Ending the eerie silence
Hey everyone! Did you miss me? After a week of catching up from my week off, I'm back. Here's what I was doing.
I was at lovely and scenic Camp Okoboji, a ministry site for the Iowa West District of the LC--MS. I was the topic leader for Youth Week, a week-long retreat for high school students. By the way, Camp Okoboji is one of the few camps I have found who host a weeks for high school students to be ministered to, instead of having them serve as ministers. But I digress.
The topic for the week? Oh yeah! It was S-E-X. Nothing can strike fear into the hearts of youth workers as quickly as 120 high school students gathered for an hour a day to listen to some "balding, fat, middle-aged guy" (they actually said that, yeah) talk about their sex lives. It was...interesting to say the least. Actually, I just resolved to tell them the truth. I used some colorful language and some straight talk to tell them what a big deal sex really is. There were more than one uncomfortable moments, which I won't share here. But I'm sure that I left an impression.
In fact, I know I did. I've had a lot of kids from camp e-mail me and IM me to talk about the new information they received. Many kids came to grips with their own sexual sins while they were there. The Holy Spirit enlightened teens left and right and that resulted in confessions galore. The grace of Christ flowed freely and so many young people realize anew how much our Father loves them. A lot of people have broken up with girl-friends and boy-friends back home because of the things we talked about. Praise God for that! I love it when kids learn the truth and use that truth to change their lives.
It was also a great vacation for Sara and I. The accomodations were rustic but nice. And we got to spend a week with some dear old friends from our high school camp days and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and start some new friendships as well. The price to be paid was 18-hour days and having to talk about sex, but I'd go back in a heart-beat.
I was at lovely and scenic Camp Okoboji, a ministry site for the Iowa West District of the LC--MS. I was the topic leader for Youth Week, a week-long retreat for high school students. By the way, Camp Okoboji is one of the few camps I have found who host a weeks for high school students to be ministered to, instead of having them serve as ministers. But I digress.
The topic for the week? Oh yeah! It was S-E-X. Nothing can strike fear into the hearts of youth workers as quickly as 120 high school students gathered for an hour a day to listen to some "balding, fat, middle-aged guy" (they actually said that, yeah) talk about their sex lives. It was...interesting to say the least. Actually, I just resolved to tell them the truth. I used some colorful language and some straight talk to tell them what a big deal sex really is. There were more than one uncomfortable moments, which I won't share here. But I'm sure that I left an impression.
In fact, I know I did. I've had a lot of kids from camp e-mail me and IM me to talk about the new information they received. Many kids came to grips with their own sexual sins while they were there. The Holy Spirit enlightened teens left and right and that resulted in confessions galore. The grace of Christ flowed freely and so many young people realize anew how much our Father loves them. A lot of people have broken up with girl-friends and boy-friends back home because of the things we talked about. Praise God for that! I love it when kids learn the truth and use that truth to change their lives.
It was also a great vacation for Sara and I. The accomodations were rustic but nice. And we got to spend a week with some dear old friends from our high school camp days and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and start some new friendships as well. The price to be paid was 18-hour days and having to talk about sex, but I'd go back in a heart-beat.
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