"That's Awesome!" and my Hume Lake Experience

Greetings from the land of smelly cabins, boxsled races and late night ramblings.

We had an incredible time at Hume Lake and I’m pretty sure the Middle School kids did too! ;) Not to mention all of the kids that made significant commitments to Christ while we were there. Let me just say that Hume Lake lived up to its reputation! It was awesome!

We had an incredible night @ 411 on Tuesday as well. We showed the Hume Lake Highlight video to the whole group, Chris Reinhart (an 8th grader) shared a gospel presentation and many of the Hume Lake kids shared about their experience. It was very powerful and 8 students raised their hands in commitment to Christ. God is already doing some incredible things through those kids as a result of Hume Lake!

One of the craziest things that happened was that my car broke down on the way up. I have to say that it was one of the most encouraging things I’ve ever experienced. Yes, that’s right, I said encouraging. Some of you may remember a message that I taught a while back where I encouraged our Church from the book of Romans “rejoice in your trials and tribulations knowing that they bring about perseverance, character and hope…” (Romans 5:3-5). A key phrase that I used in that talk was “That’s Awesome”. Well, I didn’t realize the impact that this message would have on my life. Neither did I realize the impact that it would have on the Middle Schoolers. Let me explain...

As we were driving up the I-5 freeway on our way to Hume Lake, my car began to lose power. I began praying, “Come on God, you wouldn’t do this to your kids… please don’t do this to your kids!” In frustration and defeat I pulled off the freeway and called Gary our Middle School Director for help. He quickly pulled off the freeway and found me, defeated and standing in front of a Burbank Taco Stand with 4 of the kids. When he and the other kids arrived at my car, they met my frustrated demeanor with a cheerful thumbs up and a unanimous shout of, “THAT’S AWESOME!!!” I couldn’t help but smile with humility and affirm their declaration. And to be honest, that in itself was truly awesome.

Well, as He always does, God had a plan and through it all we were able to rent a newer, more spacious and comfortable van for the trip. We continued on to Hume Lake with the confidence that God was in control. We arrived right on time and as you know, we had an incredible time. Oh yeah, and my car is just fine. The mechanic couldn’t find anything wrong with it and said it was just a fluke. A fluke? I don’t think so.

One of the most exciting things that happened while we were there was the boxsled race. Each Church was asked to bring cardboard and duct tape. We were challenged to make a sled that holds anywhere from 2 to 10 people out of nothing more than cardboard and duct tape. We made a Thundercat boxsled that broke into individual sleds after our cry of "Thundercats Hoe!" The rest was history. Our kids crashed so hard that they modified the course when we were done. One of our girls thought she lost her teeth. It was Awesome!

So, how was your weekend?