July 9, 2009
It’s moving day for Wayfarer’s speakers as new camps start. Dave Rhodes finishes up in Sherman, Texas, today, and Chris Brooks flies in there to begin a new session of Student Life Camp for Kids. You can follow Brooks during kids camp and even listen live here.
Dave, meanwhile, is on the way to Orange Beach, Alabama, for a Student Life Youth Camp. You can follow Dave’s camp and listen live here.
Meanwhile, Chad Norris is finishing up a week with Reach Ministries’ Youth Camp in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He’ll go to Sherman, Texas, Monday for Student Life Kids Camp.
July 7, 2009
One of Wayfarer’s new partners in 2009 is Impact 360, which is a gap-year program between high school and college designed to help students develop a Christian worldview as well as their leadership skills. We’ve enjoyed getting to know Eric Turner and his team thus far this year.
This summer, Impact 360 is launching Propel, which is a summer-camp track based around the same ideals as the gap year. Wayfarer helped to consult on the curriculum for this summer’s Propel pilot, and we also spent a day with the Propel staff to help them think through what leading this track in a camp setting might look like. Now, that staff is piloting Propel at five different Student Life camps.
Today, part of the Wayfarer team is going to Toccoa, Georgia, to observe Propel. As we do at all of our site visits, we’re trying to observe the camp culture, schedule, and rhythm, all in an effort to learn and analyze what we can do better as contributors to camp curriculum. We’re also looking at what’s working and what’s not within the curriculum itself.
These site visits are really valuable, and we’re excited to get to make such a visit to Propel today. Chad Norris got to spend some time with the Propel track earlier this summer, and we’re glad to get another look at Propel so that Wayfarer can be the best partner possible for Impact 360 and Propel in the future.
You can find out more about Propel at www.propelmylife.com and about Impact 360 at www.impact360.net.
July 6, 2009
A lot is going on this week in Camp world. Here are the latest updates for our guys.
Dave Rhodes started camp yesterday in Texas with Student Life for Kids at Austin College. You can check in all week with what is happening at camp by clicking this link. They will also be broadcasting Corporate Worship: 7:00 PM— 9:00 PM Local Camp Time.
Chad flew out this morning as well. He is heading to Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, AR to be with Reach Camp. Chad has partnered with this group a few times. They put on an amazing camp. Chad will be there till Friday partnering with them.
Chris will head out to tag out Dave in Texas on Thursday. He flies in to join Student Life for Kids at Austin College.
July 3, 2009
Today at Wayfarer is deadline day. We’re putting the finishing touches on the curriculum project we do annually with the North American Mission Board’s Connect evangelism initiative. Connect is a strategy designed to help students connect their friends to God and to church, and part of this strategy is to annually create a four-part curriculum that a church can use in Sunday School, on Wednesday nights, or even at a camp or a retreat to help students connect. The cool thing is that this is a free resource to churches. You can download Connect material on-line via www.connectwithGod.com. Registration is required, but it is totally free. Right now, the website is featuring the material we wrote last year under the Regenerate theme. The new material we turn in today will be posted sometime next year.
This is the third year we’ve written for Connect, and we’re really thankful that we get to work with Chad Childress and his team at NAMB’s student ministries department on this. Our prayer today, as we send this project off, is that this project will empower countless students to organically find ways to connect their friends to God through evangelism.
July 2, 2009
Camp site visits continue as part of our staff goes to visit WinShape Camps C3 in Charlotte, N.C. today. This is the second visit the Wayfarer team has made to C3 this summer; last week, a group went to visit camp in Athens, Ga. We’re so excited about how C3 is growing – they have 36 camp locations this summer across the country – and we’re thankful that we get to be a part of connecting kids and families to churches and ultimately to Christ.
For more info on WinShape Camps C3, as well as our partners with WinShape Camps for Girls and for Boys, visit www.winshapecamps.org.
July 1, 2009
One of the things that Wayfarer’s office staff spends its summer doing is visiting various camps whom we write curriculum for. Today, several members of the Wayfarer team will be in Greenville, S.C., to visit one of the North American Mission Board’s PowerPlant camps. We’ve written curriculum for PowerPlant’s evangelism training element for the last two years, and we’re always excited to see how the words on the page transfer into a group setting.
For more info on PowerPlant, go to powerplant.studentz.com. We’re thankful to count this camp among Wayfarer’s partners.
June 29, 2009
A new week starts today, and that means two new camps are starting for Wayfarer’s speakers. Dave Rhodes is in Talladega, Alabama, to do Student Life Kids Camp. You can follow him this week and even listen to night sessiosn live here. Dave’s family gets to go with him to camp this week, so Kim, Emma, and Izzie will be participating in camp as well.
Chris Brooks is at the Texas Baptist Encampment in Palacios, Texas, with East Bayou Baptist Church. He’ll be leading their junior-high and high-school students through the new Room 1228 theme Vice Versa, which we’ll tell you more about tomorrow.
Thanks for praying for our speakers as they travel and speak all summer long.
As we continue to develop Room 1228, we’re looking for all sorts of ways to keep people posted on new themes and everything else that’s coming out of this new project.
Many Christians are told to avoid sin but are rarely pushed to embrace a new kind of life marked by freedom, joy, and constant newness. The world needs Christians who avoid sin — it needs Christians who are breaking through from old to new.