Winter Camp 2012

I'm not sure what everyone was most excited about this year... Christmas or Winter Camp. This is our 3rd winter camp at HW and our 2nd year to go to Sugar Moutain. We love it. We stay at the Blowing Rock Conference Center and our meeting room there is my absolute favorite. There is nothing fancy about the rooms we stay in, but the conference room we meet in for worship is exactly what you'd picture as the perfect place to spend time in worship through song and the word while in the mountains.

The back wall... which is really the main wall that we're looking at has 2 huge windows that overlook the mountains. In the middle of the 2 windows is a huge stone fireplace that we utilize. With the wood crackling in the fireplace, the mountains in the background, and praises going up to the King.... its no wonder we encounter Christ these 4 days in NC.

This year was no different than the others. Good food, great students, excellent leaders, sweet worship... and praise Jesus... no injuries. Although our trip haulted when I got a phone call on Saturday. One of our students mom's had been battling cancer. She was doing ok, but took a turn for the worst. The dad called to say the doctors didn't think she'd make it through the weekend. As I'm listening to this dad choke back tears as he's explaining the situation, I'm looking at his precious daughter laugh and enjoy her trip having no idea what was happening back home. The dad waited until later that day once plans were made to call her and tell her what was going on. They had booked her a flight home the next day. She was obviously crushed, but took the news better than expected.

I don't know why I act surprised when God does cool things. This precious family include Mike, Heather, Austin, and Courtney Rush. Their neighbors are the Underhills. The Underhills also have students in our ministry who are very close to Courtney. Curtis and Andrea Underhill  have been coming to winter camp with us all 3 years now. Andrea has been a second mom to Courtney Rush for years now. No coincidence that her 2nd mom was there to comfort her during this time. She was also going to accompany her on the flight home.

Very early Sunday morning we got the dreaded call: Courtney's mom had passed away. The dad wanted our advice on whether or not to tell her then or wait and let him tell her when she saw him later that day. With technology, there's no way she wouldn't have found out sooner. She would have called or text her family throughout the day checking on her mom. After consulting more family, they decided she needed to know then. We brought her into our room along with Andrea. Her dad was on D's phone and her dad explained everything to her. It was one of the hardest moments of my life. She fell onto our bed and we just held her why she cried. Because we were holding her, we could hear everything dad said. He handled it beautifully.

After letting her cry for a while she sat up and said she was ok and that she was hungry. She wanted to go eat breakfast with her friends. While eating we gave her the opportunity  to also decide whether or not she wanted to fly home with Andrea or ride back with all of us since we were also leaving that day. She opted to stay with us and her friends.

Courtney has only been at HW a little over a year. She started coming with friends. Her family does not attend. In fact, we know nothing about her parents salvation. Courtney made a profession of faith a few months ago and has continued to grow and seek the Lord. I am thankful that she has hope in Christ to cling to during this time.

Last night we had our camp reunion, her brother who is a year older... whom we have never seen... tagged along. We are hoping God uses this situation... that we'll never understand... to bring this dad and brother to full knowledge of Christ.

Please pray for us as we minister to this family.

Winter Camp 2012 was wonderful even with some tragic news, but we know that God is good despite our circumstances and in these times he proves he truly is our Cornerstone.