Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Just Another Day @ The Beach
Thought I would give you just a quick run through of the amazing day I had yesterday. We are on staff retreat @ one of my favorite places in the world, Fort Caswell. It is a beautiful retreat area located on 110 acres at one end of Oak Island, NC. I spent 2 summers of my life working as a member of the worship team here for the youth summer camps, and something about this place just feels like home. We are currently sharing the grounds with about 1600 NC Baptist Youth and leaders as they are here for summer camp. Yet somehow we have still been able to "get away"! Anyway back to the amazing day...
The day started with a conversation with one of my best friends. I got to video Chat with Travis for about an hour yesterday morning. It was so wonderful to talk to him. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting him, Travis and I went to college together, served in ministry together with AIM, and have been accountability partners for years. He is currently serving on the mission field. Our conversations are rarer than we would like but through the power of skype, we have been able to stay in touch! Please be in prayer for Travis, he has a few more months on the field and I know God is really going to use him.
After a quick but wonderful breakfast (cooked by our production pastor Doug - with help from some of the ladies) we headed off to the gym for a little staff basketball. For those of you who have been to Caswell in the past, I have exciting news...the gym now has A/C!!! And because of this new addition, we were able to play for about 2 hours. It was awesome.
Then it was off to the beach for a little sun and fun. We hung out until the beach access was overrun by teenagers (no big deal because many in our group were sunburnt by then anyway...haha). We body surfed, played football and bocce, caught some rays and even took out a few ocean kayaks. For about an hour and a half, we had then entire beach to ourselves! It was a great way for our staff to relax and play together. I think God was looking out for us!!!
After a quick shower, it was time to kick back and relax around the house. We are staying in Lantana Lodge; a beautiful house located near the point of the island right along the Intercoastal Waterway. The house was the former home of the Fort commander, but also served as the base hospital for years. It is is a wonderful place to stay. Plenty of room for our group of 19 and far enough away from the students that it is quiet. Again, I think God was looking out for us!!!
After dinner is when the real fun began! Ray decided we should have a short staff worship and prayer time to close out the day; God had a different plan. Our 30 minutes of worship turned into about 3 hours of powerful praise and worship! I had been in Hatch Auditorium earlier in the evening for youth worship, and I know I am biased, but our small group of 19 was significantly louder than the 1600 students in Hatch. It was incredible! As we sang, Students, leaders and even camp staff members joined us. In fact, 4 camp staff members said they heard us from the other side of the camp and had to walk down and see what was going on. It was an amazing time. We had a chance to pray with youth leaders, staff members and youth during the night and We got to see God do some amazing things. I hope to post a video or two from last night so all of you can join in our worship time!
Thank You Lord for allowing us to have this time to refocus and unwind. Glory to God, Forever!
The day started with a conversation with one of my best friends. I got to video Chat with Travis for about an hour yesterday morning. It was so wonderful to talk to him. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting him, Travis and I went to college together, served in ministry together with AIM, and have been accountability partners for years. He is currently serving on the mission field. Our conversations are rarer than we would like but through the power of skype, we have been able to stay in touch! Please be in prayer for Travis, he has a few more months on the field and I know God is really going to use him.
After a quick but wonderful breakfast (cooked by our production pastor Doug - with help from some of the ladies) we headed off to the gym for a little staff basketball. For those of you who have been to Caswell in the past, I have exciting news...the gym now has A/C!!! And because of this new addition, we were able to play for about 2 hours. It was awesome.
Then it was off to the beach for a little sun and fun. We hung out until the beach access was overrun by teenagers (no big deal because many in our group were sunburnt by then anyway...haha). We body surfed, played football and bocce, caught some rays and even took out a few ocean kayaks. For about an hour and a half, we had then entire beach to ourselves! It was a great way for our staff to relax and play together. I think God was looking out for us!!!
After a quick shower, it was time to kick back and relax around the house. We are staying in Lantana Lodge; a beautiful house located near the point of the island right along the Intercoastal Waterway. The house was the former home of the Fort commander, but also served as the base hospital for years. It is is a wonderful place to stay. Plenty of room for our group of 19 and far enough away from the students that it is quiet. Again, I think God was looking out for us!!!
After dinner is when the real fun began! Ray decided we should have a short staff worship and prayer time to close out the day; God had a different plan. Our 30 minutes of worship turned into about 3 hours of powerful praise and worship! I had been in Hatch Auditorium earlier in the evening for youth worship, and I know I am biased, but our small group of 19 was significantly louder than the 1600 students in Hatch. It was incredible! As we sang, Students, leaders and even camp staff members joined us. In fact, 4 camp staff members said they heard us from the other side of the camp and had to walk down and see what was going on. It was an amazing time. We had a chance to pray with youth leaders, staff members and youth during the night and We got to see God do some amazing things. I hope to post a video or two from last night so all of you can join in our worship time!
Thank You Lord for allowing us to have this time to refocus and unwind. Glory to God, Forever!
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