Children

What good are kids today? Kids, by any definition, are a handful. They're into everything. They're always asking questions. They each out of house and home. They cost you money. They always want more. More attention. More stuff. More toys. More clothes. More activities. They're a distraction to life. There's no time for yourself or your personal needs if you have kids. Plus, if you have a child, you can get a job. That's their expensive. I checked with the University of Minnesota's website, and the average monthly total cost of raising one child.

And this is average to cost across all income ranges, all family types, all age groups. You know how much it costs per month to raise a child? $750 for one child. That's the average across all income. All ages of children. All income levels of people. All family types. Single or double parent households. Families today also are experiencing increasing challenges and conflict within the home. Hardships. Not just financial, but things that include marriages.

According to James Dobson, they end by divorce, then by death. One of the stresses that often plagues a marriage is that brought by children. Another stress and hardship that's brought on families is crime. The arrest rate among juveniles nearly tripled in 35 years in this country. It's from William Bennett. After stating all negative facts, there's one little line that popped off the page. Many families do not have these problems. Now, last time I spoke on keys to a successful and happy marriage, and children come from such unions.

What good are kids today? Well, they are potential leaders of the world tomorrow. They will assist Christ in showing humanity how to live in peace, in happiness, in joy. And these little treasures can be an exciting part of life's purpose for their parents. So today, let's take a look at children, future leaders of the world tomorrow.

What is one main purpose of being male and female? Ephesians 5, 31, and Genesis 2 says, For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

That's repeated there in Ephesians 5, verse 31. So we see male and female, and they are to be unified. Now, people can be very casual about the unity that takes place. Oh, I love you. You love me. Let's be one of mind. Let's be one of body. And it's all about us.

What happens from that union is quite often children, which are not always somehow expected, anticipated, or thought about. And so people can be very casual about procreating a child. It can be an unexpected byproduct of love. And today we live in a society that demands choice. It wants a choice as to whether it has children, or rather, it keeps children or not. There are some important reasons why God requires us to be celibate until marriage. One reason is that celibacy until marriage retains the full potential of sacredness in marriage, the specialness of a spouse, the unique unshared intimacy between two people, and the growing oneness of a couple.

The full potential of that is retained. And secondarily, another reason why God wants us to be virgins at marriage is for the structured family that it takes to have a full responsibility for children that results from that union. That family structure needs to be what the first point was, sacred, special, unique, intimate, and a growing oneness in order for a child to then be introduced into that union and be able to grow there with the structure and the responsibility.

Let's take a look at some of this from God's point of view. Right here in Ephesians, the fifth chapter, notice the next verse, verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and His church. So we see that a man and a woman are to join together, but there's something from God's point of view that is very important about this union. Marriage, it turns out, isn't just about two people falling in love and doing their thing. But God is very intent on our marriage being strong, like His church, unified, like His church, serving others like His church, a growing entity where growth and development takes place, like His church.

In verse 33, it says, therefore, that word, therefore, translated in the New Living Translation, reads, So again I say, in other words, its emphasis, let each one of you in particular so love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. In other words, since marriage is a pattern of Christ in the church, and since marriage is this holy organism of two people through which growth and intimacy and unity will take place, since this is the case, make sure that husbands you love your wives and wives make sure that you respect your husband.

It's a very important relationship, a covenant bond, a unity, that God has bound in heaven. What about the children that result? Society may refer to them as rugrats or something, but what's God's view? In Malachi 2, verse 15, But did he not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? Why did God make them one? Why unified?

And why one in body? He seeks godly offspring. God wants children. He seeks godly offspring. He wants children in his family. And where do these come from? Well, marriage provides the future kings and priests for the kingdom of God under Christ, reigning in the world tomorrow. So just as Christ seeks children from the bride, as it were, during the millennium, God is seeking those children who will form the bride now from those whom he has called, those whom he has given his Holy Spirit to, that they would nurture and birth and rear children who will be part of the ruling family of God in the next millennium.

Now, God can hold parents responsible for the training that they give or don't give to these potential kings.

