DEEPER!

"Deeper" was awesome! 12 Youth Street teens (and 4 non-stop staff) spent 8 days at a Christian music festival and then a wilderness survival camp with the sole intent of developing these kids relationships with God. The festival was fun with the highlight being able to see Audio Adrenaline play a reunion show which also proved to be their last ever...but the epic time of the camp was definitely the survivor camp. I was expecting things like rope courses and maybe some canoeing with other outdoor adventure type of things....I was wrong. First our bags got stripped of everything but the bare essentials. No pillow, no deodorant, no toothpaste, no soap, no etc. We were supposed to be out for 4 days but we could only bring 3 shorts/pants and 3 shirts. So up at 4;30am on the first day, we hiked in the pouring rain for about an hour until we were a long way away from anything....and then it began. They gave us a milk crate full of non-perishable food (that of course had no labels) with sardines being the best surprise of all. That food had to last us the entire time we were there. We had to ration. For our shelter, they gave us 2 tarps and 3 pieces of small rope. They said they would provide one dinner for us...so on that first night they brought us our dinner. Chicken. The only thing was....they were still alive. You better believe we ate chicken that night though...

Throughout the course we had different leadership challenges with each person having the chance to lead a small group for an extended period of time. They presented different obstacles that we had to overcome, different competitive games, a 12 kilometer hike with challenges along the way...all in all a very challenging time for the teens (and possibly the staff as well!) but a time that saw enormous amounts of growth as well. Life lessons as well as God lessons were implemented throughout each activity/challenge and we saw the kids grow a lot in character as well as spiritually. One of the teens was a Christian but didn't know how to listen to God...and left hearing God's voice on a daily basis. He didn't know any of the books of the Bible but he felt several times like God was laying verses on his heart so he would get out his Bible and look until he found them. We also had another girl give her life to God for the first time. Really cool.

So yes, Deeper was intense for sure but it ended up being so good. Incredibly tough at times...but God really showed up and some amazing things happened in these kids lives that will last much longer than the 8 days we were gone. Thank you for all your prayers!

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