Cedarville University

Two weeks ago, our HeartSong Generation team set our flip-flopped feet on the beautiful acres of Scioto Hills Christian Camp, in southern Ohio. We were fresh off of training week, ready to work hard, and play even harder. And now it’s hard to believe, but our time in Alpha (Junior High) Camp at Scioto Hills is already coming to a close! I don’t think we could have asked for a better experience. It’s been more than 300 hours of water-splashing, rock-climbing, teepee-dwelling, thunder-storming, blob-jumping, carpet-balling, zip-lining, brow-sweating, Bible-reading, music-thumping, friendship-forming, God-loving fun!

We’ve seen God work in amazing ways. Outdoor chapels have long been a tradition of the junior high camp – and that tradition continued this week as God graciously held off the rain while we lead worship for evening chapels. (I think we had to be inside just one night). Tree-covered hills, rising fog, and a nearly full moon provided a spectacular backdrop to our nightly worship.

When we weren’t preparing for chapel, our days were spent with the campers, experiencing the joys and challenges of a week of camp right alongside them. Stuffy cabins, surprisingly good camp food, and team initiatives really helped us connect with the campers. (My arms seriously hurt from dunking so many junior high boys in the lake – somehow I earned the title of “Jon the Beast.” My team doesn’t know it yet, but I’m planning to keep it for the rest of the summer). By the way, if you happen to be by a campfire, and are looking for something to cook, you might (and by “might” I mean “will”) love bear claws! Stick a canned biscuit on a roasting stick, coat it with spray-on butter, and roll it in cinnamon and sugar. You’ll probably want more than one!

Spending time with the campers also gave us the chance to see them make some really important decisions. It’s amazing to see the progression during the week, as God’s Word sinks in, and the Holy Spirit starts to change people (our team included)! It was a privilege for me to talk and pray with a camper who wanted a closer relationship with Jesus. Music in the evening was just another chance to have fun together, and reinforce what we were learning during the week.

All in all, it’s been an incredible two weeks. Not gonna lie: our team is definitely tired. But it’s a tiredness that we wouldn’t trade for anything, ’cause we know that when we’re at our weakest point, God is stronger still. Tomorrow, we’ll pack up, say goodbye, and head to our next camp. I hope they have bear claws!

Jon

RUSH camp at its best!

Our team just had an awesome week at RUSH Camp 2010 near Cincinnati, Ohio! We have a special love for RUSH for several reasons—it’s nice to be close to home (as in our college campus), we get to play with Andy Ziegenfuss for the week, and we get to re-connect with churches and students from last year! It is always so awesome to get to see people we’ve met in previous years and continue to build relationships with each other…it’s a rare thing but also very encouraging! Our team was able to stay in the cabins with campers, help out with games, athletic tournaments, and camp activities, and lead worship through music in the morning and evening sessions. Another cool aspect of the week was that we got to hang out with two other colleges who were there for the week, too—Boston College and Baptist Bible College from Springfield, Missouri. Many of them were there last year for camp, so we enjoyed getting to spend time with them and learn about what their touring experiences are like! (In fact, when RUSH Camp was over, our team went to Medina, OH for our weekend ministry, and we ran into the BBC team in Panera!).
God really used the speaker for the week, Aaron Cavin, to teach us what it means to genuinely and faithfully trust Him for everything in our lives. (Aaron was actually the speaker for LiFT Camp with Blue team in the summer of ’08). Basically, he emphasized our need to surrender our desire to control every facet of our lives to God, because, in every way, He is a much better author to our story than we ever could be. The way we can best live a fulfilled life according to God’s plan for us is to allow Him to take us where He will…and in doing so, we need to dream BIG dreams for the sake of Christ and be used in big ways by Him! Aaron’s story was pretty incredible, too. He and his family moved to Boston a few years ago—completely uprooted their lives and moved to New England to start churches. The New England area is primarily unchurched and unreached. There aren’t many believers there, and a large majority of the people there don’t seem to feel much of a need for God. Since going there, God has been working in pretty incredible ways. It deeply challenged our team to pray that the Holy Spirit would use us in big ways…that He would show us ways that we are living too “comfortably”—basically, being lethargic in our faith and trying to “write our own stories.” In fact, our team has been praying together daily that God would help us live in such a way on tour that we would have to be completely and totally reliant on the Spirit to guide us in our every move…conversations, to help lead us to the people He wants us to give our money to, how we can better serve, etc. It has been a challenge and one that I think is going to make us a little “uncomfortable” in terms of what we are used to, but we are excited to see what God will do! Please pray for us that we would truly continue to seek the Lord in everything, together and individually. We want to live lives, starting now, that can’t help but point to Christ and not to ourselves…and how easy that can be and how often our motives can be to lift up ourselves.
Another cool aspect of RUSH?…Sanctus Real came to camp and did a concert on Thursday night! We got to help set up their equipment and room backstage, Caleb and I got to work at their merchandise table and help sell CDs and t-shirts, and we were able to meet them and get autographs! We also rejoice that at the end of the week, over 20 kids are new believers and now join us in following Jesus! God greatly worked during RUSH, and we are so thankful that we got to be a part of it!
-Aubrey

