.” Mary
Anderson, director of the Mora Crisis Pregnancy Center presented a workshop on
“Effective Parenting”. Blanche
Hawke spoke on “Healing Through Forgiveness” as she related her personal
life testimony.
About
sixty women participated in the craft project, making bracelets from glass
beads. Others enjoyed time on the
waterfront, walks, naps, and socializing with friends. Evaluations filled out by
attendees reflected very positively on all aspects of the retreat.
I know that I was blessed by the way God fulfilled His purposes in our
lives!
Women’s
Retreat Dir. —Lucy Haglin
Worshipping
God in your Church and Home: Men’s Retreat 2007
Twelve
men gathered on September 21st and 22nd at Grindstone Lake Bible Camp for the
annual men's retreat. The fellowship was very good, and the food was
abundant and well-prepared.
The
men were there to worship together and hear from God's Word what it means to be
leaders in worship. The worship music was provided by Joel Ostrom and
Steve Carr and the rest of the men and their voices.
Three
messages were given by Pastor John Shaw of the Mission Orthodox Presbyterian
Church in St. Paul, MN. The primary message was that men, as spiritual
leaders in the home and in the church, are to prepare their families to meet
with God. Pastor John began by describing the necessity of the Church for
believers and its role in worship. In the second session, he described the
need that our families have for corporate worship and the way to prepare for the
worship of the Lord's Day. In the final session, John focused primarily on
family worship in the home and the importance of family worship for wives and
children, and, for all the generations that follow.
All
men are welcome to attend next years on September 19th and 20th; please mark
your calendars and plan to attend.
Submitted
by Pastor Duane Fowler
Elijah:
Hearing God’s Call: Youth Retreat
Forty
Three campers attended youth retreat on Sept. 14th-16th, including four youth
groups. Dan Hubbard walked the kids
through four stages in which God prepared Elijah for use in His kingdom.
Those stages were:
1. Elijah
All Alone - Dan showed how God
taught Elijah dependence on Him at the brook Cherith.
2. God’s
Testing Process - Dan showed the kids how God prepared Elijah for service by
sending him to the widow in Jezebel’s home country.
3. Showdown
at Mount Carmel - Dan shared with
the kids how God can work through them if they are willing to make themselves
available for service.
4. Recharge
Your Batteries - Dan shared how God
comforted Elijah after using him mightily and demonstrated His awesomeness in a
quiet whisper.
One
part of the schedule was Talk it Out groups.
This was an opportunity for campers to talk out several issues that Dan
was raising in chapel. Pray for the
ministry to continue in lives of the campers.
Facts
& Figures
Here
is a look at a few of our stats for the summer of 2007:
Attendance
Statistics
Number
of Campers: 731
Males: 274
Females:
457
Response
Statistics
Spiritual
Status Before Camp
Saved:
529 (82%)
Not
Saved/Unsure./Seeking: 123 (18%)
R
Responses
Salvation:
58
Assurances:
42
Dedication:
28
Commitment:
142
Total:
295
Type
of Commitments (Of the 142)
Attend
Church More 4
Read
the Bible/Pray More 77
Eliminate
a Sin/Stumbling Block 15
Missions
15
Witness
7
Other
24
Percentage
of Campers making a response: 43%
Percentage
of Not Saved\Unsure Campers making a Salvation/Assurance response: 53%
Fun-filled
Activities
What’s
on the schedule now? The most
popular non-spiritual question asked at camp.
Here is a brief look at two of the fun-filled activities this summer:
Since
adding it last summer, archery has been a popular hit amongst the campers.
Led by Grandpa T (Terry Thorud), campers who sign-up learn about the
different parts of the bow and arrow, how to shoot safely, etc.
Archery also includes many fun contests such as shooting a balloon and a
chance to shoot at 3D archery target of a deer.
For
camptivity this year, Asst. Program
Directors Jay Downey and Rachel Tyree offered a new and improved version of
Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag
is a game with two teams where each other person attempts to get the other
team’s flag over to their line. Jay
and Rachel changed the game to four teams, eliminated the jail, gave points for
every individual flag captured, and made new beautiful banners for the kids to
capture.
This
is just a small snapshot of many exciting activities this summer.
Rescue
Mission: Missions Chapel Update
During Missions chapel this summer, campers
were challenged to go on a Rescue Mission and fulfill our captain’s desire to
not want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (I Peter
3:9b—NIV). The campers
were challenged to be a part of the rescue mission by giving, going, and
praying.
For the going part, several counselors shared their stories
of the missions trips that they had gone on from China to Japan to Africa to
rural Minnesota. They used these
stories to challenge the kids to go on a missions trip, either short or long
term. Over 50 campers signed up to
receive more information about going on a mission trip.
The giving portion of the missions chapel was dedicated
to two ministries. Elementary
campers gave $1,095 to Christian Mission of Pignon, a feeding program for hungry
kids in Haiti. Staff were moved by
one campers words, when she said, “This is just a little bit of our canteen
money and these kids only get three meals a week.”
The junior/senior high campers gave $716 to purchase Spanish literature
and Bibles for the Salem EFC in Minneapolis.
Missions chapel was concluded with prayer
Our registration fees cover 60% of our costs.
Any donation would be appreciated.
Use the link below to make a donation.
http://www.grindstonecamp.com/Donation/Donation_Main_Page.htm
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to Home Page