We find back in 1 Samuel 3, verses 12-14, 1 Samuel 3 and verse 12, that there was Eli, and Eli had some sons. He was a priest, but he says, because Eli's sons acted up and the Father did nothing about it, and verse 12 of 1 Samuel 3, In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end, for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.

Notice, God didn't hold the school responsible, the PTA, the networks, or the wife. He holds the Father responsible for not disciplining and not correcting the sons. In contrast, in Genesis 18 and verse 19, we see the example of Abraham.

Genesis 18 and verse 19, God says of Abraham, For I have known him in order that he may command his children. Notice it wasn't Sarah he's talking about. The primary responsibility was his, although the wives do an amazing amount of the work and the teaching and the training, there's a responsibility here that God has the Father responsible for. He says that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. Do you know the promises to Abraham were conditional on that? Read the next phrase. That the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. Wow! The promises to Abraham were at least in part conditional on his teaching his children God's way, that they keep the way of God to do righteousness and justice.

Proverbs 22, verse 6 tells us to train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The way isn't necessarily the spiritual walk because God must give his spirit in order for that to take place. But the fundamental principles of life that are taught by parents and reinforced, if they are trained, not if they just grow up, but if they are adequately trained, that child will be established in a pattern for life, whereby they will be able to make better choices. Again, I said, make better choices. It doesn't mean that the children won't make wrong choices or will not have the opportunity to choose. They won't be little clones of their parents that just go on and on doing just like their parents. But they will be set up, in other words. But the point is that they have to be trained. Trained in the way he should go. There's a direction. Children eventually become adults who make their own decisions. And those decisions are not reflective in the sense that the parents are not responsible then for what other adults go off and do, other families. But parents must instill in their children the intention, the understanding and the habit of doing right. And this points them in the right direction, which hopefully they will continue in. Of course, there's no guarantee. Teens grow up and begin an independence that eventually sets them out on a road that they themselves will choose. They will learn certain aspects of cause and effect, of choice and consequences. But they will be better prepared for making choices and receiving the consequences when parents have trained them in the way they should go. Now, how do parents train up their children in the way they should go? Well, the Bible gives us a couple of scriptures concerning this. In Titus chapter 2 and verse 4, we find that older women are to teach younger women to do certain things. We all have to learn. Titus chapter 2 and verse 4. This is a very important need among young women, is for older women to be able to give their advice. Sadly, in our society, there's little or no opportunity for that. In the older cultures, where you had more of an established community where people would interact more, you had the wiser people being approached and listened to. You had the person sitting in the gate, in other words. People would come for advice, and other people would share. But today, everybody thinks you get a self-help book and you're good to go, and you kind of figure it out on your own. And that's sad, because you can see what direction the society has gone to. And the total absurdity of what child-rearing has become today. Here we find in Titus 2 verse 4 that they, which is referring to the older women in the previous verse, admonish or teach, encourage. In other words, that's something that has to be learned, isn't it? Otherwise, they wouldn't have to do that. But they have to teach the younger women to love their husbands. How to love their husbands? To love their children. Well, you'd think that would just come automatically, wouldn't you? Well, I'm a woman. I'm good to go. But here, we're shown that older women need to teach the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children.

And notice at the end of verse 5 that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.

Why? You know, this is a very, very important thing. If a church family is a bad example, then it proves God's way doesn't work. If a church family has children and an unhappy marriage, unhappy children, disrespectful, ungodly children, and marriage that's torn up, it proves that the Church of God and the Bible for which it stands on doesn't work. And therefore, the Word of God is blasphemed. We are not to be individuals like that. But rather, we need to love our husbands, love our wives, love the children, that the Word of God may be confirmed, that we are living, walking, talking, proof that God's way does work.

In Ephesians 6 and verse 4, I'll read this from the New International Version, fathers are commanded, fathers do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. So this is directed to fathers.