Aubrey and Caleb working at the merch table

Sanctus Real in concert at RUSH

Meet CASS! Great guy!

This week will be the grand start to LiFT Camp 2010, and we’re kicking things off at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. Last week, we spent every day working through “practice camp” with the LiFT staff at Boyce College in Louisville, KY, where we held worship services, played games, listened to challenging messages and received other training in areas of sharing the gospel, praying with students, CPR, etc.
The church that we are with now is sending over forty kids to LiFT camp this week, and in a sense, this is like a pre-LiFT kick-off.
I’m Tyler – one of the sound techs for HeartSong Ministries. I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but I consider my role in this team to be one of the most challenging. No matter what church or camp or youth group we have the honor to spend our time with, the music we play and the message we bring doesn’t change at all. What changes considerably is how I react within the churches and camps and youth groups. It takes considerable flexibility, because every place we go has a different musical background (and often it goes deeper than that).
Please understand that I consider this very positive. I believe that these people and churches have their various preferences because that’s what enables them to worship more freely. A fellow I met last weekend told me he loves the music so loud that he can’t hear himself singing; this way he can shout out to God and not worry about anybody hearing how “bad” he sings.
Many people grow up in churches with an organ and a piano, with hymnals and a minister of music directing the choir and the congregation. “It Is Well”, “I Need Thee Every Hour”, “Nothing but the Blood”, “Be Thou My Vision”, and many others are the hymns they know and the cry of their hearts to God. These are the hymns of their generation.
Today, many years since those hymnals and pews were new and those organ pipes rang their first sonorous notes, when everything else has changed in house and culture and church, people still long for the hymns they grew up singing. They long for the hymns of their youth.
And so, in some places, there may be people who contest the use of drums, dislike the bass guitar and even cringe at the electric. They still long for the four-part harmonies and familiar melodies bursting with important theological truths and sound doctrine.
It’s vital that we remember this; as youth, as a team and individually; as a musician or a sound guy. That’s why, when I run into different preferences, I keep the drums and bass turned down, and make sure those vocal harmonies sound as tight as possible. That’s why we find joy in songs like “Jesus Paid It All” and “Before the Throne”. That’s why, we strive to show people that the love of Christ is strong in everything we do, so that even if they don’t prefer a certain style of music, they can see the power of our incredible God and the truth of his word through us and through the words we sing.
Those words we sing are the hymns of our generation. Perhaps, we will long for these songs forty years from now. Perhaps, when house and culture and church have changed all around us, we will still cling to these “hymns of our generation”. The music is different, but the words are powerful and true like other older hymns we could sing. And hopefully, forty years from now, we will remain open to new “hymns” and welcome a new generation as they worship a constant God.
And as I finish this post, I feel the need to pose a question. Hayden, Tommy and I stayed with a wonderful fellow and his wife. He asked for our stories; our journey in faith and in coming to know Christ. Then he posed this incredible question: What drives you?
As young adults, away from our parents and our parents’ faith, what compels us to remain faithful? So, what is it? What drives us?

What drives you?