Spare us from the bowling puns...

Hey Youth and Parents,

We are having our last summer field trip this Wednesday, August 4th at the Superbowl, located in Erlanger. We will be leaving the Lighthouse at 3:00 pm. We will be returning to church at around 6:00 pm in time for our worship service, The Point.

If you need a ride to the Lighthouse please let Thom know ASAP. Once again, this activity is free and dinner will be provided before we get back to church. Please spread the word.

The following week we will be having our back to school party on August 11th. We will be showing the movie, To Save A Life. Please invite your friends for this special time. This is an awesome movie that will provide a great opportunity for good discussions.

More details coming soon!

A little rain never hurt anybody...

Good morning everyone!

Yesterday was pretty rainy but as you can tell from the photos it didn't stop our campers from having an awesome time. We had kids catching fish, playing soccer, and shooting hoops in spite of the rain.

Afterward, they took a lot of our kids inside and had a time of games and dancing (and yes that is a man dressed in a chicken costume.) Then we finished the day with slurgefest.

We are coming home today, we should be back around 2 at the latest.

We will also be posting some AMAZING photos from slurgesfest.

Good morning (rainy) campers!

Good morning everyone!

Our students are ready to go this morning. They slept really well last night. It looks like its going to rain off and on today but the staff hear is doing an excellent job at preparing.

The kids Bible study leader, Spencer, has turned into a hero for some of them. They have enjoyed shooting poisonous darts at one another, as well as turning each other into moose.

Keep them in your prayers that the kids are safe and refrain from injuries.

More photos and stories to come soon!

Bazookas and blobs...

So its late afternoon and we about to head to worship. The kids are full of energy (they decided that since this camp is shorter they would squeeze as much fun out of it as possible).
We blobbed and swam in the lake. The students then went back to do their TAWG's (Time Alone With God).

Some of the guys had an amazing time in their POI - bazooka ball. It's like Paint Ball minus the paint and with larger balls. I will have to brag that our kids dominated the game, winning 4 out of the 5 games.

We are focusing tonight on how God is Father of our lives (sound familiar youth?).
Keep our kids in your prayers. Tonight the Gospel will be presented. Pray for the speaker to be clear and the students to be receptive.

More pics coming soon!

Crossings Camp Jr.

Hey everyone,
The kids and I made it safely to Cedarmore yesterday afternoon. Once again I am amazed on how early everyone woke up this morning, (the guys were up at 6am!).
Unfortunately we are not getting good cell phone service but I will try and do multiple updates this week.
The kids are very excited and ready for an awesome day of camp!

PPPPPPPPPPutt Putt!!!

This Wednesday we will be having another WAC (or WBC, or summer days, or whatever!). We will trekking across Kenton County (taking the van) to play the fabulous of game of minature golf.

We will be leaving the Lighthouse at 3pm and will be returning at 6pm for dinner. The cost for Putt Putt and dinner is $0 (free). If you want to buy a drink at the Putt Putt place you can bring money for that.


We will have prizes for the best and worst score.

If you need a ride to the Lighthouse call me, text me, or e-mail me at thomasamuelbrown@hotmail.com Try to contact me BEFORE noon on Wednesday.

Post Camp/VBS Blues

Now that our lives are getting back to normal after having 2 wonderful weeks with Camp and VBS, we need to remind ourselves that how important it is to keep going.
We've seen God do a lot of amazing things but we need to keep pushing ourselves to see more. God is far bigger than 2 weeks out of the year. It's impossible to shrink Him down and say that He is only capable of working 14 days out of the year.
Here are some tips to get you past the Post-Camp/VBS-Blues...
1. Continue reading! Read your Bible (duh!). The youth also have a growing library in the Lighthouse that has many devotions, Bible studies, and Christian literature that can help you grow... but most importantly... READ YOUR BIBLE!!! If you are having trouble start in the Book of John.
2. Pray Pray Pray! Continue to pray. "Pray without ceasing" (see number 1). Use a journal, pray outloud, do whatever it takes for you to have a dialouge with God, but most importantly LISTEN. It's a conversation not a wish list! To see some pretty amazing prayers, read a chapter of Psalms.
3. Grow with others! Come to "The Point" on Wednesdays (6pm), or Sunday School on Sunday morning (9:45 am). Those are great times to grow with others. We have a growing community within the youth group and it is a perfect place to be accepted as well as lifted up. By going you will hear the word of God as well as have discussions on how to apply it to your everyday life.

There are obviously more things that you can to get over the post-camp/vbs-slump. You may get frustrated and at times feel burned out, but I want to encourage you to keep going.
Nobody ever climbed a mountain by standing still.

Day 3 - Tubular

Once again, before I start with some of the fun stories I have ANOTHER announcement!

We have a new brother in Christ!!!

This week we have had 5 students come forward professing their faith in Jesus Christ for the first time in their lives. Praise God again and again and again!