Not every household has a father, but those who do, the father is told to bring them up in the training and the instruction, not of yourself, but of the Lord, of God. And fathers can't leave this responsibility up to somebody else, because you're number one responsible. You've got an assistant, you've got a helper, hopefully. Not every household has a mother, either. But in most, in nuclear households is what they call them now, where you have a father and a mother. The father has primary responsibility that those kids are brought up in the training and the instruction of God.

They can't just walk away from that kid. Well, they're getting training at school. They're getting training on TV. Or they're getting training, you know, my wife's taking care of all the training. The next thing you know, you're not doing what God said. In Malachi 4 and 5, this is brought home loud and clear. Malachi, the last book of the Bible, last chapter of the Bible, right at the end of that chapter, verses 5 and 6.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Notice what's said here. Fathers to the children. And the hearts of the children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. That word curse is strong. It means annihilation. So fathers have an incredible responsibility, in which even by this verse, say they are shirking.

And we must not do that. So we find that godly parenting is not a choice, if it's convenient, if you want to do it. It's an important responsibility, but also it's a wonderful responsibility. How is this done? Let's take a look at how the teaching takes place. In Psalm 34 and verse 11, we find David here showing a great example. Psalm 34 verse 11. Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the deep respect of the Lord.

Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the deep respect of the Lord. If you slow down here, and you note some of the key concepts of this simple sentence. Come to me, listen to me, I will teach you the deep respect of the Lord. You see, one sentence now has four distinct concepts built into it. First of all, there's proximity. You come to me. There's a proximity. The Father is involved. The Father is there. He is present. Come to me.

I am the authority. You will come to me. I am your authority. Listen to me. It is a relationship. You're going to listen. I'm going to teach. You're going to hear. We are there, once again, in a relationship, in a teaching environment. I am present. You are present.

I have my role. You have your role. I'm going to try to get you to understand the concepts of life. The next one is authority. I will teach you. Yes, I do have authority. Yes, I am a parent, and I am your authority, and I will teach you values. You cannot choose your own values as long as you live in my house. I will teach you. And the last one is what is being taught, the subject. And that is the fear or the deep awe, the deep respect of God, of His ways, of His creation.

That's a wonderful opportunity, but you notice it can't be done by an absentee father. It can't be done at a distance through distance education, distance learning. It can't be done through a secondary source. If all these are in place, then a sound person can do what is said in Deuteronomy 6, verse 6. Let's go back there. Deuteronomy 6, verse 6. He had just given the commandments on Mount Sinai.

He's giving the law. In verse 6, these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart. These words included many things, including in verse 4. Hero Israel, the Lord our God. Our God is primary. We're not counting God's here. The word one means He is first. He is above all. He is primary. He is what you put first.

He is above, obviously, all other gods because there are no other gods. There's just a bunch of stupid idols. But He is above everything, but He is primary. Next, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. Where have we heard that before?

So loving God who is primary with all your heart takes precedent. And then He goes on and says, these words you shall have in your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children. Not casually, but diligently. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house. Now you see, here comes the father-mother role. They are with their children. They're loving their children. They're not outsourcing, compartmentalizing, distance learning. They are with them when they sit or talk in the house, when you sit, when you walk. They're to sit together and eat. They're to take walks together and do things. When you lie down, when you go to bed, or when you relax, or whatever. When you rise up, when you get up in the morning, you're there. You're there with your kids. They're there with you.

He goes on, You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They'll be as frontlets between your eyes. You'll write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. So in other words, godliness is what you are. It's what you're about. You are all about that. That's what you live. You live, eat, breathe, and exemplify this. And it's what your children will see. It's not just a matter of you telling your kids all the time. It's a matter of you being godly, and being that model, and living that life. That is the greatest example and the greatest teaching. And you can only do that when you're with them, and they're there, and they can watch you, and they can model you. You've got to be the one to model as well. The example, the teaching, the correction, the discipline, very important. All these are intertwined aspects of raising future children, the future leaders of the world tomorrow. Proverbs 23, verses 13 and 14, tells us that correction is an integral part. You know, society wants to rebel. Human nature wants its own way. And society's convinced itself that no one should be an authority, and certainly no one should correct anybody else. That would be harmful. That would be detrimental to them. But correction is actually an instrumental tool that God uses for us, and parents are to use for their children, to convince them and convict them that there are penalties for breaking God's laws. There are consequences for making bad choices. Proverbs 23, verse 13 says, do not withhold correction from a child. Oftentimes, children who grow up without a father figure also grow up with too much understanding, with too much softness, too many excuses, too much justification is allowed, too much permissiveness.

