Highlights from Sports and Arts Camp 2009

This year was the 6th summer that the Ambridge Sports & Arts Camps have given the youth of Ambridge opportunities that they would not have had otherwise. Wow! Six summers of an entirely free camp, and hundreds of youth seeing God through the love of the leaders and through our weekly testimonies. We would have never made it through the first summer much less the sixth without your prayers and support.

Its amazing to me that God continues to make the Ambridge Sports and Arts Camps happen. This year was no different. There are a few stories that I want to point to to show you the fruit that is beginning to come from these past six summers.

I have to start off with Johanna.* Johanna attended the Sports Camp as a participant when we first started in 2004. In 2009, Johanna was one of our leaders. She is a rising sophomore at Ambridge High School. As well as helping us out this summer, Johanna had jaw surgery, a procedure that forced her to eat nothing but liquids for several weeks. While recovering we sent Johanna a signed T-shirt from all the campers and the staff. We were planning a trip to her house, when she

decided to come back to camp! Even though she had difficulty talking and wasn’t able to particpate in the sports, Johanna was a huge help with registration, treating injuries, setting up snacks and anything else we threw at her.

Here is a quote from Johanna, “I wanted to thank you for letting me come back and hang out the last two weeks. It really helped me feel better both physically and spiritually to be working with such a great group of coaches who love God and want to love on the kids of Ambridge. I really felt encouraged each day when I was walking home by just hanging around with you guys. The energy and excitement that you and the other coaches brought into each day was a blessing to me. I feel like in just those two weeks I learned so much.”

Two other High Schoolers who helped lead the camp, Brandon* and Alex,* also had transformative experiences. Brandon is one of the High Schoolers that I have been mentoring since last September. He has been great to watch grow as I have seen him make new friends and be stretched by working with youth at the Sports and Arts camps.

During one of our Thursday night Pizza and Testimony nights, Brandon gave his testimony to the youth about how God has changed his life and released him from some of his anger. Alex also gave her testimony, she told the youth about her challenging childhood and how God has brought her out of that. Alex is someone in whom I have seen great leadership potential and who Shea will have the opportunity to mentor starting this fall!

Finally, I want to tell you about the final performance of the Arts Camp. It was music week and the youth learned how to play guitar and djembe (hand drums), and sing together. Their performances brought chills to the audience, including myself. It was amazing to hear them perform that well after just two weeks of practice. One mother told me that she “was brought to tears” by the youth. God was truly glorified through the youth and the leaders performance.

* Youth’s name changed

Flag Football Week & Drama Performance

Week 4 ended really well at arts camp the youth performed two plays. The younger group performed The Grouchy Ladybug and the older group performed a scene from Hamlet. It was really neat to see the youth perform, especially when I know how difficult it is to get in front of a group of people and speak.

Flag football went well too, while the week seem to turn into a week of Shark and Minnows (a game of tag) with football flags, the youth really enjoyed it. Flag football week seemed to give us more of an opportunity to talk about sportsmanship and how we treat our teammates and our opposition. Unfortunately this is a tough road because most of the examples that the youth are seeing through professional sports are setting poor examples of sportsmanship.

During the week we talked them about the importance of letting wins and losses go after the games were over. We also talked a lot about the line between being competitive and being angry, which I have fallen on the wrong side of many times. Also, encouraging the youth to encourage their teammates and their opponents instead of tearing them down.

Definitely a challenging road but an important one.

Week 3 & Lacrosse

This week was bittersweet for me. Lacrosse has become my favorite sport over the past few years and I really enjoy teaching it to the youth. Since we started the sports camp in 2004 it has been a dream of mine to start a lacrosse team in Ambridge. Until recently the sport of lacrosse didn't exist in Beaver County, where Ambridge is located. I was hoping that this week would be another opportunity to increase the visibility of the sport with the youth here. But as the week went on I felt that God wanted me to let go of this dream to start a lacrosse team in Ambridge.


So, as I was saying it was definitely bittersweet, several of the youth really enjoyed the week and want a team here but I know that I need to let go of it. One quote that struck me as I was going through this week was this, "if God gives you a dream, and the dream comes to life and God shows up in it, and then the dream dies, it may be that God wants to see what is more important to you - the dream or him." That quote is from Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer.

As I looked at my life recently, I have really desired to be known as a lacrosse coach. But, God desires me to be His first, for me to be know as a Christian, a follower of Christ. I hope that I can begin to desire again to be His first and let go of things that keep me from being who God wants me to be.

2nd Week of Sports & Arts Camp

Wow, what a week. The past week was definitely intense, we went from a high of 30 youth last week to 50 at sports camp this week and the number of leaders we had decreased by a significant amount. So, as I was saying it was an intense week. We continue to show God's love to the youth through sports and arts, here are some photos from the past 2 weeks.

