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As you may have heard mentioned in services last weekend, our Junior and Senior High youth are away for our annual Youth Summer Camp. Thank you for praying for us this week.  We desperately need your prayers as we desire to see God move an act in our teens’ lives this week.  Below is are several specific requests and an overview of theme this week so you can pray specifically for our teens to understand the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives and begin to live it out.

Specific Prayer Requests

1)   Safety and Protection – as we travel and as we have fun white water rafting, water tubing, caving, riding a hot-air balloon, etc.

2)   Logistics – we have over 200 people at camp this year.  Pray that all would logistically work out with transportation, meetings, meals, etc.

3)   Open Hearts – many of our teens are apathetic towards God.  Pray that they would be open to what the Lord wants to teach them.

4)   Listening Hearts – pray against any distraction and that the teens stay awake during the messages.

5)   Small Groups to Connect – pray for the teens to connect with each other.

6)   Salvation for the Unsaved – we have many friends and non-believers coming with us this year.  Pray they would each accept Christ’s free gift of salvation this week.

7)   Energy for Staff – pray for supernatural energy for the staff.

8)   Spiritual Refreshment for the Staff – pray for the staff’s personal times with the Lord, that they would be refreshing, and that they would be able to minister out of the overflow of what God is doing in their lives.

9)  Unity among the staff – pray that our entire team of over 40 staff would be united in Spirit to care for and lead out teens.

10)   Discernment for the Staff – many teens come with significant issues (personal or at home).  Pray that our staff would be able to discern how to care for and challenge each of our teens in a grace filled manner.

11)   Below is an overview of our theme.  Pray specifically that our teens would see the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives and begin to walk in it.

Our Theme: SUPER:natural

As believers we have all heard of the Holy Spirit, but how many of us really understand who He is or what He practically does in our life?  Christ Himself says it is for our benefit that Christ leaves and sends the promised Holy Spirit (John 16:7).  We are told if we walk in the Spirit, we will not gratify our sinful desires (Galatians 5:16).  We hear about the Fruit the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) that should develop in our lives of love, joy, and peace and want some of those, but how do we get them?  We hear about living in the power of the Spirit, but far too often tend to lead defeated Christian lives.  We live for the next “spiritual high” but have no clue how to have a sustained walk with the Lord.  We have heard so many truths about God and have so much knowledge, but do we have the basic skills of how to walk in step with the Spirit?

This year at camp, we will be learning about the Holy Spirit and what He does in our lives.  With that in mind, our theme this year is SUPERnatural. Not supernatural in the Ghostbusters way of thinking, but as in SUPER (adj. – above, beyond, stronger than) natural (n. – the way things exist in nature without interference). This is about the power and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  On my own, I would not walk with God or honor Him, but thankfully He has not left me alone as an orphan (John 14:18).  He gives us the power to live beyond our own natural abilities.