But where a father is involved, you'll get the other side of that. Maybe not enough softness, not enough tenderness, maybe not enough of the compassion, but you will get the insistence, typically, that a child needs to be corrected. It says, you shall spank or beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from the death or the grave. A parent who doesn't want his child to obey them is a parent who's going to let a child run out in the street and get run over. Or a parent who's going to harness a child, I don't know if you've ever seen a harness, where they actually buckle up a child and put a leash on them? Because they're not going to train a child, they actually will put a leash, a harness, like a dog, and walk around behind their child or pull their child. I haven't seen them in a while, but they were getting popular a few years ago.

But if you don't love your child and discipline your child, that child is going to make so many awful mistakes, it's going to ruin their mental life and will jeopardize their physical life.

We all need rules. We all need discipline when we break the rules.

Joshua 24 verse 15 shows a man who, like any parent, was imperfect, inadequate, and yet resolute about his role, resolute about the success of his family, just like Abraham was.

All of us parents are imperfect. We're all inadequate. And yet we need to be resolute about the role that God has given us. Joshua declared, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We didn't take a poll. He didn't get around and say, Hey, what do you think we're going to do? He just declared it. You can get these little signs that have that on there. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and be a good reminder, you know, just to put that out there. That's what we're about. That's what we do in this household.

The Church of God has long understood the incredible potential of children, the importance of children, and the timeless potential that God sees for children. We've been here for all children once, and it's a real treasure to have the opportunity to be living examples and teachers of generations that follow us. The Church provides Sabbath school to those congregations that support it, and the parents are involved and supported. It's a huge volunteer effort. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of work, but it's expended where there is interest in it. The Church provides annual summer camps, and these are unique opportunities for immersion training of teens among peers. Summer camps are intended to complement what parents do at home, not in any way replace it, but to complement it in an immersion environment where God's way can be lived and practiced for a period of time. The second part of today's sermon is going to be a video of this year's summer camp that took place in our region. That was in California at Camp High Sierra. I hope this video will provide you with an inspiring insight into one aspect of training up our children in the way that they should go.

The United Church of God is dedicated to developing godly leaders to assist Jesus Christ in the world tomorrow. Part of our stewardship as a church is the support and training of teenagers who are seeking the kingdom of God. The Bible tells us in Revelation 21, verse 6, that all who overcome will reign with Christ for a thousand years. To be a leader in the coming age means becoming a leader of God's way today. Learning, experiencing, modeling, and becoming an example of godliness is what United Youth Camps is all about. You've been seeing some scenes from the Northwest Camp in Oregon. Let's now take a glimpse at Camp High Sierra 2008 and see how United Youth Camps are helping to inspire some of the future leaders of the world tomorrow.

The future leaders of tomorrow's world are currently students who are learning the right way to live.

Learning begins with coming to understand the Bible, both at home with family and in church activities. United Youth Camps provide additional learning opportunities in a positive leader and peer environment. I want to ask you a question, a little hypothetical situation scenario. Let's say after today's wonderful activities, had a really good time, and deserted a lot of energy, you go back to your dorm to change, you pull out your suitcase and you open it up, and it's filled with Spanish gold coins and jewels.

What would your reaction be?

Excitement? Would anyone go, Oh no, they're going to charge me extra at the airport for my bags?

Probably not. King David writes in the Psalms, Psalms 119, verse 162, I rejoice at your word as one that finds great spoil. God's truth is a great treasure.