First week of Ambridge Sports and Arts Camp

Wow, the summer is here and its hot. We have a great staff this week, they have come together so fast and the only sad part is that some of them aren't going to be around all summer. The youth have been great too, picking up on soccer and with all the different physical art they are being challenged with.

My favorite part of this week so far was the return of a family of campers who attended camp back when we started in 2004. It was great to see them and the oldest actually help lead a station. That was a blessing, I hope we can stay connected to them through out the summer and during the school year.

Last night I spoke with our team about our passions, that is our theme for the summer with the team. We are trying to uncover our passions that have been covered up, forgotten and pushed down by our culture's expectations. Pray for us as we walk thought the summer together.

Summer is coming

We are very excited about the upcoming Sports and Arts Camp 2009. This will be our 5th year of the sports camp and our 3rd year of the Arts Camp! We are assembling a really great team and our continuing our preparations for the summer. Most of the team members are from right here in Ambridge. Camp starts June 15th with the Sports Camp at 9 am and then the Arts Camp at 1 pm. Also, this summer Church of the Savior will be hosting a free lunch for youth 18 and under, its from 12 pm until 1 pm.

God Hears and Answers Prayer

In memory of my Grandfather, Paul, I wish to pass along this story as Paul had told it to many listeners during his lifetime. Paul died in 1999.

During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, we had droughts, no rain (in late summers and fall seasons) for five years. Thus, all the farmers in, a southern county of Maryland, had depleted any or all surplus feed for their cattle, and feed was high in price because it was scarce.

An uncle of mine, Roger, who was bout 76 years old, had a small farm. On this farm, Uncle Roger raised a small herd of cattle of which he prized very highly. Now due to the continued drought, he knew he could not feed his cattle unless we got some rain because his hay, barley and wheat crops had all failed. He must depend on a good corn crop, which needed rain. The corn stalks were firing, that is, drying up clear to the shoot, the stalks where large enough and the shoot was there, but for the ear of corn to grain out, it must have rain.

So, Uncle Roger knelt down right there in the cornfield and prayed for rain, telling God just how badly he needed it. As he finished his prayer he said, “Now God show me you heard my prayer”. Then, Uncle Roger got up and walked back toward his house, he looked up in the heavens, the sky was real clear, only one little cloud off to his left, no sign of any rain. But, just before Uncle Roger got to the porch of his house, there was a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder, which startled him. He said, “It is so hot, I guess that was heat lightning”, but before he could reach the house a beautiful fresh shower of rain was falling, enough so that, if you would have been standing in it you would have gotten good and wet. As Uncle Roger went in the house he went straight to his bedroom and knelt and thanked God for the lovely rain. He was sure God had heard his prayer.

The corn matured very nicely, and as it ripen, Uncle Roger cut and tied the stalks together. After finishing cutting all the stalks, he disked the ground. Then, Uncle Roger called me and asked, “If I would sow the field in wheat”. I asked, “Do you have the seed, fertilizer, and grass seed ready?” And he replied, “Yes”. So, I drove my tractor and drill down to his farm and sowed the field for him.

Afterwards, Uncle Roger went to shucking his corn. One day, after several weeks of shucking his corn, my phone rang; it was Uncle Roger. He said, “You must come down right away”. As I hung up the phone, I said to my wife, “I wonder what the trouble is down there, he sounds like he is crying”. You see his first wife had died in an automobile accident and Uncle Roger had remarried a woman some years younger and sometimes they did not get along too well. My wife said, “I guess you will find out when you get there”

As I drove up to his garage, Uncle Roger was standing out front, holding this ear of corn, shaking and crying and said, “Look what God has done for me”. He then handed the corn to me.

Uncle Roger told me how he had prayed for rain, how God had heard and answered by giving a good soaking rain; which my uncle figured was the answer to his prayer, but God had gone further. He also gave this perfect ear of corn with this perfect cross. Uncle Roger took me up in the field to show me just where he was shucking. That day, he had completed shucking one bundle of stalks and had re-tied that bundle and laid it aside. Uncle Roger was then about half way through the second bundle, when he shucked out this ear of corn and as he went to throw it on the pile, this ear of corn shook in his hand; but he was already in the process of throwing it and the ear fell on the other side of the pile. Bewildered, Uncle Roger got up and walked around the pile and found this beautiful ear of corn. He said, “As I looked around, I was standing just about where I knelt to pray”. I have never seen anyone so elated in my life, crying and shaking for joy.

So, I say again, “God surely does hear and answers prayers. Here is proof. Praise His Holy Name, Amen.