Last night a large group of our students had the courage to confess hard sins to one another. We as a youth group have decided to create and accountability network for encouragement and strength.

It's amazing to see the depth and maturity of their decisions. Their goal is to make this a one week thing that dies when they go back to the "real world".

As you can see from the photos our students have no problem finding sometihng fun to do.

Zippity Doo Dah

Here is a video of our girls going down the zip line. Check it out!

Day 2 - haircuts and even more awesome-ness

Good morning everyone,

Once again we have some awesome news. After an amazing worship service, Pastor Jay spoke about being a part of God's family. We had another young lady really respond to this message and accepted Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. So with this camp experience we have had 5 students added to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We also had a little fun with hair today...

Our mission offering is going toward India. Last night we were able to Skype with an orphanage in India that was created to help stop the murder of female babies. We learned that when the people of India have a girl, many of them are not able to pay the dowry for them to be married. They avoid this shame by boiling or poisoning their child. Our offering goes to help provide food, education, medicine, and most importantly the Gospel.

Some of our guys were given a challenge for India. If they were to get a mohawk haircut (with parent permission), there would be a donation of $20 given to India. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

We have more photos to check out. Just click on the slideshow in the top right corner.

I hope you all are having a wonderful day.

Day 1 - Our even more awesome afternoon/evening

Good morning!

I have to start with saying this...

Last night we had 4 of our students make decisions to accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!!! Praise God!

Our camp pastor Jay spoke a very powerful message on how God is our ultimate Father. He focused on how He is both a good and a great God who loves, provides, and saves.

Our students are very excited to see how God is moving in their lives. Continue praying that they continue to seek God.

In other news, our students had a blast doing their POI's/activities. You can see pictures of them on zip lines, climbing towers, tubing, playing basketball, and more.

We have multiple people taking pictures so you may need to re-check some of the photos because we have photos from the first day that we just got loaded today.

I'll keep you guys posted with pics and stories.

Day 1 - Our Awesome Morning

Good morning everyone,

Last night we had an amazing night of worship. It's an awesome sight to see 500+ students singing praises to our Lord. We met the Camp Pastor Jay Ridenour. He's from Boston and its very easy to see how well the students are already connecting with him.

I've loaded a few photos we have taken so far. At the end of the week we are going to load all of the camp photos to web album for you to download.

Okay, now to the good stuff...

We eat breakfast at 8 am. Any parent knows that 8 am during summer break is hard if not impossible to have your child up and eating breakfast. However, this morning the males were awake,showered, and ready to go by 7 am. (A couple went running at 5:30!). The girls were up and about at 7:15.

The students have enjoyed camp so much already that they were outside early in the morning before everyone else was awake or ready playing cornhole and tossing a frisbee. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!

It just reminded me how amazing and surprising our students can be. They are getting plenty of rest (they went to bed at 11:15!) and are still able to enjoy the wonderful activities at camp.

This morning I was given the "blessing" (if you want to call it that) of being the YMOD (Youth Minister of the Day). Our kids were so excited to see me get attacked by some of the staff. They also are enjoying this bright orange vest I have to wear everywhere I go.

Well, I hope you are enjoying your week like we are because it has only been a couple of hours and our students are having a blast!

I'll continue to keep you all posted!

Camp Day 1 - We're Here!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

After 5 hours in church vans and a couple of potty breaks we have finally made it to Jonathan Creek. The kids were super pumped and ready for an awesome week. Continue to pray for us that 1. We stay healthy and safe and 2. Lives will be changed this week.

Today is Miss Leah Painter's birthday and the staff had a wonderful surprise for her. During dinner they got a Mexican hat and poncho and decorated Leah for her birthday song.

Did I mention it was in front of 200 campers? They sang and then made her do a mexican hat dance.

I do have an important point for anybody that needs to get in contact with me. My phone service is not doing so well down here so if you need to get a hold of me call me on my sister Emily's phone (I have it) at 859-750-1700. I am so sorry about the change but I would feel more comfortable having a phone that has a more dependable service to it.

So to sum up... van rides + 5 hours trip + prayer + mexican hat dance + wacky photos = awesome 1st day of camp.

I'll talk to you tomorrow!

For Parents - 3-2-1 Contact

The first day you may be celebrating having an empty nest for the week. By day 2 you see an empty bed and you start to miss your kids. Instead of driving 5 hours to see your child there are a couple of options that may benefit you.

1. Check this website for daily updates. I will be putting pictures, stories, and other daily information.

2. Send your child some mail or packages. Here is the address:
Jonathan Creek Camp
ATTN: Your child's name, Oak Ridge Baptist
3043 Beal Road
Hardin, Ky 42048

3. View the camps blog. On here you can see photos, read about daily events, and even e-mail your child. Just visit here http://http://www.crossingscamps.org/atcamp/jonathan-creek/index.php

Despite what they may say, your kids do enjoy hearing from you.

Only 2 more days....