Revive Children's Camp 2024

God's Children at Play

As I am writing this, I am sitting in Miracle Hall at Latham Springs Baptist Encampment near Aquilla, TX. We are currently utilizing Latham Springs as our campground for Revive Children’s Camp 2024, where we have just over 200 Children and adults worshiping Jesus, playing games, swimming in an awesome waterfront, and praying for one another. It has truly been a great few days.

This year, I have the honor of bringing the message to 3rd - 6th Graders from all over the state of Texas. This is not usually my job. Over the last few years, I have been the Camp Dean of Revive camps, which in essence means I have been the camp pastor.

The job of the dean is to be a pastoral presence for the students and adult volunteers during our stay at camp. I also have the responsibility of dealing with behavioral issues or emergencies, my least favorite part of the job. But God (and Rusty Freeman) have put me in a unique position where I get to serve the children and the adults of these awesome Christ Center Camps.

But like I said…this year, my job has changed…perhaps just for this summer. This year I am the speaker. Over the last few days I have been tasked with speaking once in the morning and once in the evening. By the time I am done, I will have preached 8 different messages to these amazing kiddos.

This week, we are talking about how God gives us gifts. Every morning during our worship time, we have opened a present. On Wednesday our theme was “God Speaks to Us.” we read Hebrews 4:12, where Paul writes, “The word of God is Alive and Active.”

We also heard the story of the call of Samuel and how God spoke to Samuel through a loud voice calling his name and through his mentor, Eli.

Then, in the evening, we read through the Story of Elijah, and how the Lord spoke to Elijah in a whisper. We learned that the scary things (tornado/powerful wind, earth quake, and fire) didn’t seem to phase Elijah…at least in the Scriptures, but that when God spoke in the still small voice, it caused Elijah to cover his eyes. Then, we even took a moment and had some quiet time (40 seconds to be exact).

Thursday, we learned how “God Teaches Us.” We read 2 Timothy 3:16 that says, “God has breathed life into all Scripture.” We opened our second present which was a bible. We talked about how useful the Word of God is is for teaching us what is true, for helping us to correct our mistakes, and to help us make our lives whole, as well as training us to do what is right.

We hit on the truth that just because these 3rd - 6th graders are young, that they shouldn’t let anyone look down on them because of that, that they have a purpose. We wrapped up Thursday with prayer. Our students sat in their church groups and went around the circle and talked about things they wanted to pray for, and the adults prayed for them. Then we had our adults get up in the middle of the circle, and our students prayed for our adults.

It was truly a beautiful moment.

Then today we started talking about the Empty Tomb. Our present for this morning was an empty box! Because, you see…JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN! Our theme for that day was God Saves us! We talked about how God saved us from our sins, but then his fixes our brokenness caused by our sins.

At the time of this writing, we haven’t had the evening talk yet, but I know God will be present, and I look forward to see what he’s going to do!

Then tomorrow, as we get on the road to come home, we are going to learn about how “God Guides Us.” The present tomorrow is going to be a Stop/Slow Sign, as a reminder that God will always be with us and guide us through life. Then we’re going to celebrate communion as the ultimate reminder that Jesus is always with us!

I love my job. I love that I get to be the pastor of a church and lead people in their faith walks. But some of the best parts of that job happen when I am at camp, and where I get to lead children to Jesus!

Pray for us as we continue to meet with Jesus here at Latham Springs.

Good things are happening. God is moving!

Stay Hungry for God, my friends!
Pastor Bryan