The wisest leader of all time wrote the book of Proverbs. In its introduction in chapter 1, Solomon shows the purpose of this very important resource for future leaders. Verse 3 says, To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge.

That's what we want us to walk away from camp, realizing, you know what? God's way works.

When we live God's way, we experience God's way. The kind of peace that we have here, the kind of unity that we have here, is something that to an even greater degree we're going to experience for eternity in God's family. What a goal!

Among the many activities at camp, teens find a myriad of opportunities to experience, test, and practice godly principles of living.

Staff and counselors use the opportunities at camp to develop future godly leaders.

Ms. Bridget, how would the activities at camp help the campers become leaders in the future and more of a service to them?

Well, every activity at camp gives each person an opportunity to become a leader. And they do that through enjoying each venue and each opportunity and finding their strength. And as a counselor, it's really important that we find a way for them to be successful and a way for them to lead. And without a doubt, we do it with every camper. Every camper has an opportunity to show their strength. Maybe if they're quiet, they get out there and we tell them, Hey, why don't you work today on being an encourager? To watch them break through their shell and become a leader in that group setting is really, truly awesome. And that, as a leader, they become a servant because they are serving to show people the way, the correct path of how to do an activity or how to have a positive attitude.

Camps help me develop leadership by being one of the older kids in the dorm. You've got to lead by example.

You've got to be an example because if there's a younger kid or even just an older person that sees somebody doing the right thing all the time, and if they're living the right way of life, then they might be inspired to maybe be like that person and just do the right thing, too. We have a lot of good examples here. All the staff, all the counselors, everybody just doing the right thing.

Being positive, encouraging. You see their example and you want to do the same thing that they are, just be encouraging, uplifting, and hopefully somebody else will see you doing that and so they'll do the same thing and it'll go on and on to other people.

Mr. Chairman, so what do you think would be unique about this tree? This tree happens to be the largest living thing in the world. Bigger than any whale? Bigger than ten blue whales, in fact.

I've been leading you on this trail, right? I have the influence to be able to bring you along and be able to take you up a rock and to take you down a trail.

Now, you know how to do that. You know how to go from General Sherman over to Crescent Meadow. You know how to come up to this rock. You know how to go up and down the rock. If you had to come out here tomorrow and take somebody else out here, you could do that, too. Same thing applies to God's way of life. Once you understand it, once you know it, once you know how to live it, especially, once you've practiced it, you can take that and you can teach others how to practice it. You can show them why it works. You can show them why it doesn't work. You can warn them about things that you don't want them to do, because you know that God says that those things are going to cause pain. They cause them to get hurt.

A leader, in that sense, is somebody who's able to influence somebody to follow God, to teach God's principles and to teach His way.

How many of you feel like you can be a leader of this way of life to the other people around you? Your friends, people at school, family?

All of you should be able to. That's what we do here at camp. We're learning about it, learning the principles for you to be leaders now and tomorrow.

Rock climbing is a great experience for these people and a good chance for us to teach leadership skills.

We bring them out here on these rocks and we challenge them.

If they want to experience success, sometimes they have to turn to us and ask us how to get up the rock, how to climb it, how to use their hands, their legs.

They have to listen to us and learn from our experience.

Future leaders must be growing in confidence, becoming fully assured of their goal, and staying the course through any adversity.

It begins with building confidence in God's way through their teachers.

The result is a confirming of the faith that is taught at home, but lived here with 100 of their peers for an entire week.

The goal of camp is stronger faith in God, His word, and trust that His way really does work in all situations.

The CN Tower, up on its observation deck, has a glass floor.

If anyone has the opportunity to be in Toronto, make sure to go up to the observation deck of the CN Tower and check out this glass floor.

The observation deck is way, way up there.

As you stand at the top, you can feel the whole building sway gently back and forth.

You're looking down and you see these little people down on the ground walking.

You think it takes faith to step out onto that glass floor?

Rock climbing and bungee jumping also take a type of faith.

If you're repelling down with a rock group, you're not just going to go to the edge of the mountain and start climbing down.

At least, I don't think you are.

