Crazy New Mexico

Here we are in Albuquerque, New Mexico (yes, I have to practice spelling that word). We have a little over 50 students here this week which has been a little smaller than we have been used to so far this summer but it seems to be a really good group of students. Amazingly we really have not had to confront too many discipline problems this summer. Anyway, we have a great group this week and our staff are beginning to get camp in general and understand what we are trying to do at camp. We are sort of at the tipping point as a team where we understand the objective and now we have to decide if we are going to take the initiative and make it even better or are we going to get lazy and get comfortable with how well we do camp now. So, be praying for our staff as basically they begin to set the precedent for what the rest of the summer will look like.

On a separate note, Angela and Drew are doing well. Check the baby blog for continuing updates on how Drew is enjoying camp and growing.

By the way, last week was a unique week for us at camp. We were at Colorado Christian University just outside of Denver. This was our first camp in Colorado and our camp had 170 students!!! It was amazing how God provided those students. Generally our first years at a new camp location we might get 50 to 75 students max, but to have a 170 was great. A big reason for that was two large youth groups. We had two youth groups from the Houston area that each brought 50 people to camp including the youth pastor and several youth leaders from each church. It was quite cool to have the church there in such a large capacity. Being a part of Worldview Academy we are a parachurch ministry and are not the church. However the church is literally the bride of Christ and is a vessel unto which God works. Now that does not detract from parachurch ministry because God blesses us and works through us for His honor and His glory. So, these churches each brought 50 people who were a little hesitant at first when they arrived because to them it was youth camp and Worldview Academy is definitely not youth camp, it is different in both form and content. By the end of the week they had recognized the value of what we were teaching and they were so excited to bring it back to not only their church but also their community. To think that there are 100 students from those churches going back into their churches communicating the value of worldview thinking and getting their families and pastors excited about it is cool to think about.

I am excited to hear updates from the youth pastors as we had some great conversations throughout the week.

Thank you for your prayers and support as we continue to labor for the Lord this summer both in the good times and the tough ones.

Mike Tiland