Church Camp

Sorry I´ve been blog and email absent for a while, but I have been at church camp for the past week. Ben Thompson, if you´re reading this I can hear you laughing. Yes, people, I went to church camp. I went to church camp 2 years in high school, and let´s just say I was underwhelmed by the whole thing, and my general opinion of church camp has not been terribly favorable over the years (anybody up for a re-baptism?! haha...).

Anyway, I could say a lot about camp and perhaps I will over the next few days, but let me summarize it for you. Highland Church in Abilene (home of the blog-famous Mike Cope) sends a group of about 50+ Americans down here to run a camp for Americans and Brazilians (and a Canadian, haha). It´s completely bi-lingual. I was a little wary before camp began due to the aforementioned opinions on church camps, but this was really a great experience.

Just one thing I want to talk about now, because I have LOTS to do today. There was a praise band at camp that played every night, and they played two songs that I already loved but meant something so special to me this time. The first was "Blessed be your Name". This has been an anthem of sorts for me over the past couple of years, but seeing as how the past couple of years have been kind of crappy, I always focused on the parts about blessing the Lord when times are hard. But this week I was able to praise the name of the Lord "when the sun is shining down on me, and the world´s all as it should be." The second song was "This is How We Overcome", and I could say with all my heart that God has "turned my mourning into dancing, and turned my sorrow into joy." To sing that song with my beloved friends, at a beautiful camp, in the country I love, with a healthy body was truly a moment where I felt the Grace of God.

I´ll write more about camp later. There are some funny stories to tell, and you American CoC people are going to get a kick out of some of the things we did. Hahaha... ;)