You need to check that rope here to make sure that the person that's helping to support you is ready.

You're going to check all your equipment. You're going to double check to make sure that things are safe.

Faith is belief plus action.

You can't just step out onto something unless you know that it's going to support you.

Unless you know that that rope's not going to break or those clips are not going to fail you.

We have our belief that the rock staff knows what they're doing.

We have belief that Mr. King really is certified and has all of these licenses and certifications that he claims to have.

Don't we? We put our trust in his staff that they're not going to let us fall. That they're going to help hold the rope.

We have belief that the buckles will hold. That the rope will hold. That the rope isn't 30 years old and it's fraying all over the place and, wow, I hope it gets me down.

The action part is taking that first step. It's leaning back over the edge while you're repelling down. And those two things put together, both the belief and the action, help you exercise your faith. We have to have faith in God. And in order to have faith in God, we need to have belief and we need to have the action. We believe that the Sabbath is a day we should be worshipping God, but we don't go to church on Sabbath. Do we have faith then? Are we exercising our faith in God? No, we're not, are we? We have to have the belief, plus we have to have the action. One of my favorite scriptures is Malachi 3, verse 10. I will open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessings that there will not be room enough to receive it. There is tremendous hope and promise in that verse. And if we can exercise our faith in God, this is the outcome. This is what God will do for us. But we have to have the belief in Him. We have to believe His commandments. We have to believe His laws. We have to know who He is and have a relationship with Him. But then it goes one step farther. And we have to put that belief into action. We have to do something with it. We have to tithe. We have to make sure we're at church every Sabbath. We have to make sure that we're not breaking the Ten Commandments, that we're striving to do what we know is right. And by doing that, we're exercising our faith. So as we know about today, as we know about the activities, think about faith. Think about why you keep God's laws. Think about why you go to church. Why you're here at summer camp. Think about your relationship with God and Jesus Christ. Regardless of how old you are or how developed that relationship is, think about that. And think about what action you also put into that belief. Because in order to have faith in God and faith in His way of life, we have to have the belief, and then we have to do something about it. And by having that belief, and then putting the action into it, by doing those two things, we can have faith. We can exercise our faith in God.

This is the experience gained from trial and error. Learning good judgment through cause and effect provides important growth opportunities. I want to tell a story today about a 15-year-old who made a decision that led him into idolatry. It's my story. You could say, an idol? Did you build one? What did you do? This is my idol. I had the opportunity to go to a summer camp, like Mr. Carter talked about, every year. I was offered a scholarship to go because of my parents' income situation. I said, no! I can't go there! It's three weeks! I've got to work! I've got to make money so I can pay to go to a basketball camp. That's only one week, but I can live, eat, drink, sleep basketball. So one decision led to another bad decision after a number of years. I ended up homeless. I had a ragtag sleeping bag and a 10-speed missing a bunch of spokes with a chain that squeaked. Someone found me and said, I need a roommate. I became his roommate.

The advice that he gave me was to read a chapter of Proverbs every day. But I read that and I remember sitting on my bed and I started to cry and wept deeply for many reasons.

The first reason is I realized at how precious God's truth was. The second reason I was bawling was because I realized at what I had done for eight years. Eight years of my life. It's been said the best way to learn is through someone else's bad experience.

As you go through the day-to-day, as you go home, I know we all have decisions to make. You're at that stage of life when you're going to be deciding on schooling, career, everything. I would like you to read a chapter of Proverbs every day because it will lead you to the right answers. It will lead you to the truth. Because today we're having, as we heard last night, a blending, or to use a rock climbing term, a smearing of the truth. Deception is not deception unless you have a little bit of truth thrown in to make it seem okay. The truth is very precious. Not many understand it. Many try, but all of us in this room have been given a calling to understand the truth. It's a great thing. It's a precious thing.

