Warrior Camp Team,
I hope this Warrior Camp Update finds you having a great Thanksgiving week, with lots of turkey, football, family, and Idaho mashed potatoes!
(If you're receiving this update, it's either because you're on our Warrior Camp Team, you've given me advice, or because you're one of my friends or family who I thought would like to hear what's new with our camping ministry).
Here's a quick snapshot of what's in this November update:
1. Interesting Discipleship Expansion
2. Weapon Workshop meets Christmas Elves
3. Voice of a Warrior
4. Warrior Princesses?
5. Army of Warriors
6. King
1. Recently, prayerfully sharpening our Warrior Camp discipleship has become a priority of renewed focus. To this end, we just added another interview to the growing archive of what Godly girls look for in young men. This is where I ask the big questions to young women... and then share the answers at Warrior Camp! It's alot of fun, and will be put into play in our discipleship, as we encourage young men to live out their manhood as a powerful gift from God which finds beauty in femininity and fulfillment in bringing strength to it. (In our first Warrior Camp, the lesson on "What a Godly Girl Wants" was the favorite for 3 out of 4 campers!)
2. With Christmas around the corner, the smoke stacks of the Weapon Workshop are billowing at full volume! So far, our Christmas elves have hand-crafted 4 high-performance blow-guns, with 12 more nearing completion. (If you've ever disappointedly thought a nerf gun's power leaves something to be desired, this is for you!). If you'd like to speak to one of our "elves" about requesting one for Christmas, feel free to email him at djbartlow@yahoo.com.
3. The Warrior Camp Brain Trust is always looking for new, creative, and cutting edge ideas and feedback from friends and family. Many ideas are currently archived deep in the iron-clad vaults of our website, for future reference. However, within the last few months, one idea in particular from a friend, has been marinating. In the next several weeks, Warrior Camp will begin exploring additional venues of getting the word out, particularly through local Christian radio outlets, narrated ministry bios read over the air, and/or online community bulletin boards. This will allow Warrior Camp to inform more area youth pastors and youth workers about our distinctive ministry, and better connect us to others for ministry. To all the friends and family who have prayed for us or shared their ideas, thank you so much, and keep them coming!
4. Ready for a surprise? A young lady with a large resume and a firmly-grounded spiritual anchor has stepped up, inquired, and volunteered to help get the ball rolling for "Warrior Camp" for girls. Yeah, it caught me a little off-guard too! Since many of our signature games might be likened to Braveheart-meets-Disneyland, they are not something I would send my sisters into! But after my initial shock, it's been an unexpected and fresh surprise hearing her vision for girls ministry and bouncing ideas around about what form this sister-ministry might take. In case you're wondering, she the kind of young woman that always jumps in with both feet, loves the outdoors, and is an avid river-kayaker! But more importantly, she's a Christ-follower to the bone with a life worth emulating. The name of the sister ministry? So far, "Warrior Princess Camp" may be emerging. Send us your ideas. (Maybe we'll call her Xena!).
5. Taking it up a notch: In the near future, Warrior Camp will begin pursuing a ministry partnership with the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has centers all over the country, and some centers offer after school programs, open gym time, and recreational activities for youth. The tentative plan is for Warrior Camp to come alongside the Salvation Army by offering Warrior Camp Games, the Weapon Workshop, and evangelistic and discipleship initiatives to youth. This Warrior's Bash would be hosted across 1 or 2 days, and would take place after school and/or on weekends at Salvation Army campuses starting in Idaho and/or Central Virginia. We're excited about the potential new opportunities this partnership might afford, and your prayers for it are desired!
I hope you're all having a great Thanksgiving and Christmas season! I look forward to hearing from you.
Enjoy the fellowship, food and laughter as you celebrate the abundant goodness of God!
In Christ's love,
Derek
PS: A final word from John Eldredge:
KING
Picture in your mind’s eye an image of a great warrior, a renowned champion, returning home from far off lands. His fame has long preceded him, and now the reports of his feats are confirmed by the scars he bears, the remembrance of wounds more noble than any tokens of honor. With dignity he moves up the main causeway of the city, lined with the faces of his people, the very people for whom he has fought bravely, whose freedom he has secured. The warrior has returned after years on the field of battle, returning only when triumph was achieved and not a moment before. This is his homecoming, and it is as a conquering hero he returns. Before him, at the head of the street, stands the king, who is his father. The scene is both a homecoming, and a coronation. For the father-king will now hand the kingdom over to his son. Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven….about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever” (Hebrews 1:3,8). It could be a passage from David’s life, for he came to the throne after proving himself as a warrior. But I am referring to Jesus, of course, and while this is all quite true - biblically, historically – I’m afraid the power of it eludes us. Few of us have ever lived in a kingdom, under a king. Even fewer have ever met one. Jesus lived the days of his youth as the Beloved Son, secure in his father’s love. He matured as a young man working in the carpenter’s shop, and through his time in the wilderness. And then he went to war, and as the great Warrior he rescued his people from the kingdom of darkness, threw down the dark prince, set the captives free. As Lover, he wooed and won the hearts of his bride. And now, he reigns as King. Thus the progression of his life as a man, and thus ours. (The Way of The Wild Heart , 217, 218)
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