High School and Middle School Winter Camp is a winter retreat that we go on each year at Camp Geneva with several other churches in the area. This is a cross-denominational retreat we’ve put on for over a decade, where students are able to worship and connect with classmates that follow Jesus who might attend a different youth group.
I’ve led groups to this for the last seven years, and I have never seen God move in our students’ lives like he did this year. I witnessed over 100 high school students choose to not play games or hang out from 10-11p. Instead, they came to worship. It was 1 guitar and all their voices praising King Jesus for over an hour. They had to be kicked out so the band could go to bed!! I also sat with one group after a teaching as they brought up their past sins, confessing it in community with each other and watching them pray for each other. I listened to another student wrestling with God after a tragic death in our community, bringing their concerns to God and engaging in conversation with him. It was a truly humbling experience.
As camp was finishing up, students were packing up their things and one of our students (who their leader and I were praying with the night before) came to me and said, “He found me!” God found him. During worship that morning, this student felt called to kneel during worship. With hands extended, he felt a wind rush past and felt warm hands grab his hands. All of the chaos in his mind that he had prayed would be lifted the night before suddenly left. He was left being held by God, in a peace that surpassed his understanding. I can’t explain how it felt for me to see this student in a low place the night before, then beaming with the love of God the next morning. I will never forget his face.
God is on the move in our students, and I am so excited to be able to watch this generation bring us all closer to God.
Derek Laird
Family Life Pastor
Ridge Point Community Church