There's a couple different ways that we can instill character in these kids. It's to pass on to them some of the experiences that we've had. Character is built either by making mistakes or by seeing where mistakes lead. And we can pass on the things that we've learned so they don't make the same mistakes that save them from hurting themselves and teach them that God's way is the way. We are all standing inside of a giant sequoia. You can look up and you can see that it is burned out, half way up the tree. But the tree is still alive. The tree is still growing. All inside of it there are fire scars, and that's why it's black. But on the outside, there's still green growth, and there's still life. And it's still a good, healthy tree. Sometimes there are trials. Has everybody heard of a trial by fire? Yeah. Fire can hurt. Fire can really test you. But on the other side, you come out a little more interesting. You come out a little bit more tested, and you can live through it, can't you? Yeah. Like this tree does. This tree is very healthy. There's still plenty of green growing on the outside. You'll see that when you walk back through it. But we're all standing inside of it, even though it's burned. Pretty amazing tree, huh? Yeah! As a counselor, you have a lot of opportunities to sit with your dorm, and to talk on an individual basis, and also together. I always try to say, you know, I'm human, I've done mistakes, but I've also had a lot of success. And that success has come from following God. And those things that I haven't done well are because I've deviated from His path. So I try to share that with them, and help them understand how they can do that in their life, how God's way is a model for them, and how they can grow and develop as beautiful young ladies in that way. And camp, we hope, provides you with a vision of where we are going, where we need to be, ultimately. And how does it get us there? Over obstacles. You see, we have to rise above the world today. The world today is not the answer. We need to go somewhere. We've got somewhere to go. It's a wonderful place to go. And we get there over obstacles, things that are in our way. Spiritually speaking, what's the biggest obstacle to our entering into the family of God? Sin makes it impossible on our own for us to cross into the family of God. Sin, God says, separates us from God. You know, there's this huge cavern, there's this huge gully ditch that separates us from God. It's called sin. When we sin, we separate ourselves from God. God doesn't want us to be separated from Him. He wants to be part of a family with us. He loves us and wants us to be with Him in His family forever. So is God going to keep that big ditch between us and Him? Or is He going to make a way for us to get from where we are separated from Him to where He wants us to be?

God tells us that His mind and ways are far different than human ways. In Isaiah 55, verse 8, He says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Consequently, God's future leaders are learning to do unusual things. We're learning something that is beyond normal human ability. And learning to push oneself to do extraordinary things is a meaningful part of the camp experience. Leaders are challenged, but they don't quit, and they need to develop confidence in this new way of life.

I mean, some of them were terrified. They actually started crying. It was so sad. But then to see them do it, and the proud look on their face, like, yeah, I did it! It's such an awesome feeling, and that definitely helps build their confidence, because they triumphed over their fear.

People didn't know how to swim when they were older. I think it would put a lot of limitations in their life. They would never be able to go diving, or snorkeling, or kayaking. I mean, even though we have life-deeper servers on our kayakers, it's so much more comfortable if you know how to swim. And it gives you that much more confidence in your everyday life, that you know if you're going to do something, that you know you're going to be able to save yourself or protect yourself from the dangers of the water. One person can be a great swimmer, and those campers, how we mix our camp dorms, they'll look up to that person who can swim that well, and they'll want to race them.

They'll want to do as well as they can, and they'll try their hardest, and they'll work harder, just like if you're on a swim team. You want to be the best you can be at anything you do. Because of the prominence I now have in myself, I can explain to my friends about my beliefs when they ask me. Instead of backing off and kind of hesitating about what to say to them, I can actually tell them confidently about what I believe.

I think leadership is built in campers because we work to find how they can be successful in each activity. One of them may shine in one, one may shine in another, but that builds their confidence. So when they go back into the world, they're stronger as a person, they're stronger as a Christian, and they become stronger as a leader, even within their own communities and their own schools.

I think camp changed my life to be more open and to not be scared to just go out and talk in front of tons of people and just to bond with anybody, just go up to somebody and just say, Hey, I'm Caitlin, what's your name? How has your week been? It's been really great.

