Week 9: Prayer and Leadership

With no classes and no trips this week, students focused on prayer and leadership. Each one signed up for two separate hours of prayer in the prayer room.

They creatively wrote down they're prayers and thoughts all over the room. By the end of the week, the empty room turned into a beautiful space where you could visually see the prayers between the students and God.

"Coming into the prayer week I really wasn't sure what I was going to be praying about. Very quickly, I realized that I had too much to pray for and not enough time! During our prayer week, we were also busy filming for our Old Testament group project... so, to be able to sit in silence for a couple of hours and just be with God was so incredible. Through that time of prayer, God showed me that I need to step into a different leadership role that I had never been in before. The growth I experienced from that week was so valuable to me and I will never forget it."- Riley Gaskell

On Tuesday Krista Penner came by and hosted an in-depth leadership workshop on living and leading in the present. On Wednesday there was another leadership workshop looking at the life of King Saul. Our last leadership workshop was down by the beach where the students learned about self-leadership through a crabbing experience and metaphor.

After four days of individual prayer, all the students met in Club Coco for chapel time. Korey led us in corporate prayer starting off with a prayer of repetition, reading through Psalm 23:

 "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along right paths

for his name's sake.

Even though I walk

through the valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and staff,

they comfort me.

you prepare a table for me

in the presence of my enemies.

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

forever."

We were also lead by three of our students in a time of worship.

Then, students and leaders gathered in groups to pray for our nation, the camp, and the people in our lives.

To end off the week, students helped lead and serve for the sr. high retreat from challenge course, to dishes, to counselling, to everything in between.

Things to pray for...

- In the midst of tiredness and class, that students would be able to let God still challenge and push them, continuing to have times of silence and solitude.
- That the students would be able to find a healthy balance between work, friends, and sleep.
- That the students would be bold in the way they lead outside of the camp; at churches, youth groups, community.