God of Wonders: BCYM Orphan’s & Needy Children’s Camp

God of Wonders: BCYM Orphan’s & Needy Children’s Camp

July 26-28, 2012

            The God of Wonders….what comes to mind when you think of our God as the God of Wonders? He’s Faithful…Merciful…and an awesome Creator of all things. That was the focus of this year’s BCYM Orphan’s and Needy Children’s Camp. Our team provided assistance in the following ministry areas: arts and crafts led by Connie, music and drama led by Angelique and Valhalla, sports led by Mirick and Valhalla, medical by Candice, and mental health by Sarai.  Other team roles included photography by Angelique and blogging by Candice. 

Arts & Crafts camp day one

Jumping for Joy! Potato Sack races during sports

        Camp Day One: God of Faithfulness. The memory verse for this lesson was 1 John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” The children through the worship programs, group devotionals, arts and crafts, and sports activities learned that God is faithful in the life of the believer. They learned that He has given us life and knowledge of Him, He provides for us every day, and that He lavishes us with His love. We helped the children understand God’s faithfulness can be found in the free gift of grace that He has given each of us through the death, burial, and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ. God has been faithful to His creation since the beginning of time. He has watched over us and allowed us in our own freewill to make wrong choices, but has always continued to make a way for the people He created to return to Him through His Son Jesus.

       Camp Day Two: God of Mercy. The memory verse that the children studied on camp day two was from Matthew 18:33 which reads; ^“shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ The purpose of the lesson was to teach the children that the Lord has shown us mercy; so we need to show mercy to others, even when we sin against our Lord, He has mercy on us and will forgive us of our sins.

        Also on Camp Day Two, the medical ministry was significantly busy. Our team nurse, Candice, had many interesting cases to address in between ministry lessons to include scrapes, head and facial injuries, a potential case of pink eye, and the containment and treatment of head lice. The most significant part of her day was that through her tireless efforts to keep the campers healthy as well as the leaders, which sustained a few stomach upset problems, the nurse also found herself ill and in need of medical attention by Camp Day Three.

           Camp Day Three, lesson plan focused on the God of All Creation. The children were exposed to the Wonders of God’s creation, including the wonder of our physical being as one of God’s greatest creations. The lesson focused on scripture from Genesis 1:1-27 led by our team leader Sarai. A magnificent wonder of God’s creation familiar to the children are the cedars of Lebanon, which are mentioned many times throughout scripture. Psalm 104:16 and Psalm 92:12 teaches us why we should strive to grow like a cedar of Lebanon: ‘The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted…The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.’