Camp has made me a lot more confident around people. I was always a lot shyer and nervous to be around a lot of people, but camp really brought me out and seemed confident. Also, more open and honest with them, just practice what we learned here at camp in the real world. The goal of Godly leadership is to help others to impact their life, to be team players and partners with others in pushing forward in God's way of living. The objective of Capture the Flag is to help them work inside of a team, plan a strategy, use teamwork, accomplish a challenge, and then see their accomplishment at the end.

It helps them in their life and job, in school, when they encounter something that may be a challenge for them, that they may not have done before, and how to get around that, maybe think out of the box a little bit, work with someone else and their strengths to accomplish that challenge, and then set it all in motion.

We all have dreams and visions that we want to accomplish in life, and sometimes they're going to encounter roadblocks, things that they don't think are fair or things that they see as difficult, and this will help them to see that they can work around it, maybe different than someone else did because of their strengths and someone else's strengths that they can mentor with, because who's suffered if they've done that challenge before.

So, having them work together, looking at the challenge, working with their strengths, and then making a plan and seeing that plan through to the end. Team building really helps build cabin unity, and it also brings campers closer together to build a bridge to other activities, as well as to spiritual values and connections. In this specific activity, this is a spiritual obstacle course, so each of these obstacles symbolizes a different consequence. You have a partnership, and you have one camper who's blindfolded, and the other one has to stay around the circumference of the circle, and so the one who can see has to verbally guide the blindfolded camper through the spiritual obstacle course without touching any of these obstacles.

This specific team building activity relates to how to take a partnership of campers and lead them spiritually through this obstacle course, safely to the other side, and it really symbolizes how campers can focus on overcoming different issues and different things while they have a partnership through leadership and through participation. Hiking will help people learn to serve others, because when one person falls over, you have to be the person who's going to be assertive and say, do you know what?

I'm your buddy. I'm going to help save you. And you know, they work together, but at the same time, you know, that one person, they're serving someone else, because that one person, they're floating around in the water, and they don't know what to do, because it's too deep to stand up. So that person swims over, and the person in the kayak gets the boat, lifts it up, swirl it around, and help that person get in their boat.

Relationships are a huge part of what camp is about. We exchange addresses, we exchange emails. After camp, you begin to email and talk to other individuals, and you realize that camp, the friendships you make, go on and on, and they extend farther and farther into the future. And because we have a zone, we have an environment where you can make friends very easily. We have an environment where those friendships can be built on every year, more and more, every year that we go to camp. So camp friends are something that will extend long after camp, and the friendships you make here will make a huge difference the rest of your lives, because the friendships we make build into the purpose of why we're here. The building of friendships, the continuation of the zone, and becoming in the right environment. We must show ourselves that's an effort we have to put forward, and it's easy to do when you're here at camp. You've got a lot of friends your own age. You've got a friend's your own belief. They're in the zone. They all have the same beliefs you have. They all keep the Sabbath. It's easier to make friends here than it is to make friends at school. The friends you have here are going to have the same beliefs. They're going to have the same ideals. The family structure is hopefully going to be based on the same things, and it's easier to build friends.

Future leaders can participate in leadership opportunities today. As Paul told Timothy, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Camp High Sierra is staffed by nearly 100 adults and adolescents who do a wonderful job of leading, teaching, and reinforcing the principles of God's way of living. Many of these staff were once campers themselves and are now teaching as they have been taught. Testimony to the success of the program is that looking around campus today, there's no less than a dozen young people that were in t-shirts in the last two years that are now wearing collared staff shirts.

One of the things that I've known since I've served on staff for so many years now is that some of those campers that were in my dorm my first year have continued coming to camp, watched the examples of other staff, have been given the opportunities to develop their own leadership, and now I'm serving next to them on staff, and they're the ones who are leading.

Each of us here as brothers and sisters for eternity, enjoying hopefully an environment, a setting, a spirit of fellowship, of unity and peace, that this camp, I hope to some degree, has exemplified. And in many respects, God is calling us to help others find the way, show the way, into the kingdom of God.

Special thanks to all the campers and volunteer staff who are striving in excellence today to be the leaders in the world tomorrow.